Abstract

The literature of the education economics indicates that the promotion of the educational level of the people of a society helps the expansion of democracy therein. The objective of the present study is to focus on the evaluation of the accuracy of this claim and present separated evidence based on the economic development condition of the countries in the form of the two groups of “OPEC” member states as the developing group and “OECD” as the developed group. This study was conducted using panel data analysis and generalized method of moments during 1970-2010. The research findings strongly confirmed that education positively affects democracy in developed countries, but it is slightly observed in OPEC member states. This difference indicates the distinction between the two groups of countries in terms of the political and organizational structure which shows the different effects of education on the democracy condition of the societies. Furthermore, some evidence was obtained about the positive effect of Per capita production and urbanization on democracy in developed countries.