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State First? A Disaggregation and Empirical Interrogation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2020

David Andersen Open the ORCID record for David Andersen [Opens in a new window]  and
Jonathan Doucette Open the ORCID record for Jonathan Doucette [Opens in a new window]
David Andersen*
Affiliation:
Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus C, Denmark
Jonathan Doucette
Affiliation:
Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus C, Denmark
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: dandersen@ps.au.dk
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Abstract

This letter is the first to systematically scrutinize the multifaceted claim that a strong state promotes democratic development. It analyzes new Varieties of Democracy data from 1789 to 2015 to specify and examine eight different versions of this ‘state-first’ argument in analyses that span the entire era of modern democracy. The authors document that high levels of bureaucratic quality at the time of the first democratic transition and during democratic spells are positively associated with democratic survival and deepening. By contrast, state capacity has no robust effects on democratic survival or deepening and does not condition the impact of bureaucratic quality. These findings underline the importance of particular features of a strong state as well as the importance of a disaggregated approach. They imply that democratic development is better aided by strengthening the impartiality of bureaucratic organizations than by building capacity for territorial control.

Keywords

state–democracy nexusbureaucratic qualitystate capacitydemocratic survivaldemocratic deepening
Type
Letter
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2022 , pp. 408 - 415
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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