Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Non-Governmental Organizations: A Cross-National Analysis of Maternal Mortality

Shandra, John M.; Shandra, Carrie L.; London, Bruce

doi:10.5195/jwsr.2010.451

Cited by 32 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 75 publications

(81 reference statements)

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“…Mather, Needle, and Fairburn [60] report that democracy reduces deforestation, and several studies have found that democracies tend to have lower carbon dioxide emissions [61][62][63][64][65][66]. Democracies also have lower sulfur dioxide emissions [67][68][69], tend to have cleaner water [65,69], and improved biodiversity [70]. In contrast, other research has found that democracies have higher rates of deforestation [71][72][73] and lower water quality [74].…”

Section: Political Institutions and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being: a cross-national study

Mayer

2017

Energ Sustain Soc

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Background: Energy consumption is necessary for human well-being, yet the growth of energy consumption also contributes to climate change and a range of negative externalities. Thus, a key sustainability challenge is to efficiently use energy consumption to promote human well-being. This manuscript contributes to the growing literature on the ecological intensity of well-being (EIWB) by modeling the relationship between democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being. Methods: We use international data to understand how democratic institutions-understood as a combination of elected legislature, elected executives, and democratic competition-impact the energy intensity of well-being. The energy intensity of well-being is an adjusted ratio of energy consumption and life expectancy. We combine randomintercept mixed-effect models with entropy balancing constraints to create covariate balance between democracies and non-democracies. Results: Contrary to our expectations, we find that consistently null results suggesting that democracies do not leverage their energy consumption to improve well-being more effectively than other systems of government. Democracy and its subcomponents do not appear to improve, or reduce, the energy intensity of well-being. Conclusions: Democracy does not appear to improve sustainability, operationalized as the energy intensity of well-being. On the other hand, democracies do not appear to do worse than non-democracies, suggesting democratization can spread without reducing sustainability.

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Section: Political Institutions and Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 92%

Democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being: a cross-national study

Mayer

2017

Energ Sustain Soc

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“…There is an extensive and growing body of research on the harmful effects of structural adjustment policies and other debt restructuring initiatives provided by institutions such as the IMF on outcomes such as child mortality, deforestation, maternal mortality, and urban slums (Shandra et al 2011;Pandolfelli, Shandra, & Tyagi 2014;Shandra et al 2010). Of particular relevance to this study, prior research demonstrates a link between structural adjustment and biodiversity loss in developing nations (Shandra et al 2010).…”

Section: Dependency/ World-systems Theory and Limits To Conservationmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…Monitoring and preserving biodiversity is inherently important as biodiversity loss has a number of negative effects on all aspects of human life and on natural ecosystems (Meyer 2009;Shandra et al 2010;Chivian and Bernstein 2010). Diverse ecosystems provide a wide variety of nutrients and food that humans need to survive and without these essential nutrients, human health is directly and negatively impacted (WHO 2014).…”

Section: The Importance Of Biodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The public and academia alike have begun to recognize the severity of environmental issues as it becomes more and more clear that a plethora of different environmental crises threaten the world that we live in and the survival of the human species (Myers 2009). Even within the field of sociology, biodiversity loss and the ways in which humans contribute to species loss is gaining in popularity (McKinney, Fulkerson, & Kick 2009;Shandra, Leckband, McKinney, & London 2009;Shandra, McKinney Leckband, & London 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using these criteria, Myers et al (2000) conducted an analysis of 25 biodiversity hotspots and found that the majority of the hotspots are in the tropics, which largely means that they are in developing countries where the threats to biodiversity loss are the greatest due to international pressures to consumer environmental resources (Myers et al 2000:855). Prior political-economic examinations demonstrate that factors related to economic dependency, especially structural adjustment or debt, often limit the capacity of developing states to enact environmental protections (Shandra et al 2010;McKinney et al 2009). These political-economic factors are thus especially relevant to consider in the context of land protection.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conditionality Contaminates Conservation: Structural Adjustment and Land Protection in Less-Developed Nations

Austin¹,

Noble²,

McCarthy³

2017

IJSSS

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The destruction that human beings cause the natural environment is so catastrophic that the current era has now been labeled the "Sixth Extinction." Conservation and the preservation of species and ecosystems is a leading strategy in preventing biodiversity loss and preserving natural ecosystems. As threats to biodiversity mount, it is imperative that social scientists explore the macro-level processes that influence conservation areas, especially in poorer nations where the majority of biodiverse zones are located. This study explores the impact of structural adjustment policies on the ability of less-developed nations to designate land for conservation. We use ordinary least squares (OLS) regression to examine the influence of IMF conditionality on levels of terrestrial protected areas for 86 less -developed nations. The results confirm our hypothesis that nations undergoing IMF structural adjustment have a smaller percentage of land devoted to terrestrial protected areas than nations not undergoing structural adjustment. Neoliberal approaches that encourage privatization and deregulation ultimately impair less-developed nations' abilities to make conservation a priority.

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Democracy and case fatality rate of COVID-19 at early stage of pandemic: a multicountry study

Yao

Wan

et al. 2021

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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Many studies have evaluated factors that influence the course of the COVID-19 pandemic in different countries. This multicountry study assessed the influence of democracy and other factors on the case fatality rate of COVID-19 during the early stage of the pandemic. We accessed the World Health Organization, World Bank, and the Democracy Index 2019 databases for data from the 148 countries. Multiple analyses were conducted to examine the association between the Democracy Index and case fatality rate of COVID-19. Within 148 countries, the percentage of the population aged 65 years and above ( p = 0.0193), and health expenditure as a percentage of GDP ( p = 0.0237) were positively associated with countries’ case fatality rates. By contrast, hospital beds per capita helped to reduce the case fatality rates. In particular, the Democracy Index was positively associated with case fatality rates in a subgroup of 47 high-income countries. This study suggests that enhancing the health system with increased hospital beds and healthcare workforce per capita should reduce case fatality rate. The findings suggest that a higher Democracy Index is associated with more deaths from COVID-19 at the early stage of the pandemic, possibly due to the decreased ability of the government.

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Debt, Structural Adjustment, and Non-Governmental Organizations: A Cross-National Analysis of Maternal Mortality

Abstract: We begin this study by considering dependency theory claims regarding the

Cited by 32 publications

References 75 publications

Democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being: a cross-national study

Democratic institutions and the energy intensity of well-being: a cross-national study

Conditionality Contaminates Conservation: Structural Adjustment and Land Protection in Less-Developed Nations

Democracy and case fatality rate of COVID-19 at early stage of pandemic: a multicountry study

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