Political Order in Changing Societies

Political Parties in Conflict - Prone Societies

Political Economy in a Changing World∗

We provide a general framework for the analysis of the dynamics of institutional change (e.g., democratization, extension of political rights, or repression of different groups), and how these dynamics interact with (anticipated and unanticipated) changes in the distribution of political power and in economic structure. We focus on Markov Voting Equilibria, which require that economic and polit...

Political Engineering and Party Politics in Conflict-Prone Societies

Comparative scholarship suggests that democracy in ethnically-diverse societies is likely to be fostered by the development of broad-based, aggregative, and multi-ethnic political parties, rather than fragmented, personalised, or ethnically-based party systems. However, surprisingly little scholarly attention has been given to how party fragmentation can be addressed or how broad-based parties ...

Political Accountability in Divided Societies: The Politics of Fear

I present a model in which the combination of divided societies and weak institutions in the form of "Personal Rule" regimes creates a failure of accountability of the leadership. As a consequence, the ruler can construct a kleptocratic regime in which he can steal from the citizens, included his own supporters, even though he needs them to survive politically. The model also predicts extensive...

Political Parties and Democratic Control in Advanced Industrial Societies

Few, if any, would deny that political parties are integral to representative democracy as we know it. And yet since the 1960s it has become increasingly commonplace to encounter references in academic literature, journalistic comment, and polemical assertion alike to the `decline of party', a contention usually predicated on the view that parties are `failing' in a variety of respects. We have...