Good Governance and Party System Change

Abstract

While scholars and practitioners have extensively analyzed the causes, the consequences and, more generally, the correlates of good governance, little-to-no attention has been paid to whether the institutionalization of political parties-as evidenced by the stability of the party system-is in any way related to good governance. The purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between party system change, good governance, and its dividends. The analyses reveal three main conclusions. First, the stability of a party system is strongly and significantly related to each of the good governance indicators identified by Kaufmann and his colleagues. Second, that while party system instability is not significantly related to a country's wealth, it has a positive impact on economic growth even when we control for the effects of good governance. Third, that good enough governance is a better predictor of economic performance than good governance.

Traditional Beliefs and Electoral Behavior

“…In this final respect, Nwokora and Pelizzo (2015) proposed an index of party system fluidity that captures the changeability of a party system by measuring the frequency of change, the scope of change (how different the most different party systems are in a country's political history), and the variety of change (that is, the number of different party systems/patterns of inter-party competition in a country's political history). This index has been used in a variety of studies to show how the gap between qualitative and quantitative scholars can be bridged (Pelizzo and Nwokora 2016), to map party system instability in Sub-Saharan Africa (Nwokora and Pelizzo 2015), to explore the party system instability-quality of democracy nexus (Nwokora and Pelizzo 2015;Pelizzo and Nwokora 2018), and to investigate the relationship between party system instability and good governance (Pelizzo 2020). Less attention has been paid to the factors responsible for party system change (Pelizzo 2018).…”

Governance, natural resources rent, and infrastructure development: Evidence from the Middle East and North Africa

“…The survival strategy yields different outcomes based on their political system. Pelizzo (2020) shows a positive correlation between party system and good governance, which not only constructively impacts economic growth of a country, but also facilitates solidifying a functional democracy. Notwithstanding the shambolic status of political pluralism and democracy in MENA countries, the ruling elites in the post‐Arab Spring attempted to revitalize their political systems along with infrastructural development projects (Durac & Cavatorta, 2015).…”

Kurdistan Regional Government’s Natural Resources Policy Formulation and Implementation Process

“…Furthermore, this level involves the issues, as it is clear, that concern citizens in one governorate or group of governorates (a region). Local politics has not to do with the citizens in other governorates (or regions) because they are not affected by them (Pelizzo, 2020). As issues of this kind do not attract the interest of most citizens who are outside the sphere of influence, meeting demands and solving problems of regional governments are often entrusted to regional governments, which have their own independence and powers in collecting and analyzing information, determining priorities, and formulating the necessary public policies associated with each of them in light of their limited powers and responsibilities, in coordination with the competent central government agencies (Mazzucato, 2018).…”