Elite Identity and Political Accountability: A Tale of Ten Islands

Jean-Paul Carvalho and Christian Dippel

No 22777, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Emancipation of slaves in the 1830s transformed the political elites of the British-Caribbean plantation islands. New elites were more accountable to the citizenry. We develop a theory in which two factors limit and possibly reverse the effect of this on political outcomes, with legislators (i) ‘stepping up to pass extractive policies and/or (ii) weakening democratic institutions. The theory is supported by an historical analysis of ten Caribbean plantation islands, based on original archival data on legislator race, occupation and roll-call voting. Eventually, all assemblies that experienced a significant change in composition dissolved themselves and converted to British ‘Crown Rule’.

JEL-codes: D71 N66 O43 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cdm, nep-his and nep-pol
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published as Jean-Paul Carvalho & Christian Dippel, 2020. "Elite Identity and Political Accountability: A Tale of Ten Islands," The Economic Journal, vol 130(631), pages 1995-2029.

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