While democracies are slightly ahead of non-democracies when it comes to providing at least some water to the public, they have been falling behind when it comes to ensuring that water is clean and safe, a new study shows.

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A new MIT-led study analyzing 96 low- and middle-income countries finds that democracies are only modestly better than non-democracies at providing basic water access, and are actually falling behind on ensuring safe drinking water. The research, which ran 39,000 regressions on WHO/UNICEF data from 2000–2024, suggests the gap is widening over time. The likely explanation: democracies excel at delivering visible public goods (like infrastructure), but water safety is invisible to citizens, reducing political incentives to prioritize it. The authors call for better-aligned incentives and civil society pressure to make water quality a political priority.

Some democracies are struggling to ensure safe drinking water