Discusión

The category of moderate negative residuals (-5.0 to -11.8) includes 31 countries (see Table 7.3): Andorra, Angola, Armenia, Belarus, Benin, Burundi, the Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Micronesia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Syria, 156 IQ and Global Inequality

Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Zambia. The group does not include any Latin American country, but the other regional groups are well represented, and national IQs vary from high to low

In some respects, the 31 countries of this category differ clearly from the countries with moderate positive residuals. This category includes only one economically highly developed European country (Andorra).

The group is dominated by former socialist countries (9), sub-Saharan African countries (10), and small Pacific island states (5). It is character­

istic for these countries that, except in the cases of Andorra and Sierra Leone, three or more of the five residuals reported in Appendix 4 are negative. They indicate that in most dimensions human conditions are worse than expected on the basis of national IQs. Per capita income is lower than expected in 27, the level of democratization in 26, tertiary enrollment in 24, and life expectancy in 23 of the 31 countries, whereas literacy is better than expected in 19 countries.

It is common for the nine former socialist countries that residuals of per capita income are negative for all of them and more than one standard deviation for eight of them. The level of democratization is lower than expected in all of them, but negative residual is large only for Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The level of literacy is higher than expected in all of them, whereas the level of tertiary enroll­

ment is lower than expected in six countries and higher than expected in Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Life expectancy does not differ much from the predicted level. Moderate negative residuals of QHC seem to be principally due to a low levels of per capita income and democracy in the former socialist countries.

The values of various components of QHC are lower than expected for the sub-Saharan African countries of this category. For most of these poor countries, residuals of PPP GNI per capita and ID are slightly negative, but the largest negative residuals concern Life expectancy. In eight cases these negative residuals are more than one standard deviation. HIV/AIDS disease worsens human conditions in many sub-Saharan African countries. The level of literacy is lower than expected in seven countries, and the level of tertiary enrollment in six countries. Moderate negative residuals of QHC seem to be principally due to much lower than expected Hfe expectancy in these sub-Saharan African countries.

National IQ and the Quality o f Human Conditions 157

In the group of five Pacific island states, moderate negative residuals of QHC are principally due to much lower than expected levels of the tertiary enrollment ratio. For four countries, negative residuals are more than one standard deviation. As noted above, it is much more difficult to provide higher education in very small countries than in bigger countries. Other aspects of human conditions are more consis­

tent with national IQs, although per capita income is much lower than expected in Kiribati, and the level of democratization in Tonga. For Papua New Guinea, the level of ID is exceptionally high (cf. Freedom in the World 2004, pp. 439-441).

The other seven countries of this category are more or less special cases. Andorra’s position in this category seems to be due to its much lower than expected level of ID. However, its ID may be artificially low (see Appendix 3) for the reason that although France and Spain formally control the government, it does not need to restrict the liberty of people (cf. Freedom in the World 2004, pp. 26-28). India’s much lower than expected level of literacy has lowered its negative residual of QHC to -7.0. Other aspects of human conditions are more consistent with the country’s national IQ, although its per capita income is also much lower than expected. Nepal is a similar case. Indonesia’s place in this category is principally due to significant negative residuals of PPP GNI per capita, the tertiary enrollment ratio, and ID. The same combi­

nation of negative residuals explains Malaysia’s place in this category.

Iran’s negative residual (-5.7) is due to its low level of democratiza­

tion. Syria is a similar case.

Compared to the countries with moderate positive residuals, nearly all of the 31 countries of this category are much poorer and less democratic. For most of them, the level of per capita income is much lower than expected on the basis of national IQs. Only 12 of the 31 countries were clearly above the threshold of democracy in 2002 (see Appendix 3): Armenia, Benin, the Cook Islands, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Kiribati, Malaysia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Romania, and Uganda. The other 19 countries were more or less below the minimum threshold of democracy.

Moderate or large negative residuals of PPP GNI per capita and ID for the former socialist countries imply that the nature of a country’s economic and political systems matters. Socialist economic and political systems seem to have hampered economic development 158 IQ and Global Inequality

and the improvement of human conditions. In the case of sub-Saharan African countries, HIV/AIDS seems to be a significant factor which has impaired the quaUty of human conditions. The geographical isolation and small populations of Pacific island states have impeded especially the development of higher education and industrialization.