The law of primogeniture and the transition from landed aristocracy to industrial democracy¤

This paper looks at the historical evolution of the relationship between an economy's structure and the corresponding political system, starting from feudal times. We show why, in an early agricultural phase, aristocratic political systems prevail, while democracies tend to emerge with the industrial phase, while at the same time the legal system regulating the intergenerational transfers of property rights evolves from primogeniture to equal partition. The model predicts a dynamic path for aggregate and individual income, the sectoral composition of aggregate output, class structure, wealth inequality, and political participation, which are consistent with the available historical evidence. While the main focus of the paper is the Old World, a comparative analysis allows to explain di®erential New World's developments. JEL Classi ̄cation Numbers: O40, P10, J12 , N10 , K19, Q15.