How do individuals decide to exercise their democratic rights? This 2006 book argues that they first assess their economic autonomy, meaning their ability to make a living independent of government ...authorities. Before individuals consider whether their resources and organizational abilities are adequate to act on their interests, they calculate the risk of political activism to their livelihood. This is particularly evident in regions of the world where states monopolize the economy and thus can readily harass activists at their workplaces. Economic autonomy links capitalism and democracy through individuals' calculations about activism. Accounts of activists' decisions about establishing independent media, leading political organizations, and running for office and descriptions of government harassment in Russia and Kyrgyzstan, along with examples from most regions of the world, illustrate these arguments. Economic autonomy and the interaction among democratic rights help explain the global proliferation of hybrid regimes, governments that display both democratic and authoritarian characteristics.
Social scientists have been limited in their work by the paucity of global time series data about subnational institutions and practices. Such data could help scholars refine regime typologies, ...improve theories of democratization and regime change, better understand subnational democracy, and illuminate issues of development, conflict, and governance. This article addresses the lack of data by introducing 22 subnational measures from a new dataset, Varieties of Democracy. Validity tests demonstrate that the measures' strengths outweigh their weaknesses. The measures excel in covering all subnational levels for most countries, capturing different elements of subnational elections, and including a variety of dimensions of elections and civil liberties. The measures also offer unmatched global and temporal coverage. The article demonstrates how these strengths can provide scholars with the benefits described above.
Theory predicts democracy should reduce corruption. Yet, scholars have found that while corruption is low at high levels of democracy, it is high at modest levels, as well as low when democracy is ...absent. A weakness of studies that aim to explain this inverted curvilinear relationship is that they do not disaggregate the complex concepts of democracy and corruption. By contrast, this paper disaggregates both. We demonstrate that the curvilinear relationship results from the collective impact of different components of democracy on different types of corruption. Using Varieties of Democracy data, we examine 173 countries from 1900 to 2015, and we find freedom of expression and freedom of association each exhibit an inverted curvilinear relationship with corruption—both overall corruption and four different types. The introduction of elections and the quality of elections each act in a linear fashion—positively and negatively with corruption, respectively—but jointly form a curvilinear relationship with both overall corruption and many of its types. Judicial and legislative constraints exhibit a negative linear relationship with executive corruption. We offer a framework that suggests how these components affect costs and benefits of engaging in different types of corruption and, therefore, the level of corruption overall.
Studies of a small number of countries have revealed that both democratic and nondemocratic subnational governments can exist within a single country. However, these works have neither demonstrated ...how common subnational regime variation is nor explained why some countries are more prone to it. This article does both. We show that subnational regime variation exists in all world regions, in both unitary and federal states, and in both the present and past, using Varieties of Democracy global data from 1900 to 2018. The article also demonstrates theoretically and empirically how social heterogeneity and factors undermining a national government's ability to extend control throughout a country promote this variation. Specifically, subnational regime variation is more common in countries that are ethnically diverse, rugged, and populous.
Why do ordinary people engage in corruption? In Corruption as a Last Resort, Kelly M. McMann contends that bureaucrats, poverty, and culture do not force individuals in Central Asia to pay bribes, ...use connections, or sell political support. Rather, corruption is a last resort when relatives, groups in society, the market, and formal government programs cannot provide essential goods and services. Using evidence from her long-term research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, McMann shows that Islamic institutions, secular charities, entrepreneurs, and banks cannot provide the jobs and credit people need. This drives individuals to illicitly seek employment and loans from government officials.
Why do ordinary people engage in corruption? In Corruption as a Last Resort, Kelly M. McMann contends that bureaucrats, poverty, and culture do not force individuals in Central Asia to pay bribes, ...use connections, or sell political support. Rather, corruption is a last resort when relatives, groups in society, the market, and formal government programs cannot provide essential goods and services. Using evidence from her long-term research in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, McMann shows that Islamic institutions, secular charities, entrepreneurs, and banks cannot provide the jobs and credit people need. This drives individuals to illicitly seek employment and loans from government officials.
Autoimmune lymphoproliferative syndrome (ALPS) is a rare disorder of disrupted lymphocyte homeostasis. Clinical manifestations of ALPS vary but typically include autoimmune cytopenias, organomegaly, ...lymphadenopathy, and increased risk of malignancies. A similar spectrum of symptoms may be seen in some patients with Evans syndrome (ES), a hematologic disorder defined by autoimmune destruction of at least 2 hematologic cell types. We hypothesized that a subset of patients diagnosed with ES may have ALPS. We screened 12 children with ES by flow cytometric analysis for CD4-/CD8- (double negative) T cells (DNTs) and with the definitive test for ALPS, defective in vitro Fas-mediated apoptosis. Six of the patients had elevated DNTs, suggestive of ALPS and also had defective Fas-mediated apoptosis. The other 6 patients displayed normal T-cell apoptosis; 5 of whom had normal DNTs, and 1 had a borderline result. Thus, 7 (58%) of 12 patients with ES had elevated DNTs suggestive of ALPS, with functional confirmation in 6 of 7. This suggests that analysis of DNTs may be a sensitive first-line screening test, serving as a marker of patients who should undergo definitive testing for ALPS. Our data further suggest that a number of patients with ES may have ALPS, a novel finding with important therapeutic implications.
We know little about how market reform affects political development, especially citizens' behavior. Market reform advocates prescribe that citizens should reduce their reliance on the state, turn to ...nonstate actors for assistance, and obtain limited state goods and services through their membership in certain social categories, not their particular traits. An analysis of three mass surveys and 232 interviews the author conducted in Central Asia, along with additional data from 24 postcommunist countries, reveals that market reform can have effects opposite from those prescribed: Individuals may make particularistic demands of government officials instead of relying on nonstate actors. This occurs in countries where state economic intervention was substantial and where reforms reduced the state's economic role but failed to develop market-enhancing institutions. Under these conditions individuals informally seek resources from state officials because nonstate actors do not offer substitute resources, and market reform policies discourage reliance on the state.
Legitimacy is important to governance, yet we know little about how it develops. This article examines an initial step???how citizens come to use the same criteria to evaluate legitimacy. Earlier ...studies have identified the state and society as sources of possible legitimacy criteria
but have not explained the process by which citizens adopt them. Comparative Politics July 2016 This article offers a framework to help understand this process. Specifically, it argues that citizens embrace ideas as legitimacy criteria based on the credibility of the messengers and the utility,
fit, and success of the ideas. Original survey, in-depth interviews, and observational data from Central Asia as well as published accounts of government leaders' and societal forces' ideas and actions in the region illustrate the argument.
Legitimacy is important to governance, yet we know little about how it develops. This article examines an initial step -- how citizens come to use the same criteria to evaluate legitimacy. Earlier ...studies have identified the state and society as sources of possible legitimacy criteria but have not explained the process by which citizens adopt them. This article offers a framework to help understand this process. Specifically, it argues that citizens embrace ideas as legitimacy criteria based on the credibility of the messengers and the utility, fit, and success of the ideas. Original survey, in-depth interviews, and observational data from Central Asia as well as published accounts of government leaders' and societal forces' ideas and actions in the region illustrate the argument. web URL: http://jcp.gc.cuny.edu/2016/07/08/volume-48-number-4-july-2016/
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