Ross E. Burkhart

Democracy's Effect on Economic Growth: A Pooled Time-Series Analysis, 1951-1980*

The relationship between democracy and economic growth has concerned social scientists since the 17th century, but recent democracy movements make this question especially important today. Do poor countries face a cruel trade-off between democracy and growth? Do democracy and growth go together as a “win-win” proposition? Or is democracy irrelevant to growth? Using pooled annual time-series data from 1951–1980 for 106 countries, including 88 non-core countries, we explore long-term and short-term direct and indirect effects of democracy on growth. Little or no direct effect emerges, but positive indirect effects appear via two mechanisms: a marginally significant effect via investment and a robust effect via government expenditure. Democracy also has a robust non-linear effect on economic growth via social unrest, inhibiting growth under non-democratic regimes and furthering it in highly democratic ones. Combining these findings, we conclude that democracy does not significantly hamper economic growth, and under many circumstances slightly boosts it.

The Capitalist Political Economy and Human Rights: Cross-National Evidence

Abstract In a growing empirical literature on the determinants of human rights violations, the variable economic system has been untried as an independent variable in multivariate models. More theoretical treatments suggest that capitalism is more of a destructive force in the community, and thus more problematic for the observance of human rights, than it is helpful in the maintenance of human rights. An alternative consideration is that capitalism, through it encouraging the development of democratic institutions, has an indirect positive effect on human rights practices. This manuscript tests three models of human rights using variables common to the literature (political, economic, cultural, demographic), and the uncommon variable capitalism, using OLS regression. The negative capitalism–human rights violations theoretical perspective finds more support, though the parameter estimates generally lack statistical significance. The conclusion at this stage of the research is that hypotheses of capitalism’s relationship to political repression will have to be more strongly articulated if capitalism is to be included as an independent variable in models of political repression.

Democracy, Capitalism, and Income Inequality: Seeking Causal Directions

Recent research shows that lower levels of income inequality cause higher levels of democracy, and vice versa in a simultaneous relationship. A critical factor missing from these studies is a direct exogenous measure of capitalism in models explaining variation in income inequality and democracy. This study examines 50 countries over the years 1978–1993 and finds in a pooled two stage least squares modeling exercise that the Fraser Institute measure of capitalism appears to have a weakly positive linear impact on POLITY IV measures of democracy and a weakly positive linear impact on income inequality (more capitalism, more inequality). There appears to be no higher-order relationship between capitalism and democracy or income inequality, though there is a weak parabolic relationship between democracy and income inequality.

Political Culture and Ideology in the Mountain West: Regionalism in the State of Idaho

Abstract Analysis of conflict in state politics based on intrastate regionalism is an important, yet neglected, perspective in current scholarship. We demonstrate regionalism’s analytic power by illustrating the case of Idaho. Understanding how regionalism interacts with political culture and political ideology in Idaho should aid the understanding of how the Mountain West (containing the five fastest growing states in the United States in the 1990s) is going to evolve in the coming century. Our research is based on analysis of aggregate data collected at the county level, including a survey conducted in the autumn of 2000 of county-elected officials. We find that regionalism as commonly understood in Idaho needs revision. The north region is really two sub-regions, one extremely conservative, the other the least conservative in the state. We suggest this change in Idaho regionalism affects attitudes toward important policies.

Canada–US Border Communities: What the People Have to Say

This paper investigates the Canada-U.S. borderlands relationship along the two geographic corridors as bounded by Lake Superior: Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario–Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Thunder Bay, Ontario–Duluth, Minnesota. Borderland communities—driven by their shared cultural characteristics (ethnicity, language, religion)—are said to challenge the border as a dividing device and undermine the very essence of international borders. Moreover, borderlands regions are dynamic and overlapping, providing the first point of contact and interaction between nations. We use interviews of over 200 people living in these borderlands regions to investigate the cross-border relationships of Canada-U.S. border communities. We find that despite the challenges of crossing the border, these communities retain a strong sense of shared values.