Over the last two centuries, many countries experienced regime transitions toward democracy. We document this … democratic transition over a long time horizon. We use historical time series of income, education and democracy levels from 1870 … to 2000 to explore the economic factors associated with rising levels of democracy. We find that primary schooling, and …

We provide evidence that a history of democracy at the local level is associated with contemporary democracy at the … national level. Auxiliary estimates show that a tradition of local democracy is also associated with attitudes that favor … democracy, with better quality institutions, and higher level of economic development …

representative democracy. The basic association, however, is conditioned on the relative strength of the indigenous groups within a … Europe a positive impulse towards the development of representative democracy. It shows that contemporary regimes are shaped …

In this paper we revisit the relationship between democracy, redistribution and inequality. We first explain the … theoretical reasons why democracy is expected to increase redistribution and reduce inequality, and why this expectation may fail … to be realized when democracy is captured by the richer segments of the population; when it caters to the preferences of …

This paper assesses if voting for democracy affects long-term electoral participation. We study the effects of … participating in Chile's 1988 plebiscite, which determined whether democracy would be reinstated after a 15-year long military … argue that the plebiscite contributed to the emergence of one party rule the twenty years following democratization …

examines whether the transition in and out of democracy under the same president constrains or exacerbates ethnic favoritism … disappears during periods of democracy …

We present a model of a peaceful transition from autocracy to democracy using federal governance as a constitutional … South Africa's transition from white, elite rule under apartheid to a multi-racial democracy. We calibrate our model to the … redistributive preferences and rate of time preference ('impatience') of the new majority during the early years of the new democracy …