Using a large sample of developing countries observed over the period 1990-2015, our econometrical estimations largely validate our theoretical assumption that the food situation is better in democratic countries. This result is both robust to estimation methods (OLS-FE, GMM system, IV-GMM, FE IV-GMM) and to different food security indicators (global hunger index, share of undernourished population, poverty incidence, prevalence of underweight in children under five, food availability in kilocalories per day per capita, and children below five mortality rate). Beyond its instrumental value highlighted by Sen, democracy, by promoting good governance, improves food security through its positive effect on the accumulation of agricultural capital and the growth of agricultural productivity.