Afternoon Must-Read: Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo: Gaming Democracy: Elite Dominance during Transition and the Prospects for Redistribution

Michael Albertus and Victor Menaldo: Gaming Democracy: Elite Dominance during Transition and the Prospects for Redistribution: “Inequality and democracy are far more compatible empirically than social conflict theory predicts….

There is a relationship between democracy and redistribution only if elites are politically weak during a transition; for example, when there is revolutionary pressure. Redistribution is also greater if a democratic regime can avoid adopting and operating under a constitution written by outgoing elites and instead create a new constitution that redefines the political game. This finding holds across three different measures of redistribution and instrumental variables estimation. This article also documents the ways in which elites ‘bias’ democratic institutions…