Culture, democracy, and market reforms: Evidence from transition countries

Tarabar, Danko

doi:10.1016/j.jce.2017.03.005

Cited by 20 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…The end of the Soviet Union and other Eastern European communist regimes in 1989/1990 was a momentous event in modern history, which reshaped international relations and the political landscape of Europe. Many post-communist European countries shifted toward the institutional structures of the European Union (Tarabar, 2017). This transition introduced two previously foreign institutional structures, democracy and market economies, to post-communist European countries.…”

Section: Post-communism Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remnants of Communism and Present-Day Inequality

Jami

Kemmelmeier

2020

Cross-Cultural Research

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Communism substantially shaped the values and beliefs of those who grew up under its regime. We argue that, after the Soviet Union’s collapse and the rapid transition to democracy and capitalism, many older people in post-communist countries continued to abide by an “ethos of equality” that was part of their socialization. These individuals continue to believe that it is the government’s responsibility to establish social equality; hence, they should evaluate social and political institutions based on the level of inequality that exists in their country. Using the 2016 European Quality of Life Survey, we examined to what extent levels of social inequality moderated the effects of age on social views and personal outcomes in post-communist and non-communist societies. We found that, especially in highly unequal post-communist societies, older individuals were less satisfied with democracy and trusted societal institutions less than their younger counterparts, whereas this was much less likely to be the case in post-communist countries with low inequality. There was no link between age and social views in non-communist societies, regardless of levels of inequality. Other than suggested by some scholars, inequality did not have any implications for evaluations of one’s personal life. The discussion focuses on the implications of our findings and their contributions to current research on social inequality and on the legacy of communism.

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Section: Post-communism Transitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Remnants of Communism and Present-Day Inequality

Jami

Kemmelmeier

2020

Cross-Cultural Research

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“…Gorodnichenko and Roland (2011, 2017) find that individualistic societies experience higher rates of innovation and long-run economic growth. Ang and Fredriksson (2018) and Tarabar (2017) present evidence that individualism promotes efficiency-enhancing reform across countries 6 . Klasing (2013), Kyriacou (2016), and Licht et al (2005, 2007) show that individualism and/or low power distance are conducive to the rule of law, the absence of corruption, and the quality of governance.…”

Section: Related Literaturementioning

confidence: 99%

Does national culture change as countries develop? Evidence from generational cleavages

Tarabar

2018

Journal of Institutional Economics

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Development scholars have identified several Hofstede (1980, 2001) cultural dimensions as critically important determinants of long-run economic development across countries. Does economic progress, in turn, shape culture in a predictable direction? This paper investigates whether economic change since 1970 has induced shifts in five of the Hofstede value orientations in a sample of up to 72 countries. To achieve identification, we employ a unique data set on country-level cleavages in the values of two non-overlapping age cohorts approximately one generation (30 years) apart, on average. We find evidence that faster-growing countries during the period of coming of age and personality development of the younger cohort witnessed the rise of more individualistic and politically egalitarian generations, suggesting the existence of a self-perpetuating cycle between certain “good-for-development” cultural attitudes and economic development.

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“…If democracy is to be taken as the inclusive and participatory political system that blurs the boundary between citizens and government, then the outcomes of democratization ought to, at least partly, be conditional on the cultural values that plausibly determine voter preferences for different institutions. Along this vein, Tarabar (2017) shows a differentiated impact of democratization on reforms across 21 transition countries, based on specific cultural environments from which democracy emerged: in societies fostering a culture of individualism and political egalitarianism, the effectiveness of democracy in promoting market reform is amplified, and suppressed otherwise (also see Kim and Pirttilä 2006, Leibrecht and Pitlik 2015, Landier, Thesmar, and Thoenig 2008 for related work on the interaction between culture, democracy, and economic institutions).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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confidence: 99%

Does Culture Affect Electoral Outcomes? Evidence From Transition Countries

Tarabar

Portillo

2020

Contemporary Economic Policy

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Why do some societies fail to adopt "good" economic institutions? Recent literature points to the role of complementarities between social norms and proposed formal rules in advancing institutional change. To shed light on one potential mechanism, we track election performance of executive parties in up to 18 post-communist democracies over 1991-2015 to test whether cultural attitudes influenced voters' response to market reform. We show that in more individualistic cultures, reform is associated with greater reward for the incumbent in the next election. The implication is that in democracies, voters select policies and institutions that are in line with prevailing culture. (JEL O17, P35, Z1) [A] key characteristic of a democracy is the continuing responsiveness of the government to the preferences of its citizens, considered as political equals.-Robert Dahl (1971, 1) I. INTRODUCTION Why do some societies fail to adopt "goodfor-development" institutions? This question has been at the forefront of a vast literature on formal institutions-the codified "rules of the game" that govern human interaction (North 1991)-and comparative economic development. That institutions matter is welldocumented in numerous empirical studies highlighting the importance of property rights, rule of law, and good governance for economic prosperity (e.g., Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson 2001; North 1990; Rodrik, Subramanian, and Trebbi 2004). Building on this research, a growing literature has argued that the choice of modes of societal organization is ultimately dependent on the prevailing culture-a society's shared norms and values that constrain, proscribe, and justify different formal rules of the game (

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Culture, democracy, and market reforms: Evidence from transition countries

Cited by 20 publications

References 51 publications

Remnants of Communism and Present-Day Inequality

Remnants of Communism and Present-Day Inequality

Does national culture change as countries develop? Evidence from generational cleavages

Does Culture Affect Electoral Outcomes? Evidence From Transition Countries

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