against less Participation.<sup>41</sup> They also confirm that the same is not true for Protection ( ) as can be seen from the positive and significant relationship of with . In contrast, when using PP1 data on OECD countries both Provision and Protection are in a positive and significant PP1 PP3 relationship with Participation, which rules out the potential existence of any bargain between governments and citizens through , , and in these countries.<sup>42</sup> This contributes to strengthening the idea that the link between Provision and Participation in the MENA region is PP1 PP2 PP3 somewhat specific, and thus deserves particular attention.

As to the controls, we see that the higher the rurality, the lower the Participation in both MENA and OECD. This seems plausible as more rural countries are often less developed than more urban countries. People living in rural countries are more often worried than those living in urban countries about ensuring the livelihood of their families due to stronger financial constraints. This is generally a result of fewer job opportunities in rural areas compared to urban ones. Fighting for democracy and participation in society's decision making is usually not their highest priority and public authorities do not have any incentives to improve Participation. Against this backdrop, increases in rural population may then result in lower participation.

Human development is found to be negatively related to Participation both in MENA and OECD. For the case of MENA, this suggests that health, education, and standard of living, the components of the human development index, have somehow improved overall but at the expense of citizens' Participation. As to the OECD, as discussed previously, on average, this region's level of Participation is far from being qualified as "poor" as it includes mostly developed countries that are committed to democracy. Because Participation is somewhat already a reality in their economies, as they develop, these countries tend to rest on their laurels and focus their financing and efforts on other topical societal issues such as global warming or gender inequality. This may have been detrimental to Participation in OECD.<sup>**43**</sup> As to unemployment, we see that it is positively related to Participation in MENA and negatively in OECD. For the case of MENA, this result may reflect the fact that the unemployed

> 41 See the authoritarian bargain story (Desai et al., 2008) discussed in Section 2.

> 42 Founded in 1961, the OECD intergovernmental organization includes mostly developed countries that are committed to democracy and the market economy. In the 3-P framework, these countries recognize each P as a major source of economic and social prosperity and, as such, effectively engage in simultaneously improving their levels. 43 These results on the impact of human development on participation might reflect the growing distrust of political systems by educated population groups, as evidenced by the increasingly low election turnout over the last two decades in both MENA and OECD countries. Empirical evidence has shown that voter turnout decreases as the general population's level of education increases, a trend observed in advanced democracies, or as the chances of power transition decrease, a trend observed in autocratic regimes. By increasing transparency and accountability, digital transformation of governments is expected to empower citizens and strengthen their participation. In the next section, we introduce digitalization in the analysis.

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