The Spatial Effects of Geographic Distance and Foreign Trade on Democracy in Islamic Countries

The relationship between democracy and economic variables in economics and political science has received considerable attention in recent years. In these studies, democracy as a factor affecting the economic variables in econometric models has been included and fewer studies has investigated the influence of economic variables on democracy. Therefore, in this study, the effect of economic variables such as economic growth, foreign aid and trade on the level of democracy in Islamic countries with spatial econometric approach and considering the geo-spatial dependence in 2001-2012 has been investigated. The results show that foreign trade and economic growth have-not significant effect on democracy and the spatial proximity effect on the level of democracy in these countries is approved. Also, the effects of foreign aid on democracy in these countries are negative and significant. In general, the results support the positive effects of geo and trade spatial on democracy.