Democratisation in Autocratic Regimes: What is the Impact on Quality of Government?

While the nexus between democratisation and quality of government is not a new topic in political science, the debate on the political institutions that foster a well-functioning state remains open. The socio-economic successes of some autocratic countries, such as China and Singapore, have raised questions about the benefits of democratisation in autocracies. So far, only a few studies on the topic have taken into consideration that each autocratic regime type is characterised by a substantially different set of political institutions. It is plausible, that these political institutions affect crucially the nexus between democratisation and quality of government. Our quantitative research aims to fill this gap in literature, and analyses the effect of democratisation on quality of government in autocracies in a comparative perspective by taking into account the role of regime type characteristics that affect the relationship. Our preliminary findings suggest that the linkage between democratisation and quality of government follows a distinctive trajectory in each autocratic regime type.