Socioeconomic and Political Development: Their Measurement and Connections

Abstract

The scope of the paper is to investigate the basic factors of development worldwide. By following factor analysis, six variables that we consider of high importance for the overall development of nations, namely the level of income per capita, the degree of human development, the extent of government effectiveness, the level of perceived corruption, the range of political rights and the extent of civil liberties are found to be integrated into two basic factors of development: the socioeconomic factor and the political factor. The socioeconomic factor comprises the level of income per capita, the degree of human development, the extent of government effectiveness and the level of perceived corruption, while the political factor comprises the range of political rights and the extent of civil liberties. Our analysis unveils that both these factors are of crucial importance for the overall development of countries. Based on these two factors or criteria of development, our empirical work in the form of cluster analysis distinguishes four groups of countries that we describe and discuss in length. The basic conclusion that emerges from our cluster analysis is that although an effective strategy towards overall development demands integrated policies that incorporate both the socioeconomic and the political dimensions of development, most countries worldwide have not achieve both of them.