Effect of democracy on health: ecological study

Can political regimes be singled out as a factor affecting health? Rating countries by the extent of their freedom is a useful proxy for measuring the effects of democracy on health related variables. Although the influence of democracy in preventing famines has been reported, there have been no empirical studies on the relation between the extent of freedom allowed by political regimes and the effect on a nation’s health. We explored the effect of democracy on life expectancy and maternal and infant mortality in most countries, taking into account a country’s wealth, its level of inequality, and the size of its public sector.Centro de Estudios Mario Benedetti and Observatory of Public Policies and Healt