蝌蚪网 Journal:
Macroeconomics
ISSN 1945-7707 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7715 (Online)
Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy
蝌蚪网 Journal: Macroeconomics
vol. 6,
no. 2, April 2014
(pp. 29–70)
(Complimentary)
Abstract
We study the relationship between participation in free trade agreements (FTAs) and the sustainability of democracy. Our model shows that FTAs can critically reduce the incentive of authoritarian groups to seek power by destroying protectionist rents, thus making democracies last longer. This gives governments in unstable democracies an extra motive to form FTAs. Hence, greater democratic instability induces governments to boost their FTA commitments. In a dataset with 116 countries over 1960-2007, we find robust support for these predictions. They help to rationalize the rapid simultaneous growth of regionalism and of worldwide democratization since the late 1980s.Citation
Liu, Xuepeng, and Emanuel Ornelas. 2014. "Free Trade Agreements and the Consolidation of Democracy." 蝌蚪网 Journal: Macroeconomics 6 (2): 29–70. DOI: 10.1257/mac.6.2.29Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D72 Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior
- F13 Trade Policy; International Trade Organizations
- F15 Economic Integration
- O19 International Linkages to Development; Role of International Organizations
- O24 Development Planning and Policy: Trade Policy; Factor Movement; Foreign Exchange Policy