|
EconStor >
Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (WWU) >
Centrum für angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung Münster (CAWM), Universität Münster >
CAWM Discussion Papers, Universität Münster >
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51364
|
| | |
| Title: | | Why is there no revolution in North-Korea? The political economy of revolution revisited  |
| Authors: | | Apolte, Thomas |
| Issue Date: | | 2010 |
| Series/Report no.: | | CAWM discussion paper / Centrum für Angewandte Wirtschaftsforschung Münster 29 |
| Abstract: | | In this paper the political economy of revolutions is revisited, as it has been developed and applied in a number of publications by Acemoglu and Robinson. We criticize the fact that these authors abstract from collective-action problems and focus on inequality of income or wealth instead. In doing so, they reanimate a long but misleading tradition in social sciences, namely to directly deduct prospective group behavior from the collective interest of a group. We show that, because of collective-action problems, income inequality is not a sufficient condition for a revolution to occur. Furthermore, we also show that inequality does not even need to be a necessary condition, since all what is needed in order for a group to be interested in a revolution is that this group as a whole can expect to be a beneficiary of a revolution. For the latter to apply, however, inequality is not necessary. Hence, not inequality but rather a certain structure of commitment devices or their absence is crucial for explaining why revolutions sometimes occur and sometimes not. |
| Subjects: | | Credible Commitments Dictatorship Political Economy Redistribution |
| JEL: | | D72 D74 O15 P16 |
| Document Type: | | Working Paper |
| Appears in Collections: | | CAWM Discussion Papers, Universität Münster
|
| |
| | |
Download bibliographical data as:
BibTeX
|
| |
Share on:http://hdl.handle.net/10419/51364
|
Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.
|