Democracy and Social Spending in Latin America, 1980–92

Brown, David S.; Hunter, Wendy

doi:10.2307/2586112

Cited by 220 publications

(177 citation statements)

References 26 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…This paper contributes to a small but growing literature that examines whether democracies behave differently from their authoritarian counterparts when it comes to the provision of public services. Work by Brown and Hunter (1999), Kaufman and Segura-Ubiergo (2001), and Ames (1987) has found that democracies in Latin America tend to spend more on items like education and health than do autocracies. Brown and Hunter (2004) have found that Latin American democracies have spent more on primary education in particular.…”

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confidence: 99%

Democracy and Education Spending in Africa

Stasavage

2005

American J Political Sci

427

120

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, seminar participants at CSAE, Oxford and at the LSE, as well as three anonymous referees and the editors for comments and suggestions. I would also like to thank the Department for International Development (UK) for funding this research.While it is widely believed that electoral competition influences public spending decisions, there has been relatively little effort to examine how recent democratization in the developing world has resulted in changes in basic service provision. There have been even fewer attempts to investigate whether democracy matters for public spending in the poorest developing countries, where "weak institutions" may mean that the formal adoption of electoral competition has little effect on policy. In this paper I confront these questions directly, asking whether the shift to multiparty competition in African countries has resulted in increased spending on primary education.I develop an argument, illustrated with a game-theoretic model, which suggests that the need to obtain an electoral majority may have prompted African governments to spend more on education, and to prioritize primary schools over universities within the education budget. I test three propositions from the model using panel data on electoral competition and education spending in African countries. I find clear evidence that democratically elected African governments have spent more on primary education, while spending on universities appears unaffected by democratization. 1 1. IntroductionAt the time of the African democracy movements of the early 1990s opinions varied widely about the effect of democratization on economic performance and on economic policy. While some authors predicted that democracy would be associated with major economic changes, other observers were less optimistic, suggesting that the formal trappings of multiparty democracy would have only a limited impact. With several years of hindsight, we can begin to ask whether and how policies adopted by elected African governments have actually differed from those pursued by authoritarian regimes. African countries represent an important set of cases for scholars interested in investigating whether democratic transitions can have an impact on policy even in "weaklyinstitutionalized polities" where democratic rules may be imperfectly respected, and where policy choices may depend primarily upon patron-client relationships. In this paper I ask whether the move to multiparty electoral competition that took place in many African countries during the 1990s has prompted governments to spend more on primary education. This paper contributes to a small but growing literature that examines whether democracies behave differently from their authoritarian counterparts when it comes to the provision of public services. Work by Brown and Hunter (1999), Kaufman and Segura-Ubiergo (2001), and Ames (1987) has found that democracies in Latin America tend to spend more on items like education and health than do autocracies. Brown and Hunter (2004) have found that Latin Am...

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confidence: 99%

Democracy and Education Spending in Africa

Stasavage

2005

American J Political Sci

427

120

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“…The interpretation of this result is somewhat difficult, but this may reflect the chaos in general governmental functions in the midst of a regime transition, given that the expenditure on general public services includes expenses for financial and fiscal affairs and diplomacy. 16 15 An increase in total expenditure in countries classified under the category "reversals" may especially reflect the events in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe witnessed a reversal in 1987.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because our sample includes only two countries that have undergone reversal, Gambia and Zimbabwe, it is difficult to judge whether the results reflect the political events in these two countries over a period or if they are generalized (i.e., apply to all reversals). 15 The same caveat also applies to the results for borderline democratization because only six countries are classified as such in our sample.…”

Section: Different Types Of Transitionsmentioning

confidence: 93%

How does democratization affect the composition of government expenditure?

Kotera

Okada

2017

Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization

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This study examines the effects of democratization on the size and composition of government expenditure using the data of 125 countries between 1972 and 2010 at most. Specifically, we focus not only on the total expenditure but also on their composition and employ dichotomous indices of political regimes rather than score indices. Moreover, we construct instruments for democratization based on the democratization wave and conduct an instrumental variables estimation to address endogeneity problems. Our results show that while democratization does not have a significant impact on total expenditure, it increases expenditure on health and education and decreases expenditure on defense. Furthermore, considering the time-varying effect of democratization, defense expenditure starts decreasing immediately after a regime change and health expenditure increases in the medium and long run, while they do not significantly vary before a regime change. Thus, while focusing only on total expenditure does not uncover the effects of democratization, considering detailed categories of government expenditure enables us to understand how democratization changes governments' behaviors.

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“…Bu araştırmalarda elde edilen ortak sonuç ise demokratik bir rejime sahip olan ülkelerde anti-demokratik ülkelere göre daha fazla sosyal hizmetlere yönelik harcama yapılmak-ta olduğudur (Kaufman ve Segura, 2001;Brown ve Hunter, 1999;Ross, 2011;Stasavage, 2005;Huber, Mostrilo ve Stephens, 2008). Nitekim Huber, Mostrillo ve Stephans (2008), sosyal harcamaların temel belirleyicilerini ve sınırlılıklarını inceledikleri çalış-malarında, demokratik bir yönetime sahip ülkelerin uzun dönemde sosyal güvenlik, sağlık ve eğitim alanlarına eşanlı olarak daha fazla kaynak ayırdıkları sonucuna ulaşmışlardır.…”

Section: Literatür İncelemesiunclassified

Sosyal Harcamaların Yoksulluk Üzerine Etkileri: Ampirik Bir İnceleme

Gümüş¹

2014

Anadolu Üniversitesi Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi

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127 Öz GirişYoksullukla mücadele açısından devletin nasıl rol üstleneceği, hangi mali ve sosyal araçları kullanması gerektiği literatürde yoğun şekilde tartışılan bir konudur. Bir yanda yoksullukla mücadele sürecinin devletin asli politikaları içerisinde yer aldığını öne sürerek devletin sosyallik niteliğine vurgu yapanlar bulunmaktayken, diğer tarafta ise kamu harcamalarıyla gerçekleştirilen müdahalelerin yoksulluk problemini önlemediğini, bilakis beslediğini, bu nedenle

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Democracy and Social Spending in Latin America, 1980–92

Cited by 220 publications

References 26 publications

Democracy and Education Spending in Africa

Democracy and Education Spending in Africa

How does democratization affect the composition of government expenditure?

Sosyal Harcamaların Yoksulluk Üzerine Etkileri: Ampirik Bir İnceleme

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