March 8, 2005
Democracy is good for you
Researchers from the London School of Economics set out to discover whether African democracies behave differently from their authoritarian counterparts when it comes to public services. Apparently, they do:
Dr. Stasavage covered the education spending of forty-four African countries from 1980-1996 using data compiled by UNESCO. He concludes, "…while the move to democracy has not triggered a wholesale turnaround in economic policies, the evidence does show that multiparty electoral competition has been associated with greater government spending on education, and on primary education in particular."
This reminds me of another defining characteristic of democracies identified in Amyarta Sen's great book Development as Freedom.
Democratic governments ... have to win elections and face public criticism, and have strong incentives to undertake measures to avert famines and other catastrophies. It is not surprising that no famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy..."
Posted by aheavens at March 8, 2005 6:14 AM