Abstract
A debate has emerged whether countries with Muslim majorities are intrinsically more likely to be autocratic. Recent studies have traced this to the allegedly repressive nature of Islam. This article replicates the most recent study on this topic, published in Public Choice (Potrafke in Public Choice 151:185–192, 2012), and demonstrates that the effect is not robust to a number of sensible alterations to the statistical specification. The effect between Islam and democracy is spurious. There is no causal relationship between Islam and democracy.
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Notes
This response limits itself to the regional dummies in Potrafke’s (2012) original analysis. Yet the regional aggregation underlying these dummies matters. Table A.2 in the Appendix removes MENA countries from Potrafke’s (2012) Asia and Africa dummies and thus uses the MENA countries as a control groups. This simple but sensible alteration, otherwise maintaining the model specification with the same control variables, also reduces the variable capturing Muslim minorities to insignificance, lending further support to the argument that Potrafke’s inferences are incorrect.
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Hanusch, M. Islam and democracy: a response. Public Choice 154, 315–321 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-012-0025-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11127-012-0025-y