Examining the Role of Religion, the Economy, and Xenophobia as Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century

Abstract

This research focuses on the determinants of declining democracy values in the world using recently available data. By doing so, factors that are expected to be correlated with declining democratic values are illuminated and discussed based on formulated hypotheses. This paper utilises multi-variable regression technique to map out the individual impacts of independent variables onto two different dependent variables. Findings of this research find a statistically significant coefficient for GDP per capita which points out that better economic circumstances lead to a more democratic environment. Secondly, xenophobic attitudes seem to be highly correlated with the declining trend in democratic values. Thirdly, Islamic countries deviate from non-Islamic countries in a negative way in relation to democracy indices. And lastly, an established institutional structure embodied by a higher corruption index value goes hand in hand with a greater democracy index.