The Role of Economic Development in the Theoretical Debate About Transitions of Political Regimes

Abstract

The theoretical studies that tried to understand the factors that influenced the maintenance of the democracies always took into consideration the economic development. However, different roles were attributed to this variable by the different thematic orientations in the study of democracy, among which we highlight the culturalist approach and the institutionalist approach through two works considered classics: Community and democracy: the experience of modern Italy by Robert D Putnam; and Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being Material in the World. 1950-1990 by Adam Przeworski, Miguel Alvarez, José Antônio Cheibub and Fernando Limongi. This essay seeks to analyze these two works based on the relationship between the economy and the transitions of political regimes. It seeks to understand the role assigned by institutionalists and culturalists to the economic variable, as well as to identify their contributions to the understanding of the variables that allow the emergence of authoritarian regimes.