George Yean
Graduate Student, Comparative Politics & International Relations
A working paper: What is the role of globalization for the rise of autocracies worldwide? We show that autocracies are better at exploiting the integrated global economic system. Compared to the pre-1990 period, on average, autocracies performed substantially better than democracies on all major economic indicators in 2000-20, especially on exports and external surpluses. Furthermore, building on the existing literature, we provide evidence that mercantilism, protectionism, and resource-orientation mediate the link between regime type and performance. As a deductive argument from the aforementioned theory, we find that the WTO expansion significantly favors autocracies. Since economic performance is connected to democratic stability, the findings have important implications for democratization, global development, geopolitics, and the liberal international order.