Wealth and Regime Formation: Social and Economic Origins of the Change Toward Democracy

This study explores the relationship between economic development, social mobility, elites, and regime formation. I argue that the genesis of regime formation, in general, and of democratic regimes, in particular, is determined by the type of economic structure a society possesses, on the one hand, and on the degree the to which demands from disfranchised groups do or do not pose a substantial threat to the interests of elites who occupy the upper strata of the social and economic status hierarchy. Second I demonstrate that the dynamics of transition to wider political participation, as the core element of a democratic system of governance, and the survival of such change are different. In what follows I illustrate that some factors that have been found to dampen the chances for wider participation or have been found to be unrelated to onset of a democratic system of governance have considerable impacts on the durability of the democratic regimes. In a nutshell, the analysis points to the positive effects of mineral wealth and income inequality on the prospects of a democratic survival. Using a cross-national time series data set for all countries for the period between 1960 and 1999 I put the hypotheses to the test. I use binary logit, ordered logit, and ordinary least squares (OLS) to delineate the link between socioeconomic changes and the transition to wider participation. Survival analyses are employed to test for what factors account for the durability of a democratic regime.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

2007

Author dc:creator

• Gurses, Mehmet

Contributors dc:contributor

• Mason, T. David
• Greig, Michael
• Enterline, Andrew J.
• Booth, John A.

• ruling elite
• social mobility
• nature of wealth
• change toward democracy
• Democratization -- Economic aspects.
• Democracy -- Economic aspects.
• Democracy -- Social aspects.
• Political science -- Economic aspects.

Statement dc:rights

• Public
• Copyright
• Gurses, Mehmet
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 191883459
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3966/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc3966

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc3966