Disorder, Dictatorship, and Government Effectiveness: Cross-national Evidence
Posted: 13 Aug 2009 Last revised: 20 Jan 2015
Date Written: 2012
Abstract
Institutional design balances the costs and benefits of dictatorship and disorder. Democracy can be efficient if it improves the performance of government. Yet, sometimes authoritarian governments can be efficient if they reduce disorder. We show that democratization has a nonlinear effect on income-adjusted perceptions of government effectiveness. These findings present a new opportunity to revisit the study of government performance for researchers working public administration, political science, and economics.
Keywords: democracy, government performance, quality
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Whitford, Andrew B. and Lee, Soo-Young, Disorder, Dictatorship, and Government Effectiveness: Cross-national Evidence (2012). Journal of Public Policy. 32(1):5-31., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1450743
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