The Divergent Post-Communist Paths to Democracy

44 Pages Posted: 30 Jun 2016

See all articles by Simeon Djankov

Simeon Djankov

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE); Peterson Institute for International Economics

Date Written: June 29, 2016

Abstract

We show that the economic transition has been more successful than the political transformation in the quarter century since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The adoption of strong parliamentarian systems has negated the deleterious effects of religious and imperial history on economic evolution. As a result, the divergence in democracy and political rights is 4 to 5 times larger than the divergence in the path towards economic freedom and ease of doing business. Democracy is not harder to predict than economic freedom — history and ethnicity predict it well. But recent authoritarian regressions in Hungary and Poland, countries with successful economic reforms and strong parliamentarian systems, present a new challenge to researchers.

Keywords: Economic Freedom, Ease of Doing Business, Democracy

JEL Classification: P26, P52

Suggested Citation

Djankov, Simeon, The Divergent Post-Communist Paths to Democracy (June 29, 2016). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2802132 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2802132

Simeon Djankov (Contact Author)

London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE) ( email )

Houghton Street
London, WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom

Peterson Institute for International Economics ( email )

1750 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20036
United States

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