The Corrution Trap

By way of EconLog, The Corruption Trap, they discuss the World Bank study of Democratization and clientism Why are young democracies badly governed?.

The study was above my level of understanding of statistics, but the gist of the argument is that politicians have a credibility gap. They have little record of being able to deliver public goods in the form of campaign promises and as such voters have little faith in the politicians. The end result is that politicians campaign to narrow groups that their needs can be easily fufilled.

EconLog believes it is not credibility gap but the corruption itself that is perpetuated. I would assume places such as India substantiates that claim as not being a young democracy but still held back by unbridled corruption.