The logic of redistributive non-democracies
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The "redistributive hypothesis" holds democracy to be the fundamental cause of redistribution from rich to poor. It is based on the following intuition. In contrast to autocracy, under which political power is concentrated among economic elites, democracy empowers all citizens equally by creating a mechanism through which the majority can vote for egalitarian economic policies. This argument traces its intellectual roots at least to Tocqueville, has been formalized through political economy models (Romer 1975; Roberts 1977; Meltzer and Richard 1981) and recently has been expanded to underpin an important set of theories about the economic origins of democracy and dictatorship (Boix 2001, 2003; Acemoglu and Robinson 2000, 2001, 2006). I argue that the prevailing view underestimates the ability of non-democratic regimes to redistribute to the poor and explore alternative mechanisms for redistribution in non-democratic contexts. I use original datasets from archival sources for in-depth case studies, statistical analyses at the cross-national level, and formal models to make my case. My findings offer new insights on the causes of economic redistribution, advance the systematic study of autocracy and contribute to an emerging literature on the autocratic roots of social policy in developing nations.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2011 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Elis, Roy |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Political Science. |
| Primary advisor | Haber, Stephen H, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Haber, Stephen H, 1957- |
| Thesis advisor | Rodden, Jonathan |
| Thesis advisor | Wright, Gavin |
| Advisor | Rodden, Jonathan |
| Advisor | Wright, Gavin |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Roy Elis. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Political Science. |
| Thesis | Ph.D. Stanford University 2011 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2011 by Roy Elis
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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