The Structural Constraints of the World-Economy on National Political Development

This study asserts that there are no unilinear patterns of political or economic development common to the states of the world. We seek to illustrate, using a pooled time-series analysis, that there are at least three distinct paths of politico-economic development. These paths correspond to the successive, asymmetric integration of different clusters of states into the World-Economy. Along each trajectory of development we find that the constellation of internal political and economic relationships is defended by employing an ideology of political or economic democracy.