IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/kyklos/v66y2013i3p365-377.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Dictatorship of the Popes

Author

Listed:
  • Fabio Padovano
  • Ronald Wintrobe

Abstract

This paper takes the view that theocracies are essentially a form of dictatorship and verifies whether this interpretation is empirically supported when applied to the longest lasting example of theocracy, the temporal power of the Popes. The length of its record and the many historical shocks it had to face reveal information about the incentives and constraints that characterize it. We use this information to test some of the predictions of a theory of dictatorship about the durability of, and the source of opposition to the various regimes on data about the Papacy. The results appear to support the theory.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Fabio Padovano & Ronald Wintrobe, 2013. "The Dictatorship of the Popes," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(3), pages 365-377, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:365-377
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/kykl.12026
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabio Padovano & Ronald Wintrobe, 2012. "Theocracy is just another Form of Dictatorship: Theory and Evidence from the Papal Regimes," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 201302, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    2. Mario Ferrero, 2002. "Competition for Sainthood and the Millennial Church," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(3), pages 335-360, August.
    3. Wintrobe,Ronald, 2000. "The Political Economy of Dictatorship," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521794497, September.
    4. Mario Ferrero & Ronald Wintrobe (ed.), 2009. "The Political Economy of Theocracy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-62006-3, October.
    5. Lisa Anderson & Jennifer Mellor & Jeffrey Milyo, 2010. "Did the Devil Make Them Do It? The Effects of Religion in Public Goods and Trust Games," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(2), pages 163-175, May.
    6. Brighita Bercea & Robert B. Ekelund & Robert D. Tollison, 2005. "Cathedral Building as an Entry‐Deterring Device," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 453-465, November.
    7. Muhammed N. Islam & Stanley L. Winer, 2004. "Tinpots, Totalitarians (and Democrats): An Empirical Investigation of the Effects of Economic Growth on Civil Liberties and Political Rights," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 118(3_4), pages 289-323, March.
    8. Alexander Libman & Vladimir Kozlov & André Schultz, 2012. "Roving Bandits in Action: Outside Option and Governmental Predation in Autocracies," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(4), pages 526-562, November.
    9. Lazarev, Valery & Gregory, Paul, 2003. "Commissars and cars: A case study in the political economy of dictatorship," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 1-19, March.
    10. Bernholz, Peter, 2001. "Ideocracy and Totalitarianism: A Formal Analysis Incorporating Ideology," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 108(1-2), pages 33-75, July.
    11. Olson, Mancur, 1993. "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 87(3), pages 567-576, September.
    12. Thomas Apolte, 2012. "Why is there no revolution in North Korea?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(3), pages 561-578, March.
    13. repec:bla:kyklos:v:55:y:2002:i:3:p:335-60 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Wintrobe, Ronald, 1990. "The Tinpot and the Totalitarian: An Economic Theory of Dictatorship," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 84(3), pages 849-872, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Endrich, Marek & Gutmann, Jerg, 2020. "Pacem in Terris: Are Papal Visits Good News for Human Rights?," ILE Working Paper Series 37, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    2. Maxime Menuet, 2017. "Consensus-building in Electoral Competitions: Evidence from Papal Elections," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2826-2834.
    3. Jerg Gutmann, 2015. "Believe, But Verify? The Effect of Market Structure on Corruption in Religious Organizations," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(2), pages 153-164, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Fabio Padovano & Ronald Wintrobe, 2012. "Theocracy is just another Form of Dictatorship: Theory and Evidence from the Papal Regimes," Economics Working Paper Archive (University of Rennes & University of Caen) 201302, Center for Research in Economics and Management (CREM), University of Rennes, University of Caen and CNRS.
    2. Sezer Yasar & Ceyhun Elgin, 2024. "Democracy and fiscal-policy response to COVID-19," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 198(1), pages 25-45, January.
    3. Georgy Egorov & Konstantin Sonin, 2024. "The Political Economics of Non-democracy," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 62(2), pages 594-636, June.
    4. Joel Guttman & Rafael Reuveny, 2014. "On revolt and endogenous economic policy in autocratic regimes," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 27-52, April.
    5. Roger D. Congleton, 2020. "Governance by true believers: supreme duties with and without totalitarianism," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 31(1), pages 111-141, March.
    6. Stefan Voigt, 2011. "Positive constitutional economics II—a survey of recent developments," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 146(1), pages 205-256, January.
    7. Wockenfuß, Christof, 2009. "Demokratie durch Entwicklungskonkurrenz," Discussion Papers 2009-17, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg, Chair of Economic Ethics.
    8. Abel FRANCOIS & Sophie PANEL & Laurent WEILL, 2018. "Are Some Dictators More Attractive to Foreign Investors?," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2018-05, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    9. Jesus Crespo Cuaresma & Harald Oberhofer & Paul Raschky, 2011. "Oil and the duration of dictatorships," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 505-530, September.
    10. George Tridimas, 2014. "Why some democracies are headed by a monarch?," ICER Working Papers 07-2014, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    11. Münch Angela & Fielding David & Freytag Andreas, 2020. "Public Spending on Health as Political Instrument? – Regime-type dependency of public spending," Open Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 121-134, January.
    12. Sebastian Coll, 2008. "The origins and evolution of democracy: an exercise in history from a constitutional economics approach," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 19(4), pages 313-355, December.
    13. Mulligan, Casey B. & Tsui, Kevin K., 2015. "Political entry, public policies, and the economy," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(3), pages 377-397.
    14. Jody Overland & Kenneth Simons & Michael Spagat, 2005. "Political instability and growth in dictatorships," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 125(3), pages 445-470, December.
    15. Konstantin Sonin & Georgy Egorov, 2011. "Incumbency Advantage in Nondemocratic Elections," 2011 Meeting Papers 417, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    16. Bart Capéau & Philip Verwimp, 2012. "Dictatorship in a single export crop economy," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 24(2), pages 210-234, April.
    17. Gallego, M. & Pitchik, C., 2004. "An economic theory of leadership turnover," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2361-2382, December.
    18. Skarbek, David, 2011. "Governance and Prison Gangs," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 105(4), pages 702-716, November.
    19. Mario Gilli & Yuan Li, 2021. "Selectorate’s information and dictator’s accountability," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 38(5), pages 524-542, September.
    20. Lawrence Kenny & Stanley Winer, 2006. "Tax Systems in the World: An Empirical Investigation into the Importance of Tax Bases, Administration Costs, Scale and Political Regime," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 13(2), pages 181-215, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:kyklos:v:66:y:2013:i:3:p:365-377. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0023-5962 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.