Is the political system really related to health?

Social Science and Medicine

Volumn 69, Issue 1, 2009, Pages 36-46

  Klomp, Jeroen ^a   de Haan, Jakob ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN   (Netherlands)

Author keywords

Cross country differences; Factor analysis; Health; Political regime; Structural equation model

Indexed keywords

DEMOCRACY; FACTOR ANALYSIS; HEALTH CARE; HEALTH IMPACT; HEALTH STATUS; MODELING; SENSITIVITY ANALYSIS; STATE ROLE;

ARTICLE; CONTROLLED STUDY; DEMOGRAPHY; ECONOMIC ASPECT; GOVERNMENT; HEALTH CARE QUALITY; INCOME; MATHEMATICAL MODEL; POLITICAL SYSTEM; POLITICS;

DELIVERY OF HEALTH CARE; DEMOCRACY; DEVELOPING COUNTRIES; FACTOR ANALYSIS, STATISTICAL; HEALTH STATUS INDICATORS; MODELS, THEORETICAL; POLITICS;

EID: 67649283712     PISSN: 02779536     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2009.03.033     Document Type: Article

References (43)

1. Beck T., Clarke G., Groff A., Keefer P., and Walsh P. New tools in comparative political economy: the database of political institutions. World Bank Economic Review 15 (2001) 165-176
2. Besley T., and Kudamatsu M. Health and democracy. American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings 96 (2006) 313-318
3. Bloom D., and Canning D. The health and wealth of nations. Science 287 (2000) 1207-1209
4. Campos J., Ericsson N., and Hendry D. General to specific modeling (2004), Edward Elgar, Cheltenham
5. CIA. The world factbook 2005 (2005). https://www.cia.gov/index.html Available from
6. De Haan J., Leertouwer E., Meijer E., and Wansbeek T. Measuring central bank independence: a latent variable approach. Scottish Journal of Political Economy 50 (2003) 326-341
7. Dempster A., Laird N., and Rubin D. Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the EM algorithm. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B 39 (1977) 1-38
8. Elola J., Daponte A., and Navarro V. Health indicators and the organization of health-care systems in Western Europe. American Journal of Public Health 85 (1995) 1397-1401
9. Franco A., Álvarez-Darde C., and Ruiz M. Effect of democracy on health: ecological study. British Medical Journal 329 (2004) 1421-1423
10. Frey R., and Al-Roumi A. Political democracy and the physical quality of life: the cross-national evidence. Social Indicator Research 47 (1999) 73-97
11. Gerring J., Thacker S., and Alfaro R. Democracy and human development (2006), Boston University Working paper
12. Ghobarah H., Huth P., and Russett B. Comparative public health: the political economy of human misery and well-being. International Studies Quarterly 48 (2004) 73-94
13. Ghobarah H., Huth P., and Russett B. The postwar public health effects of civil conflict. Social Science & Medicine 59 (2004) 869-884
14. Houweling T., Kunst A., Looman C., and Mackenbach J. Determinants of under-5 mortality among the poor and the rich: a cross-national analysis of 43 developing countries. International Journal of Epidemiology 34 (2005) 1257-1265
15. Iqbal Z. Health and human security: the public health impact of violent conflict. International Studies Quarterly 50 (2006) 631-649
16. Jaggers K., and Gurr T. Polity IV: Political regime characteristics and transitions, 1800-2006 (2006), Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Ann Arbor, MI
17. Jong-A-Pin R. On the measurement of political instability and its impact on economic growth. European Journal of Political Economy 25 (2009) 15-29
18. Lake D., and Baum M. The invisible hand of democracy. Comparative Political Studies 34 (2001) 587-621
19. Lena H., and London B. The political and economic determinants of health outcomes: a cross-national analysis. International Journal of Health Services 23 (1993) 585-602
20. Li Q., and Wen M. The immediate and lingering effects of armed conflict on adult mortality: a time-series cross-national analysis. Journal of Peace Research 42 (2005) 471-492
21. McGuire J. Democracy, basic service utilization and under-5 mortality: A cross-national study of developing states (2005), Wesleyan University Working Paper
22. Meltzer A.H., and Richard S.F. A rational theory of the size of government. Journal of Political Economy 89 (1981) 914-927
23. Munck G.L., and Verkuilen J. Conceptualizing and measuring democracy: evaluating alternative indices. Comparative Political Studies 35 (2002) 5-34
24. Navarro V., Borrell C., Benach J., Muntaner C., Quiroga A., and Rodriguez-Sanz M. The importance of the political and the social in explaining mortality differentials among the countries of the OECD 1950-1998. International Journal of Health Services 33 (2003) 419-494
25. Navarro V., Borrell C., Benach J., Muntaner C., Quiroga A., Rodriguez-Sanz, et al. Politics and health outcomes. The Lancet 368 (2006) 1033-1037
26. Navia P., and Zweifel T. Democracy, dictatorship and infant mortality revisited. Journal of Democracy 14 (2003) 90-103
27. Or, Z. (2001). Exploring the effects of health care on mortality across OECD countries. OECD labour market and social policy occasional papers, 46.
28. Owen L., and Wu S. Is trade good for your health?. Review of International Economics 15 (2007) 660-682
29. Pande, A. (2003). Taking time and space into consideration correcting Zweifel and Navia's (2000) model on the effect of regime on infant mortality rates. New Haven, Unpublished manuscript.
30. Reidpath D., and Allotey P. Structure, (governance) and health: an unsolicited response. BMC International Health and Human Rights 6 (2006) 1-7
31. Rodgers G. Income inequality as determinant of mortality: an international cross-section analysis. International Journal of Epidemiology 31 (2002) 533-538
32. Ross C., and Wu C. The links between education and health. American Sociological Review 60 (1995) 719-745
33. Ross M. Does democracy reduce infant mortality?. American Journal of Political Science 50 (2006) 860-874
34. Safaei J. Is democracy good for health?. International Journal of Health Services 36 (2006) 767-786
35. Sen A. Development as freedom (1999), Alfred A. Knopf, NY
36. Shandra J., Nobles J., London B., and Williamson J. Dependency, democracy, and infant mortality: a quantitative, cross-national analysis of less developed countries. Social Science & Medicine 59 (2004) 321-333
37. Shin, M. (2002). Income inequality, democracy and health: A global portrait. Conference paper 'responding in globalization: Societies, groups and individuals', UCLA, Los Angeles.
38. Treier S., and Jackman S. Democracy as a latent variable. American Journal of Political Science 52 (2008) 201-217
39. University of Texas (2006). University of Texas Inequality project. http://utip.gov.utexas.edu.
40. Wansbeek T.J., and Meijer E. Measurement error and latent variables in econometrics (2000), Elsevier, Amsterdam
41. World Bank. World Bank development indicators (2006) CD-Rom
42. World Health Organisation. WHO statistical information system (2006)
43. Zweifel T., and Navia P. Democracy, dictatorship and infant mortality. Journal of Democracy 11 (2000) 99-114