TY - JOUR
T1 - Long live democracy
T2 - The determinants of political instability in latin America
AU - Blanco, Luisa
AU - Grier, Robin
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - We investigate the underlying causes of political instability in a panel of 18 Latin American countries from 1971-2000. We test whether regime type, regime durability, factionalism, income inequality, ethnic diversity, ethnic discrimination, regional spillover effects, urban growth and macroeconomic variables matter for instability. We find several important results: (1) democracy has a significant negative effect on instability that is robust to several alternative specifications; (2) factionalised political systems experience higher instability; (3) income inequality, ethnic fractionalisation, and urban growth have important nonlinear effects on instability; and (4) of the macroeconomic variables we study, only openness to trade has a significant negative effect on instability.
AB - We investigate the underlying causes of political instability in a panel of 18 Latin American countries from 1971-2000. We test whether regime type, regime durability, factionalism, income inequality, ethnic diversity, ethnic discrimination, regional spillover effects, urban growth and macroeconomic variables matter for instability. We find several important results: (1) democracy has a significant negative effect on instability that is robust to several alternative specifications; (2) factionalised political systems experience higher instability; (3) income inequality, ethnic fractionalisation, and urban growth have important nonlinear effects on instability; and (4) of the macroeconomic variables we study, only openness to trade has a significant negative effect on instability.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=58049089141&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00220380802264788
DO - 10.1080/00220380802264788
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:58049089141
SN - 0022-0388
VL - 45
SP - 76
EP - 95
JO - Journal of Development Studies
JF - Journal of Development Studies
IS - 1
ER -