Contextualizing Democracy and its Impact on Infant Mortality: A Cross-National Analysis

• In Event: 581 - Regular Session. Cross-National Sociology

Abstract

Numerous prior studies have sought to come up with important macro political, social and economic structural factors that help account for cross-national variation in infant mortality rates. Democracy has been suggested as one such factor due to its potential direct and indirect effects on infant mortality. However, a debate has developed in the literature as to just how strong and robust various proposed measures of democracy really are. Our analysis is based in part on a worldwide sample of 158 countries and in part on subsamples that vary with respect to level of development. It is very much an exploration of the complexity of the relationship between democracy and infant mortality. We theorize and then find evidence pointing to a possible quadratic relationship between democracy and infant mortality, with infant mortality lowest in either autocracies or democracies and highest for those countries in the transition period between the two. Additionally, we find that both ethnic fractionalization and level of economic development moderate the relationship between democracy and infant mortality in interesting ways.

Authors

• Katherine Elizabeth Wullert, Boston College

• John B. Williamson, Boston College