THE IMPACT OF DEMOCRACY ON ECOLOGICAL FOOTPRINT IN TURKEY

Abstract

Recent studies focus on the relationship between democracy and environmental quality as well as economic determinants affecting environmental degradation. Some studies in the literature argue that there is a positive relationship between democracy and environmental degradation, while others argue the opposite. In this context, this study investigates the impact of democracy on environmental degradation using the ARDL methodology. The dataset covers the period 1980-2017. The ecological footprint index is used as a proxy for environmental degradation. The results show that there is a significant relationship between GDP per capita, gross capital formation and ecological footprint in the long-run. Furthermore, the results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between democracy and ecological footprint. In other words, an increase in democracy increases the ecological footprint in Turkey