Did British Colonialism Promote Democracy?

• In Event: Colonial Legacies of Development, Agriculture and Democracy

Abstract

Many scholars have argued that British colonial rule promoted post-independence democracy, but there has been considerable debate over the robustness of this result and its causes. Contradicting existing theories, we show that this relationship follows a strong temporal pattern. Although former British colonies were considerably more democratic than other countries immediately following independence, subsequent convergence in democracy levels has eliminated these differences in the post-Cold War period. Neither pre-colonial traits, geographical and policy variation among British colonies, post-colonial influences, nor existing theories of colonial influence account for this finding. We argue that divergent policy approaches to decolonization by European powers contributed to this pattern. Britain more consistently treated democratic elections as a prerequisite for gaining independence, leading to higher initial levels of democracy. However, these policies did not reflect differences in social or institutional support for democracy, leading to mean reversion and convergence over time.

Author

• Alexander Lee, University of Rochester