Democracy and Prosperity in two Decades of Transition

This paper revisits the relation between democracy, liberalization, and prosperity in transition countries, using a panel of 25 countries over 19 years. Earlier investigations found political and economic liberalization to be positively correlated whereas the relation between political liberalization and prosperity remained unclear. In this paper, a hump-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 surprisingly small coefficients.