Democratization or Repression?

Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson

No 99-27, Working papers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics

Abstract: Regimes controlled by a rich elite often collapse and make way for democracy amidst widespread social unrest. Such regime changes are often followed by redistribution to the poor at the expense of the former elite. We argue that the reason why the elite may have to resort to full-scale democratization, despite its apparent costs to themselves, may be that lesser concessions would be viewed as a sign of weakness and spur further unrest and more radical demands. The elite may therefore be forced to choose between repression and the most generous concession, a transition to full democracy.

Pages: 13 pages
Date: 1999-11
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-his and nep-pub
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
Journal Article: Democratization or repression? (2000)
Working Paper: Democratization or Repression? (1999)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:mit:worpap:99-27

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT), DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS 02142 USA

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working papers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Department of Economics MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (MIT), DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS, 50 MEMORIAL DRIVE CAMBRIDGE MASSACHUSETTS 02142 USA. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Linda Woodbury ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).