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Some Lessons on the Efficiency of Democracy from a Study of Dictatorship

In: The Political Dimension of Economic Growth

Author

Listed:
  • Ronald Wintrobe

    (University Of Western Ontario)

Abstract

In recent years there has been a great deal of new work on the efficiency of democracy. The most important contributions have probably been the literature on probabilistic voting,1 ‘the rational partisan model’ originated by Wittman (1983) and developed further by Alesina (1988) and others, and the ‘new institutional economics’, especially that applied to bureaucratic theory (Breton and Wintrobe, 1975 and 1982; Weingast and Moran, 1983) which has tended to displace the old literature on the inefficiency of bureaucracy. However, all these models, like the older median voter model or the Stigler-Peltzman-Olson-Becker interest group approach, have been developed without reference to nondemocratic regimes. It is odd that economists have spilled so much ink modelling monopoly in the private sector, where it is a relatively trivial problem, while hardly any effort has been exerted2 modelling monopoly in politics, where it is probably the most important problem in the social sciences.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald Wintrobe, 1998. "Some Lessons on the Efficiency of Democracy from a Study of Dictatorship," International Economic Association Series, in: Silvio Borner & Martin Paldam (ed.), The Political Dimension of Economic Growth, chapter 2, pages 20-37, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:intecp:978-1-349-26284-7_2
    DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-26284-7_2
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    Cited by:

    1. Beckmann Klaus & Gerrits Carsten, 2009. "Armutsbekämpfung durch Reduktion von Korruption: eine Rolle für Unternehmen? / Fighting poverty by fighting corruption: A task for private enterprise?," ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, De Gruyter, vol. 60(1), pages 463-494, January.

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