This paper deals with the effects of democracy and institutional setting on
agricultural protection in 35 developed and developing countries during 19
82-1992. Regression analysis is conducted to test the effects of three alte
rnative measures of democracy and two composite indices of the quality of i
nstitutions that protect and enforce property rights, After controlling for
many other political and economic determinants of agricultural protection,
the paper shows that democracy affects protection positively, but it is no
t the level of democracy per se that seems to matter. On the contrary there
is strong evidence that the quality of Institutions that protect and enfor
ce property rights is a key determinant of agricultural protection, This em
pirical result is robust to changes in institutional proxy, country sample
and statistical problems.