Who Doesn’t Want Democracy? A Multilevel Analysis of Elite and Mass Attitudes

Despite its global rise in popularity, a significant number of people still oppose democracy. The current study evaluates three competing theories of opposition to democracy–developmentalist, culturalist, and elitist – using a series of multi-level regression models that combine individualand country-level variables. Results of our statistical analyses suggest that: 1) country-level indicators of social, political, and economic development are not consistently related to individual support for democracy; 2) macro-cultural factors have mixed effects on individual support for democracy; and 3) individual income and education have strong effects on individual support for democracy, but this relationship is mediated by country-level economic development. Specifically, we find that high-income individuals in relatively underdeveloped countries are more likely to oppose democracy than high-income individuals in wealthier countries. These results suggest that economic, social, and political development do not necessarily go together.