Macro-Structural Determinants of Political Freedom in Developing Countries: A Cross-National Analysis

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• 作者：Ming-Chang Tsai
• 关键词：democracy ; development ; developing countries ; political freedom ; social structure
• 刊名：Social Indicators Research
• 出版年：2006
• 出版时间：April 2006
• 年：2006
• 卷：76
• 期：2
• 页码：317-340
• 全文大小：169 KB

文摘

This study attempts to evaluate the impacts of macro-structural factors on political freedom in developing countries (DCs). Political freedom is conceptualized as civil liberty and political rights the general population of a society can enjoy in influencing public policy. The Freedom House indexes are used as measures of freedom. In explaining the individual countries’ differences in political freedom, this study considers the following factors: regime types, level of development, social structure, fractionalization, the state and military influence and external economic dependence. Empirical modeling of 118 DCs with regression techniques and ordered logit methods demonstrates that besides the regime effects, economic development generates favorable influence, while a large poor population and military spending produce negative impact on freedom. In the concluding section, we discuss the theoretical implications in comparative perspective.