Awakening Leviathan: The effect of democracy on state capacity. (May 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wang, Erik H.; Xu, Yiqing
• Is Part Of: Research & politics. Volume 5:Number 2(2018)
• Publication Date: 2018-05
• Subjects: Democracy -- state capacity -- development -- democratic diffusion -- panel data -- causal inference; Political science -- Periodicals; 320.05
• DOI: 10.1177/2053168018772398
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2053-1680

Abstract

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.