Economic Impediments

Abstract

Non-material constraints alone do not explain the limits of democratic institutionalization. Complex realist institutionalism (CRI) further shows that economic impediments also matter. The growth of commercialism among the bourgeoisie and land-owning class may have given rise to democracy in Western societies. Economic development may also help modernization theorists pin their hopes on the rise of a progressive middle class. But these factors rarely materialize in post-war societies. The debate on whether democracy impedes economic development and whether economic development helps consolidate democracy also ignores one variable: any economic growth that leaves the majority of people in post-war societies poor and does not narrow the gap between the minority rich and majority poor tends to impede democracy-conducive institution building. This chapter describes how poverty and growing socioeconomic inequality helps create and maintain structural impediments to democratic institutionalization within the state, political and civil societies.