Globalization, Democracy, and Effective Welfare Spending in the Developing World

The literature on the effects of globalization on social policy and welfare, and the parallel literature on the effects of democracy, operate in mutual isolation to a surprising degree. This article extends the debate on the welfare state in the developing world by examining the social policy reacti...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Comparative political studies 2005-11, Vol.38 (9), p.1015-1049
Main Authors: Rudra, Nita, Haggard, Stephan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Authoritarianism
Comparative Government
Comparative politics
Democracy
Developing Countries
Education budget
Globalization
LDCs
Policy making
Political Systems
Public health
Regression analysis
Social Policy
Social security
Statistical analysis
Welfare
Welfare State
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The literature on the effects of globalization on social policy and welfare, and the parallel literature on the effects of democracy, operate in mutual isolation to a surprising degree. This article extends the debate on the welfare state in the developing world by examining the social policy reactions of democratic and authoritarian governments to globalization. Using unbalanced panel data on 57 developing nations, and considering social security and health and education spending, the authors examine whether democratic and authoritarian regimes exhibit similar or different social spending priorities in the context of increasing economic openness. The results show that social spending in “hard” authoritarian regimes is more sensitive to the pressures of globalization than in democratic or intermediate regimes.
ISSN:0010-4140
1552-3829
DOI:10.1177/0010414005279258