Does Democratization Foster State Consolidation? Democratic Rule, Political Order, and Administrative Capacity

Abstract

The established view in political science is that a sound and functioning state has to be in place before democracy can be introduced. State first, and then democracy. While acknowledging the existence of a basic state infrastructure as a necessary starting point, we examine the possibility that democratization itself may play an important role in the subsequent development and consolidation of the state. We do this by addressing the major conceptual and methodological shortcomings of existing research on this topic. The results of our panel analysis, covering a population of 122 countries, show that both a country's level of democracy and the interaction between degree and duration of democracy positively and significantly affect the consolidation of the state and of its two key individual dimensions, namely, political order and administrative capacity.

Stairways to Denmark: Does the Sequence of State-Building and Democratization Matter for Economic Development?

“…This creates another, albeit indirect, incentive for democratic politicians to build state capacity. A handful of large-n studies have tested for a relationship between democracy and state capacity, mostly reporting a positive association (Adzera et al, 2003;Bäck and Hadenius, 2008;Carbone and Memoli, 2015;Wang and Xu, 2018). While these findings run counter to the assumption undergirding the stateness-first argument, we note that some recent studies have added qualifications, suggesting that democracy may only enhance capacity in rich-country contexts (Charron and Lapuente, 2010) or that competitive elections enhance capacity whereas suffrage expansions may have the opposite effect (Andersen and Cornell, 2018).…”

The dual role of state capacity in opening socio-political orders: assessment of different elements of state capacity in Belarus and Ukraine

“…Yet in regimes where an autocrat is a monopolist on rent extraction, bad institutions will serve to maintain this monopoly, ensuring there is "bad enough governance" (2016, 138-139; see also Gel'man 2017). Furthermore, there is growing body of evidence showing that, in general, higher level of democracy increases state capacity (Carbone and Memoli 2015;Grassi and Memoli 2016). D'Arcy and Nistotskaya challenge the notion of high state capacity autocracies from a different perspective.…”

Motivated and Able to Make a Difference? The Reinforcing Effects of Democracy and State Capacity on Human Development

“…State capacity is often divided into at least two main components: administrative capacity and monopoly on violence (Andersen et al, 2014b;Carbone and Memoli, 2015;Seeberg, 2014). In the present context, we focus on administrative capacity because it directly captures the effectiveness of the administration in implementing policies, including social and educational polices that are important for human development.…”