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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 “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. The results show that a ten-percent increase in industrialization reduced the share of “Yes” ballots by 0.4 to 0.7 percentage points in the 1870 plebiscite. An IV strategy using distance to the first city having adopted steam engines, access to coal and waterpower as instruments confirms 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, 2017. "Steam democracy up! Industrialization-led opposition in Napoleonic plebiscites," Working Papers CEB 17-022, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    • Handle: RePEc:sol:wpaper:2013/258048
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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

    Keywords

    Industrialization; Modernization; Democratic consolidation;
    All these keywords.

    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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