State First, Then Democracy: Using Cadastral Records to Explain Governmental Performance in Public Goods Provision
本文提出理论论证民主化时机与国家能力的关系，利用地籍记录作为历史国家能力的指标，发现先建立强大国家再民主化的国家公共品供给更好、腐败更少。
This article presents a theoretical argument of how and why democratization at different levels of state capacity matters for public goods provision and subjects the argument to empirical tests. Building on rational choice theories of public goods production, we argue that credible enforcement before credible commitment—democratizing after the state has acquired high levels of state capacity—leads to a more efficient social order than the opposite sequence. Using a theoretically grounded and novel indicator of historical state capacity—the extent and quality of cadastral records—the analysis shows that those countries where the state developed extensive enforcement capacities before democratization exhibit, on average, better provision of essential public goods and are less corrupt.