IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v65y2006i2p233-268.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Political Democracy Enhance Human Development in Developing Countries?

Author

Listed:
  • Ming‐Chang Tsai

Abstract

. Despite the considerable progress of human development (HD) in developing countries (DCs) during recent decades, vast differences still remain among such countries. The question thus arises of why these divergences persist. This cross‐national study uses a larger sample of DCs to offer necessary testing of the impact of democracy on HD. This study adopts new measures of democracy featuring majority rule and political contention to estimate their correlation with three physical well‐being indicators as well as with three school enrollment indicators. After controlling for several macro‐level political and economic characteristics (state revenue and economic growth), the regression modeling for recent data from the 1980s and 1990s showed that democracies indeed achieved higher levels on the HD indicators used here. However, democracy was not a powerful predictor of changes in HD scores during the analysis period. Neither central government health or educational spending significantly altered HD. The conclusions offer a plausible explanation of why democracy in DCs failed to sustain its momentum in improving HD.

Suggested Citation

  • Ming‐Chang Tsai, 2006. "Does Political Democracy Enhance Human Development in Developing Countries?," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 233-268, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:65:y:2006:i:2:p:233-268
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2006.00450.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2006.00450.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2006.00450.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin C. McGuire & Mancur Olson, 1998. "The Economics of Autocracy and Majority Rule: The Invisible Hand and the Use of Force," International Economic Association Series, in: Silvio Borner & Martin Paldam (ed.), The Political Dimension of Economic Growth, chapter 3, pages 38-73, Palgrave Macmillan.
    2. Rodrik, Dani, 1999. "Where Did All the Growth Go? External Shocks, Social Conflict, and Growth Collapses," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 4(4), pages 385-412, December.
    3. Ramón E. López & Vinod Thomas & Yan Wang, 2008. "The Quality of Growth," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 28198.
    4. Ranis, Gustav & Stewart, Frances & Ramirez, Alejandro, 2000. "Economic Growth and Human Development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 197-219, February.
    5. JosÈ Antonio Ocampo, 2002. "Rethinking the development agenda," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 26(3), pages 393-407, May.
    6. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521793797, October.
    7. Elinor Ostrom & Vincent Ostrom, 2004. "The Quest for Meaning in Public Choice," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(1), pages 105-147, January.
    8. Goldstein, Joshua S., 1985. "Basic human needs: The plateau curve," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 595-609, May.
    9. Paul Streeten, 2000. "Looking Ahead: Areas of future research in human development," Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 1(1), pages 25-48.
    10. ED Diener & Carol Diener, 1995. "The wealth of nations revisited: Income and quality of life," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 275-286, November.
    11. Hess, Peter N, 1989. "The Military Burden, Economic Growth, and the Human Suffering Index: Evidence from the LDCs," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 13(4), pages 497-515, December.
    12. Behrman, Jere R. & Rosenzweig, Mark R., 1994. "Caveat emptor: Cross-country data on education and the labor force," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 147-171, June.
    13. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521790321, October.
    14. Sen, Amartya, 1998. "Human development and financial conservatism," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 733-742, April.
    15. Hadenius,Axel, 1992. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521416856, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hamidou Issaka Diori & Anchana NaRanong, 2023. "Multiparty Democracy, Social Cohesion, and Human Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Conceptual Framework," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(4), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Hashemizadeh, Ali & Bui, Quocviet & Zaidi, Syed Anees Haider, 2022. "A blend of renewable and nonrenewable energy consumption in G-7 countries: The role of disaggregate energy in human development," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 241(C).
    3. Matthew Sanderson, 2010. "International Migration and Human Development in Destination Countries: A Cross-National Analysis of Less-Developed Countries, 1970–2005," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 96(1), pages 59-83, March.
    4. Jengher Chen, 2013. "Does Global Fertility and Cultural Transition Affect Human Development? The Neglected Role of the Demographic Transition," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 941-971, September.
    5. Ming-Chang Tsai, 2021. "Ming-Chang Tsai: A Pioneer in Comparative Quality of Life Research," Applied Research in Quality of Life, Springer;International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies, vol. 16(5), pages 2279-2282, October.
    6. Sinan Erdogan & Ali Acaravci, 2022. "On the Nexus Between Institutions and Economic Development: An Empirical Analysis for Sub-Saharan African Countries," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 34(4), pages 1857-1892, August.
    7. Moss, Laurence, 2008. "A comment on economics and sociology," economic sociology. perspectives and conversations, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, vol. 9(3), pages 25-26.
    8. Cooray, Arusha & Potrafke, Niklas, 2011. "Gender inequality in education: Political institutions or culture and religion?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 268-280, June.
    9. Ming-Chang Tsai, 2007. "Does globali zation affect human well-being?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 103-126, March.
    10. Malik, Sadia Mariam & Janjua, Yasin, 2010. "Geography, Institutions and Human Development: A Cross-Country Investigation Using Bayesian Model Averaging," MPRA Paper 24612, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    11. Md Arif Hosen & Sujan Chandra Paul & Md Harun Or Rosid, 2020. "Impact of democracy on literacy rate:A cross country study," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 9(7), pages 204-211, December.
    12. Vollmer, Sebastian & Ziegler, Maria, 2009. "Political Institutions and Human Development Does Democracy Fulfill its 'Constructive' and 'Instrumental' Role?," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4818, The World Bank.
    13. Bjørnskov, Christian, 2010. "Do elites benefit from democracy and foreign aid in developing countries?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(2), pages 115-124, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pettersson, Jan, 2003. "Democracy, Consolidation and Growth," Research Papers in Economics 2002:16, Stockholm University, Department of Economics, revised 15 Dec 2004.
    2. Broich, Tobias, 2017. "Do authoritarian regimes receive more Chinese development finance than democratic ones? Empirical evidence for Africa," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 180-207.
    3. Gustav Lidén, 2013. "What about theory? The consequences on a widened perspective of social theory," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 213-225, January.
    4. Tommaso Nannicini & Roberto Ricciuti, 2010. "Autocratic Transitions and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2967, CESifo.
    5. Jean Paul Azam & Robert Bates & Bruno Biais, 2009. "Political Predation And Economic Development," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(2), pages 255-277, July.
    6. Méon, Pierre-Guillaume & Sekkat, Khalid, 2022. "A time to throw stones, a time to reap: how long does it take for democratic transitions to improve institutional outcomes?," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 429-443, June.
    7. Natkhov, T. & Polishchuk, L., 2017. "Political Economy of Institutions and Development: The Importance of Being Inclusive. Reflection on "Why Nations Fail" by D. Acemoglu and J. Robinson. Part I. Institutions and Economic Devel," Journal of the New Economic Association, New Economic Association, vol. 34(2), pages 12-38.
    8. Maria Petrova & Robert H. Bates, 2012. "Evolution of Risk and Political Regimes," Economics and Politics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 200-225, July.
    9. Besley, Timothy & Kudamatsu, Masayuki, 2007. "Making autocracy work," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 3764, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Jong-A-Pin, Richard & Mierau, Jochen O., 2022. "No country for old men: Aging dictators and economic growth," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    11. Richard Bluhm & Adam Szirmai, 2011. "Institutions, Inequality and Growth: A review of theory and evidence on the institutional determinants of growth and inequality," Papers inwopa634, Innocenti Working Papers.
    12. Carl Henrik Knutsen, 2012. "Democracy and economic growth: A survey of arguments and results," International Area Studies Review, Center for International Area Studies, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, vol. 15(4), pages 393-415, December.
    13. Chee Leong, 2012. "A Dynamic Game of Reputation and Economic Performances in Nondemocratic Regimes," Dynamic Games and Applications, Springer, vol. 2(4), pages 385-400, December.
    14. Udi Sommer, 2018. "Women, Demography, and Politics: How Lower Fertility Rates Lead to Democracy," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 55(2), pages 559-586, April.
    15. Kammas, Pantelis & Sarantides, Vassilis, 2019. "Do dictatorships redistribute more?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 176-195.
    16. Lee, Alexander & Paine, Jack, 2019. "British colonialism and democracy: Divergent inheritances and diminishing legacies," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(3), pages 487-503.
    17. Jonathan Fox & Chris Bader & Jennifer M. McClure, 2019. "Don’t get mad: The disconnect between religious discrimination and individual perceptions of government," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(5), pages 495-516, September.
    18. Dutt, Pushan & Mobarak, Ahmed Mushfiq, 2016. "Democracy and policy stability," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 499-517.
    19. Karim Khan & Anwar Shah, 2019. "Dictatorships, Patronage and Public Good Provision: Some Empirics," The Pakistan Development Review, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, vol. 58(3), pages 239-264.
    20. Yang, Benhua, 2011. "Political democratization, economic liberalization, and growth volatility," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 245-259, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:65:y:2006:i:2:p:233-268. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.