Abstract
How does economic inequality affect the probability of democratization? There are well- developed economic theories which indicate that how income is distributed affects the likeli- hood of democratic transition. Perhaps most famous is the theory of Acemoglu and Robinson (2000, 2006) which suggests that higher levels of inequality affect the probability of democrati- zation through a process of collective action, where individuals are capable of mobilizing against the regime. However, empirical inquiries have yet to find any robust relationship between in- equality and democratic transition. One proposed explanation for the lack of support, is the theory’s inherent assumption that individuals without further problems are able to overcome their collective action problems. Empirical studies however, have not given this assumption any further attention. In this thesis I fill this gap. Using the economic theory of democrati- zation by Acemoglu and Robinson (2000, 2006) as a theoretical backdrop, I conduct a more refined test of the relationship between inequality and democratization by detecting specific circumstances which can function as triggers of collective action. By utilizing a cross-sectional time-series dataset, covering 169 countries observed between 1963 and 2008, this thesis takes a novel approach to democratic transitions by examining whether inequality may have an effect on democratization conditional on triggers of collective action. The results from my analysis provide clear rejections of the theoretical assumptions by Acemoglu and Robinson (2000, 2006). Most interestingly, the findings cast doubt on the occurrence of the core causal mechanism in the theoretical model, namely that of collective action. Even under circumstances one should expect facilitate collective action, higher levels of inequality do not seem to have any significant effect on the probability of democratization. The findings suggest that one needs to look beyond the economic theory of Acemoglu and Robinson, in order to explain the relationship between inequality and democratization. If high levels of inequality do have an effect on democratic transitions, a more innovative approach may be necessary in order to detect this relationship.