Regime Type, Quality of Government and Human Welfare

Abstract

A now well established consensus contends that institutions are critical in determining economic and human development outcomes, but debate persists about which institutions matter and how. In the last 30 years a lot of both academic and policy emphasis has been put on the institutions associated with democracy. However, those who argue that democracy is a critical condition for improved quality of government and improved human welfare now have to confront two realities. The first is the mounting empirical evidence that fully functioning democratic institutions can co-existing quite easily with high levels of social and economic inequality and poor provision of public goods (Gauri & Khaleghian 2002; McGuire 2004; Shandra et al 2004; Ross 2006; Gerring Thacker & Alfaro 2012). The second is the reality that authoritarian regimes have delivered some of the most impressive improvements in social and economic wellbeing, with China being the most striking example. A growing body of research has addressed this puzzle suggesting that a crucial difference between the states’ performance is not on the ‘input side of the in the political system’ but on its output side, i.e. how public authority is exercised in general and the impartiality of government in particular (Rothstein & Teorell 2008). We invite papers that explore both theoretically and empirically the relationship between the input and output sides of the political system and human welfare? Is it a matter of sequencing – as most developed countries achieved some reasonable quality of government before democratizing? What are the implications when two important processes – democratization and state-building – are running simultaneously? Is the interaction between regime type and impartially essential for increased societal wellbeing? Or is it random and contingent? The panel would investigate these issues in a variety of political, cultural and historical settings from around the globe.

Title	Details
Good Governance Without Democracy? The Three Pillars of Singapore’s Centrist Authoritarian Model	View Paper Details
State Capacity and Bureaucratic Autonomy: Their Short-Term Impacts on Development Goals	View Paper Details
Credible Commitment Before Credible Enforcement: Exploring the Impact of Democratisation on State-Building	View Paper Details
Political Order and Inclusive Economic Development	View Paper Details
The Effect of Democracy and Inequality on Corruption	View Paper Details