Ancestral and Contemporary Influences of Sociopolitical Complexity, Macroeconomic Development, and State Functioning on the Quality of Infrastructure

The present study examined the influence of ancestral variation in sociopolitical complexity (stratification and centralization), macroeconomic development, state functioning, and within-nations competition (operationalized as corruption and homicide) on the overall quality of infrastructure in a sample of 121 contemporary nation-states. A Sequential Canonical Cascade model was statistically significant and explained 56% of the variance. The model indicated that biogeographic regions predicted ancestral stratification, which in turn had a positive influence on ancestral centralization. The analysis also revealed that ancestral centralization positively predicted a contemporary macroeconomic factor combining GDP per capita with a reverse-scored Gini coefficient. Better macroeconomic conditions positively influenced overall state functioning, which, in turn, reduced nations’ internal competition (as demonstrated by lower levels of corruption and homicide). The quality of infrastructure was negatively predicted by homicide and corruption and positively predicted by state functioning, confirming that strong institutions enforcing cooperation and punishing within-group competition can yield superior infrastructure. These results strongly suggest that ancestral sociopolitical conditions indirectly contribute to the development of contemporary nations, particularly macroeconomic factors, overall state functioning, and infrastructure quality. Subsequent analyses controlling for shared macrohistorical and biocultural ancestry between nations indicated that state functioning remained a positive contributor to the quality of infrastructure, with this model explaining 38% of the variance.