Immature Politicians and Oligarchy As a Threat to Democracy

Oligarchy, democracy, inequality and growth

This paper analyses the dynamics of inequality, democratization and economic development in a political economy model of growth where education is both the engine of growth and a determinant of political participation. In a context with imperfect capital markets, we investigate the incentives for an educated oligarchy to subsidize the poor’s education and to initiate a democratic transition. We...

The corporate threat to democracy

Prisoner Disenfranchisement Policy: A Threat to Democracy?

The right to vote is one of the fundamental principles of democracy. However, full suffrage of the adult population has not been realized in many present-day democracies. Internationally, millions of prisoners (and ex-offenders in some nations) are disenfranchised. Being excluded from the civic process is a threat to democracy. In this article, I argue that removing a prisoner’s right to vote c...

Dutch politicians' coping with terrorist threat.

The psychosocial effects of terrorist threat and close protection have never been studied systematically in political leaders. We conducted a study among 12 Dutch politicians and their partners who were living under terrorist threat and close protection in the aftermath of two political murders. Interviews revealed that their coping with the situation varied and consisted of emotion-focused, de...

Investment and Expropriation under Oligarchy and Democracy in a Heckscher-Ohlin World

We study the incentives to expropriate foreign capital under democracy and oligarchy. We model a two-sector small open economy where foreign investment triggers Stolper-Samuelson effects through reducing exporting costs. We show how incentives to expropriate depend on the distributional effects of the investment and on how these affect the interests of the group in power. How investment affects...