Tocqueville and Democracy in America: Introduction

Social Mobility and Stability of Democracy: Re-evaluating De Tocqueville∗

An influential thesis often associated with De Tocqueville views social mobility as a bulwark of democracy: when members of a social group expect to join the ranks of other social groups in the near future, they should have less reason to exclude these other groups from the political process. In this paper, we investigate this hypothesis using a dynamic model of political economy. As well as fo...

Criminal (In)Justice and Democracy in America

Democracy and Social Spending in Latin America

Business Elites and Democracy in Latin America :

The discussion focuses on three themes. One is the divergence between positions of business associations and concerns of individual entrepreneurs regarding several determinants of investment. Another issue is under what conditions economic growth can be achieved under democracy; why market reforms have generated little private investment in many cases, and which government policies and politica...

Economic Crisis and Democracy in Latin America

While the world is focused on the economic impact of the financial and credit meltdown, what might be its impact on politics? In well-established democracies, probably not more than elections lost by incumbent parties seen as having mismanaged the economy.Butwhat of consolidatingdemocracies that predominate in thedevelopingworld, where some forecasts expect the crisis to hit the poor especially...