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It was predicted that economic liberalization is the first step towards political reform and hence to democratization. The fact that all the rich countries in the world are somehow democratic is to be taken as evidence to the validity of this predicament. The process works as follows: economic growth leads to urbanization and improvements in technology and infrastructure. These improvements facilitate communication and recruitment by new political groups. Growth also tends to lead to increased investment in education, which benefits the opposition by producing intellectual and sophisticated individuals from which it can recruit supporters. To remain secure, autocrats must raise the costs of political coordination among the opposition without also raising the costs of economic coordination too dramatically; since this could hinder economic growth and threaten the stability of the regime itself. The question is how autocrats managed to weaken the link between economic development and......

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Approximate Word Count: 3613
Approximate Pages: 15 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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