Politics, the State, and Basic Human Needs: A Cross-National Study

This study examines ways that political processes influence the provision of basic human needs once the effects of aggregate national wealth are removed. Three general explanatory approaches are examined. These are based on the size or strength of the national government, the achievement of democratic processes, and the ideological orientation of ruling elites along a left-right dimension. These three approaches are analyzed by regressing an index of physical well-being, the PQLI, on measures drawn from each perspective for a sample of 116 contemporary nations. The findings indicate that political attributes do indeed have an impact on the provision of basic needs even when controlling for aggregate social wealth. Democratic processes are related to positive welfare outcomes irrespective of state strength and ideological norms. For regimes with a roughly centrist ideology, state strength appears to make little noticeable difference one way or another; for those on the left, state strength promotes welfare performance; for those on the right, state strength is found to inhibit the provision of basic needs.