Regime Types and Economic Development
Created: February 6, 2021 1:30 PM
The paper by Dr. Un Kheang
Research Problem: the relationship between regime type and economic development.
Unit of Analysis: States
Research Question
- What is the benefit of either democracies or authoritarians for economic development?
- What regime type should developing countries adopt?
- Does type of regime matter more than quality of state’s institution itself?
Hypothesis: Economic development does not correlate with the type of regime of a state, rather it concerns the quality and ability of the institutions instead. Strong state institutions are able to promote economic development, while weak state institutions brings corruption and poverty.
Type of Research: qualitative
Research Methodology
- Research Design: research synthesis
Sample: past literatures on regimes
Findings:
The paper listed out types and sub-types of regimes stating patronage bureaucracy and patronage authoritarianism, although is different in its politically, is filled with clientelism and corruption having the quality of a weak state. On the other hand, bureaucratic authoritarian and bureaucratic democracies, although are contrast in its treatment of commercial and political spheres, are similar in their ability to maintain social order, national sovereignty, in providing public services, and public goods with a strong institution. Therefore, both democracy and authoritarian regimes could lead to either prosperity or destruction.
Validity: As the paper draws on other papers for its evidence, logic, and conclusion, the paper only proposed a theoretical understanding rather than an experimental one to the its level of external validity.
Reflection: I learned about the ‘research synthesis’ type of research paper, where you could collect the many different findings of the same topic in order to prove your research problem without the need of sample data collection.