The Dynastic Cycle and the Stationary State

Dan Usher

American Economic Review, 1989, vol. 79, issue 5, 1031-44

Abstract: A dynastic cycle is a periodic alternation of society between despotism and anarchy. In a society of farmers, rulers, and bandits, population growth simultaneously impoverishes farmers and reduces the ruler's surplus per head. Society evolves into a despotic stationary state or into a dynastic cycle dependent on whether poverty among farmers chokes off population growth before the surplus shrinks to the point where rulers turn to banditry. Copyright 1989 by American Economic Association.

Date: 1989
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Working Paper: The Dynastic Cycle and the Stationary State (1986)
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