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How democracy was achieved

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  • Tridimas, George

Abstract

In ‘Perfecting Parliament’ Roger Congleton applies the rational choice framework to explain two attributes of the democratization of the West from the medieval times to the early twentieth century, first the shift of policy making authority from the king to the parliament and second the extension of voting rights to previously disenfranchised groups of the population. This review essay sets out the themes of the book, and relates the book to the democratization of classical Athens and democratization from the last quarter of the 20th century.

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  • Tridimas, George, 2012. "How democracy was achieved," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 651-658.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:poleco:v:28:y:2012:i:4:p:651-658
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2011.11.001
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    Cited by:

    1. Colin, Jennings, 2013. "Institutions and prosperity," SIRE Discussion Papers 2013-61, Scottish Institute for Research in Economics (SIRE).
    2. Jennings, Colin, 2013. "Institutions and prosperity A review of Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson, Pillars of Prosperity: The Political Economics of Development Clusters, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 2011, pp. 375," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 252-258.
    3. Bryan C. McCannon, 2018. "Arbitration in classical Athens," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 29(4), pages 413-423, December.
    4. George Tridimas, 2014. "Why some democracies are headed by a monarch?," ICER Working Papers 07-2014, ICER - International Centre for Economic Research.
    5. Tridimas, George, 2015. "War, disenfranchisement and the fall of the ancient Athenian democracy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 102-117.
    6. Economou Emmanouil M.L. & Kyriazis Nicholas C., 2016. "Choosing Peace Instead of War. A Lesson from Athenian Democracy," Peace Economics, Peace Science, and Public Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 22(2), pages 191-212, April.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Democracy; Democratization; Ancient Athens; Constitutional exchange; Franchise extension; Democracy and development;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D7 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making
    • N4 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation

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