Democracy, Dictatorship, and Infant Mortality

Issue Date April 2000
Volume 11
Issue 2
Page Numbers 99-114
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The effect of economic development in reducing hunger is widely known, but what is the effect of a country’s political regime on the basic welfare of its inhabitants? Does it matter whether that country has an authoritarian or a democratic regime? The answer is yes. Any randomly selected country’s regime, regardless of its level of development, matters for its social performance. Fewer children die in democracies than in dictatorships.

About the Authors

Patricio Navia

Patricio Navia is professor of liberal studies at New York University and professor of political science at Universidad Diego Portales in Chile.

View all work by Patricio Navia

Thomas D. Zweifel

Thomas D. Zweifel is CEO of Swiss Consulting Group, Inc. He teaches at the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs, and is author of Democratic Deficit: Institutions and Regulation in the European Union, Switzerland, and the United States (2002) and Culture Clash: Managing the Global High-Performance Team (2003).

View all work by Thomas D. Zweifel

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