The impact of socio-economic factors on political instability: A cross-country analysis

We argue that political instability is a good indicator of disturbances in development. Moreover we argue that the causality between the political instability and the economic growth is often mistaken to run from instability to growth. Thus we tested the hypothesis that political instability is dependent on economic growth and its underlying economic and social determinants, as well as the nature of the political system present in the country. 122 countries were considered in our study in the period between 1960 and 1988. Our results confirmed that several socio-economic factors including income growth rate, initial income level, and the nature of political regime affect political instability.