Do Civil Liberties Matter For State Capture? Evidence from Latin America 1996-2017

Résumé

This study explores the impact of civil liberties on state capture. It employs a mixed effects regression model for the years 1996-2017 where time serves as the level 1 units and countries as the level 2 units. The study tests two main hypotheses: 1). As civil liberties increase in a given country, state capture will correspondingly decrease. 2.) Latin American countries in the mid-range of civil liberties will experience the highest levels of state capture overall relative to countries with either low and or high levels of civil liberties. The results demonstrate that as civil liberties increase, we may not see a corresponding decrease in state capture which is contrary to the prevailing literature on the importance of a strong civil society and civil liberties for inhibiting corruption and state capture. However, this study has definitively shown that countries in the mid-range of civil liberties relative to countries with low and or high levels of civil liberties, will experience greater amounts of state capture. Overall, the findings of this study present a significant contribution to the field and help us to generalize the true impact of civil liberties on state capture to other regions of the world.