Replication Data for: Ethnic Inequality, Democratic Transitions, and Democratic Breakdowns : Investigating an Asymmetrical Relationship

Do socioeconomic disparities between ethnic groups influence the likelihood of a country to democratize and remain democratic? I propose that on average, high levels of ethnic inequality do not reduce the likelihood of transitioning to democracy due to opposite mechanisms. Although such inequalities give rise to grievances that fuel the demand for democracy, they also make the ruling elites from dominant groups less willing to concede political rights. However, ethnic inequality is generally associated with an increased risk of democratic breakdowns because high-inequality countries are more likely to experience politicized ethnic divides, distributional conflicts and polarization. Investigating these arguments with time-series, cross-national data, I find that ethnic inequality is not associated with transitions to democracy, while there is a relatively strong and robust association between ethnic inequality and the risk of democratic breakdown. Examinations of potential mechanisms based on national- and group-level data lend further support to the argument .