TY - JOUR
T1 - Democracy and transparency
AU - Hollyer, James R.
AU - Rosendorff, B. Peter
AU - Vreeland, James Raymond
PY - 2011/10
Y1 - 2011/10
N2 - Are democracies more transparent than other types of political regimes? Many people believe that the presence of elections alone is not sufficient for a country to be considered democratic and that transparency must be included as part of the definition of political regime. We agree that contestability of elections and transparency of policymaking are analytically distinct concepts. Adopting minimalist approaches to democracy and transparency, we ask a basic question: do electoral politics provide incentives for governments to disseminate data? We thus investigate theoretically the relationship between regime type and the willingness of policy makers to provide credible announcements on policy-relevant variables. And we demonstrate empirically that the availability (or absence) of policy-relevant data is correlated with regime type, even after controlling for GDP per capita, IMF participation, country fixed-effects, and time trends1. Democracies are indeed more transparent.
AB - Are democracies more transparent than other types of political regimes? Many people believe that the presence of elections alone is not sufficient for a country to be considered democratic and that transparency must be included as part of the definition of political regime. We agree that contestability of elections and transparency of policymaking are analytically distinct concepts. Adopting minimalist approaches to democracy and transparency, we ask a basic question: do electoral politics provide incentives for governments to disseminate data? We thus investigate theoretically the relationship between regime type and the willingness of policy makers to provide credible announcements on policy-relevant variables. And we demonstrate empirically that the availability (or absence) of policy-relevant data is correlated with regime type, even after controlling for GDP per capita, IMF participation, country fixed-effects, and time trends1. Democracies are indeed more transparent.
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U2 - 10.1017/S0022381611000880
DO - 10.1017/S0022381611000880
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:83755180495
SN - 0022-3816
VL - 73
SP - 1191
EP - 1205
JO - Journal of Politics
JF - Journal of Politics
IS - 4
ER -