Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity
Recent debates over the relative importance of democracy and state capacity for human development have led to the prevailing view that a strong state must be built before the introduction of democracy. Our research challenges this “sequencing approach” in international development. Using a global pa...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publishing
2018-05-01
|
| Series: | Research & Politics |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168018772398 |
| _version_ | 1811331489096269824 |
|---|---|
| author | Erik H. Wang Yiqing Xu |
| author_facet | Erik H. Wang Yiqing Xu |
| author_sort | Erik H. Wang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent debates over the relative importance of democracy and state capacity for human development have led to the prevailing view that a strong state must be built before the introduction of democracy. Our research challenges this “sequencing approach” in international development. Using a global panel of countries over 50 years, we document that democracy has a substantial, positive causal effect on state capacity with identification strategies that adjust for pre-treatment dynamics. The state-enhancing effect of democracy is robust to alternative measures of key variables, a large set of time-varying confounders and an instrumental variable design that leverages variation in regional democratic diffusions. Subsequent analysis suggests contestation, rather than participation, as a potential causal mechanism. Our findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on sources of state capacity in the developing world and yield practical implications for democracy assistance. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:21:17Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-de19e861a2d74f929b5f0de5b112285b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-1680 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T16:21:17Z |
| publishDate | 2018-05-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Research & Politics |
| spelling | doaj.art-de19e861a2d74f929b5f0de5b112285b2022-12-22T02:39:56ZengSAGE PublishingResearch & Politics2053-16802018-05-01510.1177/2053168018772398Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacityErik H. Wang0Yiqing Xu1Department of Politics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USADepartment of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, CA, USARecent debates over the relative importance of democracy and state capacity for human development have led to the prevailing view that a strong state must be built before the introduction of democracy. Our research challenges this “sequencing approach” in international development. Using a global panel of countries over 50 years, we document that democracy has a substantial, positive causal effect on state capacity with identification strategies that adjust for pre-treatment dynamics. The state-enhancing effect of democracy is robust to alternative measures of key variables, a large set of time-varying confounders and an instrumental variable design that leverages variation in regional democratic diffusions. Subsequent analysis suggests contestation, rather than participation, as a potential causal mechanism. Our findings contribute to the burgeoning literature on sources of state capacity in the developing world and yield practical implications for democracy assistance.https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168018772398 |
| spellingShingle | Erik H. Wang Yiqing Xu Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity Research & Politics |
| title | Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity |
| title_full | Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity |
| title_fullStr | Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity |
| title_short | Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity |
| title_sort | awakening leviathan the effect of democracy on state capacity |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168018772398 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT erikhwang awakeningleviathantheeffectofdemocracyonstatecapacity AT yiqingxu awakeningleviathantheeffectofdemocracyonstatecapacity |