| The progress of democracy has largely been understood in the context of various domestic factors such as economic development, social structure and class relations, the role of political elites, and political culture. International factors, by contrast, have been regarded to play a marginal role in regime change. With the rapid increase of globalization, however, scholarly attention to these underexplored factors of democratic development has grown significantly in recent years. Among various international influences on democracy, one of the least investigated subjects is international organizations (IOs). Few studies have systematically explored the relationship between international organizations and the deepening of democracy. For example, Pevehouse (2002a; 2002b; 2005) found the evidence of the democratizing impact of international organizations. This dissertation extends previous research by examining not only the direct impact of international organizations but also the indirect effect of these organizations on democracy. Democratic international organizations may increase the level of democracy of member states indirectly through enhancing countries' economic openness. I test these links among international organizations, economic openness, and improvement of democracy, employing the seemingly unrelated regression (SUR) using 63 developing countries for 1972 to 2001. |
