Democracy and the Elimination of Leaded Petrol in 2006

Cooper:

‘In 2006, democracy data was available for the following countries which continued to use lead additives in their vehicular fuels: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Macedonia, Morocco, Myanmar, Palestine, Serbia, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Yemen. Data was not available for Western Sahara. The Democracy Index for 2006 assessed the democracy levels of 167 countries throughout the world (Economist Intelligence Unit 2007)…

‘ more countries which had eliminated lead from their vehicular fuels displayed higher democracy values than countries which had not eliminated lead from their vehicular fuels...The four leaded countries returning democracy values above 5.5 were Macedonia, Serbia, Palestine and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

‘…it was possible to conclude with confidence that a relationship existed between democracy values and the elimination or non-elimination of leaded additives from vehicular fuels.

‘From these findings, it can be confidently asserted that in 2006 the likelihood that a country was leaded was related to its level of democracy, and that leaded countries were substantially less likely to be democratic than unleaded countries.’

[As with corruption, it is not possible to state that the connection is causative], however,

‘These findings provide strong support for the proposition that failures to address the low levels of democracy present in countries that continued to rely on leaded petrol may have been inhibiting the global effort to eliminate lead additives from vehicular fuels in 2006.’

2010 data on democracy and the use of leaded petrol

‘…it can be confidently asserted that the likelihood that a country is leaded is related to its level of democracy, and that the relationship between democracy levels and the elimination of leaded petrol operated throughout the period 2006 to 2010. It is clear that leaded countries are substantially less likely to be democratic than unleaded countries, and that as time has progressed this trend has become even more pronounced. Again, in the absence of time series data, no causative relationship can be confidently stated, nevertheless [Ed’s italics] it can be asserted that the need to address the low levels of democracy present in leaded countries in order to further the global effort to eliminate lead additives from vehicular fuels was more compelling in 2010 than it was in 2006.

Korean Peninsula. North Korea was least-worst on the Press Freedom Index