Institutional Misalignment : Clientelism and Political (in)Stability in Democracies

Sammanfattning: How does the level of clientelistic distribution effect the risk of violent challenges towards the state in democracies? The relationship between democracy and violent conflict has been extensively tested, with diverging results. Utilizing time-series data from 162 independent democratic states ranging from 1946 to 2018, the relationship is here tested by separating the informal institutions of democracy from the formal. And running the level of clientelistic distribution, a conflicting informal institution, as the independent variable in a linear probability model. Which shows that an increase in the level of clientelism significantly increases the risk of violent challenges.