%0 Journal Article
%T Who Doesn¡¯t Want Democracy? A Multilevel Analysis of Elite and Mass Attitudes
%A Brandon Gorman
%A Charles Kurzman
%A Ijlal Naqvi
%J Sociological Perspectives
%@ 1533-8673
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0731121418785626
%X Despite its global rise in popularity, a significant number of people still oppose democracy. The current study evaluates three competing theories of opposition to democracy¨Cdevelopmentalist, culturalist, and elitist ¨C using a series of multi-level regression models that combine individualand country-level variables. Results of our statistical analyses suggest that: 1) country-level indicators of social, political, and economic development are not consistently related to individual support for democracy; 2) macro-cultural factors have mixed effects on individual support for democracy; and 3) individual income and education have strong effects on individual support for democracy, but this relationship is mediated by country-level economic development. Specifically, we find that high-income individuals in relatively underdeveloped countries are more likely to oppose democracy than high-income individuals in wealthier countries. These results suggest that economic, social, and political development do not necessarily go together
%K development
%K democracy
%K political attitudes
%K elites
%K multilevel modeling
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0731121418785626