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Steam democracy up! Industrialization-led opposition in Napoleonic plebiscites

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  • Jean Lacroix

Abstract

Which dimension of economic development spurred support to democracy? This study focuses on industrialization as the dimension triggering the process of political "modernization". It uses a new dataset on Napoleonic plebiscites under the second French Empire (1852-1870). The results in those plebiscites provide a detailed cross-départements (French main administrative units) measure of opposition to autocracy. This study uses the variations in the thriving French modernization to disentangle the effect of industrialization on the vote from the one of other dimensions of economic development. Doubling industrial employment in the Puy-de-Dôme département (median of the distribution) would have decreased support to autocracy by 2.5-5.0 percentage points. An IV strategy using distance to the first city having adopted steam engines, access to coal and waterpower as instruments suggests causality. The baseline results are robust to controlling for other explanations of the vote and to using alternative specifications and estimation methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Jean Lacroix, 2018. "Steam democracy up! Industrialization-led opposition in Napoleonic plebiscites," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/276937, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:ulb:ulbeco:2013/276937
    Note: SCOPUS: re.j
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    Cited by:

    1. Shanti P. Chakravarty, 2018. "Democratic Participation," Homo Oeconomicus: Journal of Behavioral and Institutional Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 235-254, September.
    2. Tomas Cvrcek & Miroslav Zajicek, 2019. "The rise of public schooling in nineteenth-century Imperial Austria: Who gained and who paid?," Cliometrica, Springer;Cliometric Society (Association Francaise de Cliométrie), vol. 13(3), pages 367-403, September.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N43 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - Europe: Pre-1913
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology

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