Page 136 - Human Rights

Faculty of Nursing
Adult care Nursing Department

several global studies have highlighted the role of democracy in improving health.

Democracy, through popular representation and through the satisfaction of the basic needs of the

populations, meets the desire of any human being to have an increasingly satisfactory quality of

life in terms of access to health, education, and other essential goods, such as protection in old
age or maternity (Nunes and Rego 2014).

According to Bulky et al. (2019), the Democratic rule, enforced by regular free and fair elections,

appears to make an important contribution to adult health by increasing government spending on

health and potentially reducing deaths from several non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and
transport injuries. Conversely, autocracies that escape this general scrutiny, and do not have the

same external pressures or support from global health donors to tackle NCDs and injuries, may

have less incentive to finance their prevention and treatment, and seem to underperform as a
result.

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (2019) also agrees that elections and the health of

the people are increasingly inseparable.

Democratic institutions and processes, and particularly free and fair elections, can be an important
catalyst for improving population health, with the largest health gains possible for cardiovascular

and other non-communicable dis eases.

Conversely, efforts to separate population health from elections and the other hallmarks of

democracy might be less successful, especially as aid budgets are stagnant and countries’ needs
shift to non-communicable diseases, injuries, and adult health.

This study suggests that democratic governance and its promotion, along with other government

accountability measures, might further enhance efforts to improve population health.

There is a close link between democracy, global health, and human rights. Democracies clearly
improve several aspects of peoples’ lives, such as:

125 Academic Year 2025/2026