The theory presented in this paper explains democratic transitions on the basis of rentmaximizing political leaders … can be expected to voluntarily supply democracy. …

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 …