This paper examines the development of legal contract enforcement in a political economy context. The key insight is that, in earlier times when relational contracts are used predominantly, the rich elite agents must have enjoyed comparative advantages in using relational contracts than the poor and thus would bene…t less from investing in legal enforcement. The paper …nds that high income ineq...

Existing theories of coups against democracy emphasize that elites mount coups when democracy is particularly threatening to their interests. But holding interests constant, some potential plotters may have more influence over whether or not a coup succeeds. We develop a model where coups generate rents for elites and show that the likelihood of elite participation is increasing in their networ...

In early modern Europe, as every schoolchild learns, states and elite families were often closely interlocked. Yet family history and state theory are generally studied separately today. I try' here to unite them by underlining the central role of family lineages and gender identities in the formation of patrimonial political structures, focussing on the Netherlands, a precocious and influentia...

Sport has high social valence and is a primary context for physical activity for the majority of youth. Moreover, the number of youth competing in sports at national and international levels continues to increase. As a consequence of emphasis on sport, many children and adolescents are encouraged to begin specialized, systematic training in a sport at relatively young ages with the goal of atta...

This paper examines how the density of corporate and bank headquarters in a community, and the degree of social interconnection among local elites, influence changes in the density of different types of non-profit organizations. We contrast a cohesion approach, which emphasizes the positive influences of corporations and well-connected civic elites, with a critical approach that takes a skeptic...

After years of strict bans on the media, local radio in post-Taliban Afghanistan is undergoing an intense period of reconstruction. This thesis uses a multi-sited ethnographic investigation to examine local Afghan radio's various relationships with women in Afghanistan. In examining both the production and consumption contexts of local radio, it pinpoints areas of disjuncture that can and do le...

Elites are subgroups of individuals within a society that have the ability and means to influence, lead, govern, and shape societies. Members of elites are often well connected individuals, which enables them to impose their influence to many and to quickly gather, process, and spread information. Here we argue that elites are not only composed of highly connected individuals, but also of inter...