THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND DEMOCRACY: an analysis for latin american countries (1990- 2010)

Abstract

In the last two decades, important political changes occurred in Latin America. Thus the objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between the evolution of democracy and economic development for the major economies of this region. The theoretical framework is based on Lipset (1959) which states that, among the factors in society related to political system, none is so accepted as the relation between democracy and level of economic development. The methodology used was the econometric technique of panel data with fixed effects. The results show that the evolution of GDP per capita had a role in the process of evolution of democracies in the studied countries. Thus the results of the study allow concluding that economic development increases the possibility of consolidating democracy in Latin America.

Keywords

• democracy
• economic development
• latin american economies