Democracy varies inversely with clientelism
Comparing Varieties of democracy with Clientelism Index across 173 countries, 1948–2025.
- Rank correlation
- -0.66
- Holding size constant
- -0.58
- Countries compared
- 173
- Period
- 1948–2025
What might link these
The negative correlation between varieties of democracy and the clientelism index might suggest that countries with more democratic institutions tend to have less clientelistic practices. A careful reader should be cautious about potential confounders like economic inequality, which could influence both democracy and clientelism. The relationship could be driven by underlying factors rather than a direct link.
Why this is not proof of anything
This is a correlation across countries, not an experiment. It cannot show that either indicator causes the other, and both may simply follow a third thing. This correlation could mislead by implying a causal relationship between democracy and clientelism, when in fact both may be driven by other factors like cultural or historical context.
The second figure above repeats the measurement with national population and income held constant. It is the more conservative number: a relationship that largely disappears there was mostly telling you that larger, richer countries have more of most things.
How this was measured
Both indicators were ranked across every country reporting each, and the two rankings compared — ranks rather than raw values, because a handful of very large countries can otherwise manufacture a relationship on their own. The calculation is arithmetic over figures already published on this site; the commentary above is drafted from the two indicator names and the resulting coefficients.