How much is democracy dependent upon supportive economic and social conditions? This question, which has occupied political scientists and sociologists for almost half a century, has attracted special attention in the last ten years as more and more countries have engaged in efforts to democratise. This volume is the first collection to take stock of current literature and put it into context. This book highlights the principal new gains of knowledge as well as continuing gaps in our understanding of the relationship between development and democracy. The chapters cover key issues in the field of comparative politics such as: * economic development and democracy * globalisation and democracy :L * class and democracy * state and democracy * civil society and democracy * and various institutional arrangements and democratic governance Development and Democracy confirms the robust relationship between levels of economic development and democracy, but suggests that globalization is a key variable in determining the tenuous nature of this relationship in the periphery of the world economy.
It raises new questions about the role of social classes in democratization, and points to the importance of including the nature of the state as a factor in the study of democratisation. A further important finding is that countries with mixed legal systems correlate less positively with democracy than do countries with more homogenous legal systems. Moreover, Development and Democracy shows conclusively that the way researchers design their studies has a major impact on their findings.