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Was it worth the trouble? Limited competition and citizen well-being under authoritarian rule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2016

Andrea Cassani
Andrea Cassani*
Affiliation:
Department of Social and Political Sciences, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
*
*E-mail: andrea.cassani@unimi.it
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Abstract

The last part of 20th century saw the collapse of a dramatic number of dictatorships. Rather than democracy, several of these transitions brought regimes where limited political competition coexists with persistently authoritarian practices. The diffusion of this form of authoritarianism in the developing world raises several questions about its broader consequences. Most importantly, does political change short of democratization matter for ordinary citizens? Recent research demonstrates that nominally democratic institutions, even in the absence of people empowerment, can result in better living conditions. The paper adds to this debate by formulating and testing new hypotheses. I compare electoral authoritarianism with democracy and full dictatorship, including specific subtypes of the latter, and focus on both policy outputs and outcomes.

Keywords

electoral authoritarianismdemocratizationdevelopmentquantitative analysis
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 46 , Supplement 1 , March 2016 , pp. 93 - 113
Copyright
© Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2016 

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https://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/TWA4NM
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