Investigating revolutions in a model of democratization
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2018-08-18
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en
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Abstract
A Theory of Political Transitions’ by Acemoglu and Robinson (2001) is an important paper in the democratization literature. Revolutions play a major role in the democratization of a country in the model presented in that article. This paper investigates whether that model accurately captures democratization. It does this by analyzing the paper and the model, with an emphasis on how revolutions are modelled. The model is then compared to how revolutions are portrayed in models of social conflict (Roemer, 1985)(Grossman,1991). The free-rider problem is concluded to be underdeveloped, because the model assumes that there are only public costs and benefits to revolutions. Moreover, the way that the effects of the revolution are modelled, which is an expropriation of capital, is also lacking. According to the model by Acemoglu and Robinson (2001), revolutions never directly lead to democratization, which is unrealistic.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen