Rice farming, culture and democracy

• Main Authors: Ang, James B., Madsen, Jakob B., Wang, Wen
• Other Authors: School of Social Sciences
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: Social sciences::Political science; Deep-Rooted Determinants of Democracy; Culture
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/159474
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper proposes that societies with a rice farming legacy tend to be less democratic today than societies with a wheat farming legacy. We argue that rice cultivation is associated with the adoption of a collectivist culture, which in turn fosters greater conformity pressures on political norms and deters democratization. Conversely, a wheat farming legacy leads to the development of individualism, which in turn promotes democracy. Using the rice-wheat suitability ratio for a sample of 146 countries as an exogenous variable for rice farming culture, we find that the rice-wheat suitability ratio is a deep-rooted determinant for the formation of democratic institutions through a culture of collectivism vs. individualism.