Moving beyond the Lipset hypothesis: examining the correlation between economic development and democracy

Following the logic of Seymour Martin Lipset's 1959 hypothesis, the main axis of the Democratic Transitions debate has long been the strong correlation between economic development and democracy. More recent empirical evidence puts in doubt the direct relationship of economic development and democracy in cases where liberal economies are able to persist without the presupposed necessity for a transition to democracy. This thesis seeks to investigate the inconsistencies of the correlation between economic development and democracy. Specifically, why do some countries fail to transition to democracy despite having high economic development, and why do some countries fail at developing economically after transitioning to democracy? My findings reject the preconceived notion that economic development and democracy are directly intertwined, and propose that certain conditions of political stability and political legitimacy are required to produce the positive correlation between the two and explain the role of political institutions in explaining these inconsistencies.