Why is the world short of democracy?: A cross-country analysis of barriers to representative government

This study first uses a set of graphs and tables to present the pattern of democracy in the world, using the Gastil Index. A statistical analysis is then conducted using two techniques: Regression techniques are used to analyze the effect on democracy of a number of variables. Poverty, Communism and the Muslim culture are revealed as the main barriers to democracy. Bayesian probability methods make explicit the concept of the “risk” of countries being undemocratic. The analysis investigates whether the dynamics of the democratic deficit of the Muslim countries is stationary or transitory.