A large strand of previous research argues that democratic regimes provide more public goods and services than authoritarian regimes. Since political leaders are held accountable to the citizens in fair and regular elections, this literature argues, it creates strong incentives among political leaders to deliver broadly demanded public services. Indeed, long-lasting democratic institutions have been found to matter for, among other things, the universal provision of reliable electricity. In this article we revisit this finding, suggesting that the effect of democracy on electricity provision is moderated by the quality of institutions shaping the implementation of public policies. We test the hypothesis positing the interaction effect between democracy and corruption using cross-national data on the share of population living in unlit areas. Our dependent variable is the percentage of the population living in unlit area, based on high-resolution satellite images capturing the concentration of outdoor lights around the globe. We use fractional logistic regression to estimate the relationship between democracy experience and the proportion of the population living in unlit areas. The results show that democracy is associated with a higher electrification rate only in low-corrupt contexts. When corruption is widespread, democratic experience is not correlated with higher rates of electrification. These findings show that the effect of democratic institutions is conditional on the quality of the institutions that shape policy implementation. Our article thus provides a more nuanced understanding of the impact of democratic institutions on electricity provision.

中文翻译：

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从民主和腐败来看：电力供应的制度决定因素

大量先前的研究认为，民主政体比专制政体提供更多的公共产品和服务。该文献认为，由于政治领导人在公平和定期的选举中对公民负责，这在政治领导人中产生了强大的动力，以提供广泛要求的公共服务。事实上，人们发现持久的民主制度对普遍提供可靠的电力等很重要。在本文中，我们重新审视了这一发现，表明民主对电力供应的影响受到影响公共政策实施的机构质量的调节。我们使用关于生活在未照明地区的人口比例的跨国数据来检验假设民主与腐败之间的相互作用。我们的因变量是居住在未照明区域的人口百分比，基于捕获全球室外灯光浓度的高分辨率卫星图像。我们使用分数逻辑回归来估计民主体验与生活在未照明地区的人口比例之间的关系。结果表明，只有在低腐败的情况下，民主才会与更高的电气化率相关联。当腐败普遍存在时，民主经验与更高的电气化率无关。这些发现表明，民主制度的影响取决于影响政策实施的制度的质量。因此，我们的文章对民主制度对电力供应的影响提供了更细致入微的理解。