How the European Union’s structural funds helped promote a key aspect of democratisation

Can EU funding increase local state capacity? Paweł Charasz and Jan P. Vogler present results from a randomised survey of more than 2,400 municipal administrations in Poland. They find that local governments that have strongly benefited from EU funding exhibit more efficient internal administrative decision-making. When the Soviet Empire disintegrated, a challenge of monumental proportions ... Continued