Dependence, Political Exclusion, and Government Repression: Some Cross-National Evidence

Abstract

We examine the hypotheses, derived from the dependencylworld-system literature, that the degree of penetration of peripheral countries by foreign capital contributes to the formal exclusion of nonelite political participation and to the greater frequency with which governments actively repress opposition. Analysis of cross-national data from the 1960s and 1970s provides only weak support for the first hypothesis. Further, no direct effects of dependence on repression are found. However, political exclusion has a significant positive effect on our measure of government repression, and this leaves open the possibility that dependence increases the repressive activity of governments indirectly, through its effect on political exclusion. We discuss these results in light of Bollen's (1983) recent findings, and we point out an apparent paradox which future research must address.