On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts

Whether or not a country is likely to encounter an internal armed conflict is considered in the literature to depend, among other things, on its extent of economic and political development. Using a dataset covering 139 countries over the 1961-2011 period, we find that a country’s per capita income...

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Main Authors: Shiva, M, Molana, H
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: University of South Florida 2022
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author Shiva, M
Molana, H
author_facet Shiva, M
Molana, H
author_sort Shiva, M
collection OXFORD
description Whether or not a country is likely to encounter an internal armed conflict is considered in the literature to depend, among other things, on its extent of economic and political development. Using a dataset covering 139 countries over the 1961-2011 period, we find that a country’s per capita income has an unambiguously negative effect on the probability that it encounters an armed conflict as long as it does not suffer from a severe political instability. In contrast, countries that experience severe political instability are more likely to encounter an armed conflict the higher is their per capita income. The policy implication of our result is clear: safeguarding political stability during hard times is essential – and should take precedence over enhancing democracy and economic growth – for reducing the risk of internal armed conflicts. Our findings do not undermine the importance of protecting democratic institution or accountability, but underscore the importance of collaboration across opposing parties to progress while preserving the political stability
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spelling oxford-uuid:7600aaff-800c-4876-955a-a481b538e7f52023-01-17T06:28:09ZOn income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflictsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7600aaff-800c-4876-955a-a481b538e7f5EnglishSymplectic ElementsUniversity of South Florida2022Shiva, MMolana, HWhether or not a country is likely to encounter an internal armed conflict is considered in the literature to depend, among other things, on its extent of economic and political development. Using a dataset covering 139 countries over the 1961-2011 period, we find that a country’s per capita income has an unambiguously negative effect on the probability that it encounters an armed conflict as long as it does not suffer from a severe political instability. In contrast, countries that experience severe political instability are more likely to encounter an armed conflict the higher is their per capita income. The policy implication of our result is clear: safeguarding political stability during hard times is essential – and should take precedence over enhancing democracy and economic growth – for reducing the risk of internal armed conflicts. Our findings do not undermine the importance of protecting democratic institution or accountability, but underscore the importance of collaboration across opposing parties to progress while preserving the political stability
spellingShingle Shiva, M
Molana, H
On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title_full On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title_fullStr On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title_full_unstemmed On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title_short On income, democracy, political stability, and internal armed conflicts
title_sort on income democracy political stability and internal armed conflicts
work_keys_str_mv AT shivam onincomedemocracypoliticalstabilityandinternalarmedconflicts
AT molanah onincomedemocracypoliticalstabilityandinternalarmedconflicts