The Impact of Democracy on Poverty Levels

Abstract

Robert Dahl argued that individuals living in a democracy can find better alternatives to meet basic needs such as food, health, education and housing. However, there are two assumptions that cast doubt on this hypothesis. First, democracies are usually developed in more unequal contexts. Second, on democracy, inequality can generate higher levels of poverty. By applying multiple linear regressions and instrumental-variables regressions, it was found that, in a democracy, both the context and citizens could influence on decreasing poverty levels. Procedural elements are essential to generate better contexts and citizens, through different types of participation, can influence the government to offer better public policies, especially those related to poverty levels. Higher citizen participation levels and with better procedural elements, individuals could perceive that their democracy is of higher quality and they would support more this type of regime. In the analysis also it was found that per capita income level is an important indicator of efficiency of citizen participation because political action is only efficient in rich democracies.

DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2016.v5n3s1p491