section_path: Consequences of decolonization
section_name: Consequences of decolonization
paragraph_text: Consequences of decolonization
  
  A 2019 study found that "democracy levels increased sharply as colonies gained internal autonomy in the period immediately before their independence. However, conflict, revenue growth, and economic growth did not systematically differ before and after independence."
  
  According to political theorist Kevin Duong, decolonization "may have been the century's greatest act of disenfranchisement", as numerous anti-colonial activists primarily pursued universal suffrage within empires rather than independence: "As dependent territories became nation-states, they lost their voice in metropolitan assemblies whose affairs affected them long after independence."
  
  David Strang writes that the loss of their empires turned France and Britain into "second-rate powers".