The Origins of Democracy: A Model with Application to Ancient Greece Export

@article{citeulike:5868648, abstract = {doi: 10.1086/501088 Abstract This paper seeks to provide an improved understanding of the origins of democracy. It begins by developing a theoretical model to demonstrate how exogenous economic conditions can influence the incentives to establish democratic institutions. The model predicts that democratic institutions will expand where they mitigate important time‐inconsistency problems and, therefore, encourage investment. Exogenous conditions determine the magnitude of those time‐inconsistency problems and, hence, the likelihood of democracy. A comparison of ancient Greek city‐states suggests that the conditions under which democracy first emerged support the model. Other potential applications are discussed.}, author = {Fleck, Robert K. and Hanssen, F. Andrew}, citeulike-article-id = {5868648}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/501088}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/501088}, day = {1}, doi = {10.1086/501088}, journal = {The Journal of Law and Economics}, keywords = {democracy, public\_choice}, month = {April}, number = {1}, pages = {115--146}, posted-at = {2009-10-01 16:40:08}, priority = {2}, title = {The Origins of Democracy: A Model with Application to Ancient Greece}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/501088}, volume = {49}, year = {2006} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5868648 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5868648 N2 - doi: 10.1086/501088 Abstract This paper seeks to provide an improved understanding of the origins of democracy. It begins by developing a theoretical model to demonstrate how exogenous economic conditions can influence the incentives to establish democratic institutions. The model predicts that democratic institutions will expand where they mitigate important time‐inconsistency problems and, therefore, encourage investment. Exogenous conditions determine the magnitude of those time‐inconsistency problems and, hence, the likelihood of democracy. A comparison of ancient Greek city‐states suggests that the conditions under which democracy first emerged support the model. Other potential applications are discussed. IS - 1 JF - The Journal of Law and Economics EP - 146 TI - The Origins of Democracy: A Model with Application to Ancient Greece VL - 49 SP - 115 KW - democracy KW - public_choice AU - Fleck, Robert AU - Hanssen, Andrew PY - 2006/04/01/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/501088 ER -