%0 Journal Article
%T Information equality and democracy in the information age: Cross
%A Jong-Han Yoon
%J Asian Journal of Comparative Politics
%@ 2057-892X
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/2057891118783091
%X This study tests SimpsonĄ¯s theory that information equality promotes democracy. While Simpson (1997) argues that information equality is one of the most crucial conditions for democratization, information equality is poorly measured. It only uses a single indicator, literacy rate, and does not reflect the mode of information distribution. Therefore, this study attempts to test SimpsonĄ¯s theory with new measurements which reflect the theory more appropriately for the information age ¨C the number of internet users and the percentage of the labor force that has received a secondary education. Using cross-national time-series analysis on 177 countries from 1990 to 2013, this study found that SimpsonĄ¯s theory is not supported with sufficient empirical evidence. Contrary to the expectation, both the number of internet users and the labor force that has received a secondary education are not significantly associated with the level of democracy
%K democracy
%K democratization
%K information age
%K information equality
%K information technology
%K internet
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2057891118783091