Democracy, Bureaucratic Capacity and Environmental Quality

Abstract

This paper explores the link between democracy, bureaucratic capacity and environmental quality. While many previous empirical studies traditionally have focused on either the democracy or bureaucratic capacity side of the story, they failed to acknowledge that both these factors in their interplay determine the delivery of public policy outcomes. This paper suggests that to account for the functioning of both the input and output side of the political system, democracy and bureaucratic capacity have to be considered in interaction. By employing the between estimator, the study empirically tests this claim on one of the major environmental problems— air pollution. The results show that the effect of democracy on carbon dioxide emissions is indeed contingent on the levels of bureaucratic capacity: Democracies emit less only if their bureaucratic capacity is high. If bureaucratic capacity is low, democracies do not do any better than authoritarian regimes.