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away from dictatorship, if not turn to democracy, as presented above. Similarly,
living in an equal and affluent country instead of an unequal and less affluent one
had negative effects, suggesting that economic development with decreasing
income disparity induces people to turn against dictatorship. The finding that
support for democracy or rejection of dictatorship was consistently higher in
countries with high levels of national income and low levels of income inequality
seemed largely consistent with the expectation of the modernization theory linking
economic development (and its aspects such as industrialization, urbanization,
wealth, and education) to democracy.

Of the socio-demographic characteristics, education had positive effects on
democracy in general, inclusive citizenship, and checks and balances while it had
negative effects on dictatorship. Age had positive effects on democracy in general
and checks and balances while having negative effects on dictatorship. Women
were more supportive of inclusive citizenship but less supportive of checks and
balances and less opposed to dictatorship than men, suggesting that women hardly
constitute a consistent pro-democracy constituency in the region.

It was found that the wealthy were more supportive of a system of checks
and balances and more opposed to authoritarian rule than the poor. This finding
seemed more consistent with the individual-level implication of the elite-competition
theory than that of the redistribution-democracy theory. It was also found that the
wealthy were as likely to demand redistribution as the poor, suggesting that the
wealthy may not be as fearful of redistribution as the redistribution-democracy
9
theory assumes. Education had consistent effects on support for democracy and
opposition to dictatorship, indicating the influence of values and beliefs, independent
เอกสารประกอบการอภิปรายร่วมระหว่างผู้แทนจากต่างประเทศ
of material interests. The finding that the wealthy and the educated favored
democracy and rejected dictatorship seems more consistent with the modernization
theory which links economic development through socio-cultural change to
democratization.

Overall, the premise that support for democracy is primarily determined
by distributional conflicts seems to be questionable in the context of East Asia. By
emphasizing the conflict of economic interests between the wealthy and the poor or
between the state elites and the new elites, political economy theories linking
inequality and democracy tend to overlook the role of values and beliefs in shaping
attitudes towards political institutions. Even if distributional conflicts remain salient,

9 Even if poor people differ little in support for democracy, they could threaten democracy
by being vulnerable not only to redistributive appeals but also to authoritarian appeals (Przeworski
2008).