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Political Culture and Democratisation

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  • Lourdes Rojas Rubio

    (Université de Cergy-Pontoise, THEMA)

Abstract

This research claims that the transmission of political-culture matters for the transition toward democracy and for becoming a stable democracy. However, some important long-standing unresolved issues and some contextual factors of a society affect the strength of the political transmission of preferences. They influence the steady state of the share of citizens who prefer a democratic system and, hence, the probability of democratisation for autocratic societies and the probability of remaining a democracy for democratic societies. A model of political-cultural transmission with overlapping generations is developed to examine the effect of inequality, democratic effectiveness, corruption, elite uncertainty and extra-elite socialisation on the probability of becoming or remaining a democracy, through their impact on the transmission of political preferences in the long run among citizens. The theoretical analysis shows that; in autocracies, inequality, elite uncertainty, and extra-elite socialisation increase the transmission of democratic political culture, which in turn increases the probability of democratisation. In counterpart, in democracies, inequality and corruption decrease the transmission of democratic political culture and, therefore, the probability of remaining in democracy.

Suggested Citation

  • Lourdes Rojas Rubio, 2022. "Political Culture and Democratisation," THEMA Working Papers 2022-17, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.
    • Handle: RePEc:ema:worpap:2022-17
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    File URL: http://thema.u-cergy.fr/IMG/pdf/2022-17.pdf
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    1. Lourdes ROJAS RUBIO, 2022. "Inequality, Corruption and Support for Democracy," THEMA Working Papers 2022-20, THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise.

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