This paper revisits the relation between democracy, liberalization, and prosperity in transition countries, using a …-shaped relationship between political liberalization and growth is found, such that a rise in democracy levels promotes growth only under … initially low democracy levels. Furthermore, economic and political liberalization turn out to be positively related, but with …

least initially) by relatively wide-ranging democracy. Measured by the indices of political freedom and civil liberties … liberalisation began-the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovenia attained the same extent of democracy as the United Kingdom or Germany …. Between 1989 and 1991, the average of the two Freedom House indices rose from 0.26 to 0.57, on a scale from zero (no democracy …