Democracy’s (Dis)Advantages

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Kelly McMann
Kellogg Institute Visiting Fellow
Lucy Adams Leffingwell Professor, Case Western Reserve University

Democracy advocates and many citizens throughout the world desire evidence that democracy provide tangible benefits, such as better economic, environmental, health, and security outcomes. In the last 20 years, the number of studies examining possible tangible benefits of democracy and, to a much lesser extent, advantages of other regime types, reached 607 studies by one count. However, we still cannot answer the question, when are democracies, or other regime types, more successful at mitigating problems? The obstacle is that most studies examine a single outcome, such as economic inequality or air pollution, and thus have not provided a general framework for understanding regime types’ success at solving problems. Examining numerous economic, environmental, health, and security problems and guided by an initial theoretical framework, this project will provide an answer to the question. The theoretical starting point is that it is the characteristics of solutions that make certain regime types more likely to adopt policies based on these solutions. The project will investigate four solution characteristics: solutions can provide public goods, prohibit a behavior that could facilitate a challenge to the regime, threaten ruling elites’ personal economic gains, and provide credible commitments to future distribution of goods by the regime. Particular policies offer better technical fixes and thus better outcomes, so, ultimately, certain regime types are more likely to effectively mitigate certain problems.