Is Democracy Good for the Environment?

This paper presents empirical evidence to support the existence of a relationship between democracy and one aspect of environmental quality, urban air pollution. The relationship between environmental quality and democracy is explored empirically using a regression analysis of urban air concentrations of three pollutants, sulfur dioxide (SO₂), suspended particulate matter (SPM) and smoke, and two measures of democracy, the Freedom House Index and Polity III. The results suggest a significant and robust negative linear relationship between these pollutant concentrations and democracy level: the higher the level of democracy, the lower the ambient pollution level.