Working Paper: NBER ID: w22860
Authors: Edward L. Glaeser; Bryce Millett Steinberg
Abstract: Could urbanization lead to more democracy and better government for the mega-cities of the developing world? This paper reviews three channels through which urbanization may generate political change. First, cities facilitate coordinated public action and enhance the effectiveness of uprisings. Second, cities may increase the demand for democracy relative to dictatorship. Third, cities may engender the development of “civic capital” which enables citizens to improve their own institutions. History and empirics provide significant support for the first channel, but less evidence exists for the others. Urbanization may improve the quality of poor-world governments, but more research is needed to draw that conclusion.
Keywords: urbanization; democracy; governance; civic capital; political change
JEL Codes: N90; O18; R00
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| urbanization (R11) | coordinated public action (D70) |
| coordinated public action (D70) | likelihood of uprisings against dictatorial regimes (O17) |
| urbanization (R11) | demand for democracy (D72) |
| urbanization (R11) | civic capital (H54) |
| urbanization (R11) | increased democracy (D72) |
| increased democracy (D72) | regime change (P39) |