Regional Group Democracy and Election to the United Nations Security Council

Why are some states elected to the United Nations Security Council? Previous analysis has focused on the individual characteristics of states and has found few systematic patterns explaining this process. I posit that these inconsistent results are due to focusing on individual characteristics of states rather than their position relative to others in their regions regarding their ability to pursue peaceful settlements of international disputes—the primary job of the Security Council. Focusing on the “lock-in” effect of democratic institutions, I find that a state with more democratic institutions than its regional group peers is more likely to be elected to the United Nations Security Council since 1948.