This paper develops a positive theory of growth and redistribution in which agents care about both their absolute and relative levels of consumption. As in Alesina and Rodrik (1994), public goods are productive and are financed by a tax on capital. Equilibrium tax policy is chosen by a pivotal voter and is shown to reflect the strength of status preferences and the distributions of wealth and p...

This paper relates democracy, public and private international capital flows, and odious debt. Democracy commits a ruler to pass borrowed funds on to the private sector which builds the country’s international collateral, and the consequent rise in the credit ceiling is a Pareto-improvement up to a point because the ruler can appropriate a smaller share of rising loan. However, the ruler may st...

Abstract Although EU member states have committed themselves to upholding the fundamental democratic values enshrined in Article 2 Treaty on European Union, violations of these could be observed some states—first and foremost Hungary Poland. This article studies whether negative developments, which are often summarized under terms backsliding or erosion democracy, should classified as a loss qu...

One of the common features of Persian Gulf countries is the same historical destiny, which comes from colonization, religion, tradition and the common culture, which have influenced the political structures of these countries. To this end, in the recent decades, lack of democracy in this region is highly considered by the thinkers. With development of international communications, some of these...

Representation is a key concept for parliamentary democracy. It is, however, a broader concept than is commonly believed. Representative democracy has a fourfold meaning. First, representative democracy is a depiction of the people’s will. Secondly, it is a process of deliberation and negotiation. Thirdly, representative democracy is the institutional linking mechanism between political power a...

Observation shows that while democracy is fragile in poor countries, it is impregnable in developed ones. To explain this pattern, I develop a model in which political parties propose redistributions of incomes, observe the result of an election, and decide whether to comply with the outcome or to launch a struggle for dictatorship. Democracy prevails in developed societies because too much is ...

The first year of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s second term has been disastrous. A series of crises has occurred, from the assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov in Grozny in May 2004, to the widespread demonstrations against the government’s seriously flawed attempt to replace social and other benefits with cash payments. Fighters staged raids in Grozny and Ingushetia, the gove...