ABSTRACT
The historical relationship between socio-economic modernization and democracy is so robust that any plausible explanation of democratization must be based upon it. More particularly, a convincing explanation of democratization must explain why economic development and democracy go hand in hand. This is the premise for Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Evelyn Huber Stephens, and John Stephens’ (1992) Capitalist Development and Democracy. However, Rueschemeyer et al. argue that the then existing interpretations of modernization theory failed to satisfy this requirement. As we described in the previous chapter, Lipset’s version of modernization theory finds the causal link in factors such as higher levels of equality, the growth of the middle class, and the emergence of democracy-friendly values, partly due to increased access to education, all of which are understood to be driven by economic development.
