SOME SOCIAL REQUISITES OF DEMOCRACY: ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND POLITICAL LEGITIMACY

In: American political science review, Band 53, Heft 1, S. 69-105

Abstract

A high level of econ development, attained gradually, & legitimate pol'al institutions (accepted by all major segments of the society) are 2 important conditions of a stable democratic order. A comparison of 15 indices of econ development available from UN data (on diff aspects of wealth, degree of industrialization & urbanization, level of educ) for European, English-speaking & Latin-American democracies & dictatorships shows that the (mean - average)'s of each more democratic group are higher on each index than the less democratic countries. The level & tempo of econ development largely determine the form which the 'class struggle' takes in a country, & therefore the degree to which the lower strata develop gradualistic pol'al perspectives consonant with democracy. The dislocations of the soc situation of affected groups in periods of rapid development, rather than poverty as such, produce instability & extremism. If institutions are accepted & valued (legitimate), econ instability does not necessarily endanger democracy. Crises of legitimacy occur during soc change if all major groups do not have access to the pol'al system, if major conservative institutions are threatened, or if other historical issues, such as the place of the church, have not been settled. The major pol'al problem of the 19th cent-integration of the Wc into the system-has largely been solved in most Western democracies, but in some of Latin & Eastern Europe, & parts of Asia, the Communists have gained the support of workers' movements, preventing their full integration, & endangering democracy. The prognosis for democracy is poor in the poverty-stricken, poorly educated, highly stratified countries. A methodological appendix discusses the problems of treating such complex attributes of total societies. AA-IPSA.