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The countries of the world vary in their position along the autocracy (chế độ chuyên quyền) – democracy continuum of values. Traditionally, scholars explain this variation as based on resource distribution (phân bổ nguồn lực) and disparity (sự chênh lệch, sự không bằng nhau, sự không bình đẳng; sự khác biệt, sự cách biệt) among nations. We provide a different framework for understanding the autocracy–democracy dimension and related value dimensions, one that is complementary (not alternative) to the research tradition, but more encompassing, involving both evolutionary (ultimate) and proximate causation of the values. We hypothesize (giả thuyết) that the variation in values (khác biệt về giá trị) pertaining to autocracy–democracy arises fundamentally (về cơ bản) out of human (Homo sapiens) species‐typical psychological adaptation (thích ứng về tâm lý) that manifests contingently, producing values and associated behaviours that functioned adaptively in human evolutionary history to cope with local levels of infectious diseases (bệnh truyền nhiễm). We test this parasite (kẻ ăn bám, động/thực vật ký sinh) hypothesis of democratization (dân chủ hóa) using publicly available data measuring democratization, collectivism (chủ nghĩa tập thể)–individualism (chủ nghĩa cá nhân), gender egalitarianism (chủ nghĩa quân bình), property rights (quyền tài sản), sexual restrictiveness, and parasite prevalence across many countries of the world. Parasite prevalence across countries is based on a validated index of the severity of 22 important human diseases. We show that, as the hypothesis predicts, collectivism (hence, conservatism), autocracy, women’s subordination relative to men’s status, and women’s sexual restrictiveness are values that positively covary, and that correspond with high prevalence of infectious disease. Apparently, the psychology of  (bài ngoại) and ethnocentrism (chủ nghĩa vị chủng, thuyết cho dân tộc mình là hơn cả) links these values to avoidance and management of parasites. Also as predicted, we show that the antipoles (cực đối lập hoàn toàn) of each of the above values—individualism (hence, liberalism), democracy, and women’s rights, freedom and increased participation in casual sex—are a positively covarying set of values in countries with relatively low parasite stress.

Beyond the cross‐national support for the parasite hypothesis of democratization, it is consistent with the geographic location at high latitudes (vĩ độ) (and hence reduced parasite stress) of the early democratic transitions in Britain, France and the U.S.A. It, too, is consistent with the marked increase in the liberalization of social values in the West in the 1950s and 1960s (in part, the sexual revolution), regions that, a generation or two earlier, experienced dramatically reduced infectious diseases as a result of antibiotics, vaccinations, food‐ and water‐safety practices, and increased sanitation.

Moreover, we hypothesize that the generation and diffusion of innovations (in thought, action and technology) within and among regions, which is associated positively with democratization, is causally related to parasite stress. Finally, we hypothesize that past selection in the context of morbidity (sự hoành hành của bệnh tật) and mortality (sự tử vong) resulting from parasitic disease crafted many of the aspects of social psychology unique to humans.

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