The third possibility, that democracy and development have a common cause, finds support from Daron Acemoglu and his coauthors, who argue that “though income and democracy are positively correlated, there is no evidence of a causal effect. Instead …historical factors appear to have shaped the divergent political and economic development paths of various societies, leading to the positive association between democracy and economic performance”. There scholars see political and economic development paths as interwoven. Some countries embarked on development paths associated with democracy and economic growth, while others followed paths based on dictatorship, repression, and more limited growth.