Structural Factors In Dictatorial Regime

In the theoretical framework, I argued that some structural factors influence economic development but depending on the political regime. Some of these factors can play strong and key role in determining ruler’s policy choices in improving and advancing national wealth and creating economic development in one regime but becomes less relevant in the other. This section have carefully explored and explained these structural factors.
Structural Factors That Affects Economic Development in Dictatorial Regimes

There are several structural factors that affect leader’s policy choices in dictatorial regime and as such determine how the regime impacts economic development. I examined such structural factors like (1) International political structure/external-threat.
This challenge most often compel rulers in dictatorial regimes to expand the wealth of nations in order to meet military expenditures as well as to reduce poverty and improve people’s living standard, which reduces the likelihood of revolutions. Thus rulers tend to adopt growth-enhancing strategies when they face external competition, because development could strengthen their survivability. Chin-en (2004) aptly captured the above as he
One of those sources is external military threat. For instance, the geographic proximity of Germany induced Soviet Union to pursue industrialization policies during the interwar period (Boix 2003). Skocpol (1979) also emphasized how international pressures lead political leaders to make decisions independently from domestic, major classes. A recent account of how external threats influence economic development might be Jeffrey Herbst’ study (2000) on the formation of European nation states and modern Africa. It was argued that in Europe, high population density combined with limited land induces states to establish more efficient armies and bureaucracies in order to survive, whereas low population density combined with low external threats in Africa reduce the necessity of defending territory and hence allow rulers to survive without invest in institutional building. Also, economic and military donations in the Cold War periods from countries of the two camps contribute to the survivability of predatory rulers in Africa. More so, external military threats may also include the challenges confronting most of the countries surrounding the Iron Curtain such as some of the East Asian countries, which confronted severe challenges from neighboring communist regimes during the Cold War in their earlier stage of development. But the story here