Comparing Bear and Tiger: Democracy and Economic Reform in Russia and Korea

Abstract

Cross-national research on the effects of democracy in developing countries reports mixed results. Some studies fmd that democratic regimes perform less well than authoritarian regimes, but some others argue the opposite. Similarly, the effects of democratic transitions on economic performance show no clearcut pattern (Haggard and Kaufman). Nevertheless, conventional wisdom in the studies of transitions and reforms, mainly derived from experiences in the South, is that there would be a trade-off between the radical neoliberal economic reform and the democratization or democratic consolidation (Kaufman; Stalings; Przeworski; Elster; Armijo, Beiersteker and Lowenthal). That is, economic reform under new democracies is likely to be derailed as aggregate and distributive transitional costs of reform would erode people's confidence in the reform or reform government.