Economic Development, Religion and Institutional Design: What Is Their Impact on Democracy in Post-communist Countries?
Economic Development, Religion and Institutional Design: What Is Their Impact on Democracy in Post-communist Countries?

Summary/Abstract: I present a theory about the institutional determinants of democracy, arguing that the party system format is a central determinant of democracy. In turn, institutional engineering largely shapes the party system. Parliamentary systems and party list proportional representation are more conducive to a strong party system with competitive, programmatic and institutionalized political parties, and consequently to democracy. To show this, I look at a subset of post-Communist polities, those with a majority Orthodox population, thus controlling for the effect of religion. When we look at the relationship between economic development (another important explanatory variable) and democracy, we see that in this group the relationship is actually negative. I offer an institutional explanation for this paradox: less economically developed Orthodox countries have made better institutional choices than more economically developed Orthodox countries.

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