Working Paper: NBER ID: w21117
Authors: Yuriy Gorodnichenko; Gerard Roland
Abstract: We construct a model of revolution and transition to democracy under individualistic and collectivist cultures. The main result is that, despite facing potentially larger collective action problems, countries with an individualistic culture are more likely to end up adopting democracy earlier than countries with a collectivist culture. Our empirical analysis suggests a strong and robust association between individualistic culture and average polity scores and length of democracy, even after controlling for other determinants of democracy emphasized in the literature. We provide evidence that countries with collectivist culture are also more likely to experience autocratic breakdowns and transitions from autocracy to autocracy.
Keywords: democratization; individualism; collectivism; political regimes; culture
JEL Codes: H1; P48; Z1
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| individualism (P14) | transition to democracy (P39) |
| collectivist cultures (P32) | autocratic breakdowns (D73) |
| collectivist cultures (P32) | transition from autocracy to autocracy (P39) |
| individualistic cultures (P19) | transition to democracy (P39) |