Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T17:44:56.920Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Late colonial antecedents of modern democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2021

Christian Bjørnskov  and
Martin Rode Open the ORCID record for Martin Rode [Opens in a new window]
Christian Bjørnskov
Affiliation:
Department of Economic, Aarhus University, Fuglesangs Allé 4, 8210 Aarhus V, Denmark Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN), P.O. Box 55665, 102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
Martin Rode*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Economía, Universidad de Navarra, Edificio Amigos, 31009 Pamplona, Spain
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Claims that colonial political institutions fundamentally affected the probability for democratic governance in the post-colonial period are probably among some of the most contested in institutional analysis. The current paper revisits this literature using a previously unused source of empirical information – the Statesman's Yearbook – on a large number of non-sovereign countries in the immediate aftermath of World War II. Our analysis shows that neither the size of the European population nor the existence of institutions of higher education appear to be important for the subsequent democratisation of countries decolonised during the latter half of the 20th century, while the existence of representative political bodies during the late colonial period clearly predicts the existence and stability of democracy in recent decades. Successful transplants of democracy to former colonies thus seem to crucially depend on whether recipients had time available to experiment around and adjust the imported institutions to local practices.

Keywords

Colonialismdemocratisationinstitutional transplantspolitical regimes
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 18 , Issue 4 , August 2022 , pp. 569 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Millennium Economics Ltd.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2019), The Narrow Corridor: How Nations Struggle for Liberty, New York: Penguin Press.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Gallego, F. A. and Robinson, J. A. (2014), ‘Institutions, Human Capital, and Development’, Annual Review of Economics, 6(1): 875–912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. A. (2001), ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation’, American Economic Review, 91(5): 1369–1401.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albouy, D. (2012), ‘The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation: Comment’, American Economic Review, 102(6): 3059–3076.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bergh, A. and Fink, G. (2018) ‘The French curse? On the puzzling economic consequences of French colonization’, IFN working paper no. 1234.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, D., Pistor, K. and Richard, J. F. (2003), ‘Economic Development, Legality, and the Transplant Effect’, European Economic Review, 47(1): 165–195.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bjørnskov, C. and Rode, M. (2020), ‘Regime Types and Regime Change: A New Dataset on Democracy, Coups, and Political Institutions’, Review of International Organizations, 15(2): 531–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boettke, P. J., Coyne, C. J. and Leeson, P. T. (2008), ‘Institutional Stickiness and the New Development Economics’, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 67(2): 331–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheibub, J. A., Gandhi, J. and Vreeland, J. R. (2010), ‘Democracy and Dictatorship Revisited’, Public Choice, 143(1–2): 67–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congleton, R. D. (2011), Perfecting Parliament: Constitutional Reform, Liberalism, and the Rise of Western Democracy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Coppedge, M., Lindberg, S., Skaaning, S.-E. and Teorell, J. (2016), ‘Measuring High Level Democratic Principles Using the V-Dem Data’, International Political Science Review, 37(5): 580–593.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couyoumdjian, J. P. (2012), ‘Are Institutional Transplants Viable? An Examination in Light of the Proposals by Jeremy Bentham’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 8(4): 489–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Couyoumdjian, J. P. and Larroulet, C. (2018), ‘Ideas, Leaders, and Institutions in 19th-Century Chile’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(5): 925–947.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Derpanopoulos, G., Frantz, E., Geddes, B. and Wright, J. (2016), ‘Are Coups Good for Democracy?’, Research and Politics, 3(1): 1–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diop, P. M. (1997), ‘L’éducation de la Jeune Fille Indigène en AOF (Afrique Occidentale Française) de 1903 à 1958’, in Becker, C., Mbaye, S., and Thioub, I. (eds.), AOF: Realités et Héritages. Sociétés Oust-Africaines et Ordre Colonial, 1895–1960. Dakar: Directions des Archives du Sénégal.Google Scholar
Elections Office (2020), A History of Elections in the Cayman Islands. Elections Office Cayman Islands, available at https://portal.elections.ky/index.php/publication/history-of-elections-in-the-cayman-islands (accessed November 2020).Google Scholar
Encyclopedia Britannica (2020), Encyclopedia Britannica, Available at http://www.britannica.com/ (accessed November 2020).Google Scholar
Fails, M. D. and Krieckhaus, J. (2010), ‘Colonialism, Property Rights and the Modern World Income Distribution’, British Journal of Political Science, 40(3): 487–508.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferejohn, J. (1986), ‘Incumbent Performance and Electoral Control’, Public Choice, 50(1): 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Glaeser, E. L., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2004), ‘Do Institutions Cause Growth?’, Journal of Economic Growth, 9(3): 271–303.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gonidec, P-F. (1997), ‘L'AOF, Amorce D'un état Federal?’, in Becker, C., Mbaye, S., and Thioub, I. (eds.), AOF: Realités et Héritages. Sociétés Oust-Africaines et Ordre Colonial, 1895–1960, Dakar: Directions des Archives du Sénégal.Google Scholar
Guardado, J. (2018), ‘Office-selling, Corruption, and Long-Term Development in Peru’, American Political Science Review, 112(4): 971–995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gutmann, J. and Voigt, S. (2020), ‘Traditional Law in Times of the Nation State: Why is it so Prevalent?’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 16(4): 445–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hariri, J. G. (2012), ‘The Autocratic Legacy of Early Statehood’, American Political Science Review, 106(3): 471–494.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houngnikpo, M. C. and Decalo, S. (2013), Historical Dictionary of Benin, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press.Google Scholar
Ketterer, T. D. and Rodríguez-Pose, A. (2018), ‘Institutions vs. “First-Nature” Geography: What Drives Economic Growth in Europe's Regions?’, Papers in Regional Science, 97(S1): S25–S62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2008), ‘The Economic Consequences of Legal Origins’, Journal of Economic Literature, 46(2): 285–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, A. and Paine, J. (2019), ‘What were the Consequences of Decolonization?’, International Studies Quarterly, 63(2): 406–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Le Vine, V. T. (1968), ‘Political Elite Recruitment and Political Structure in French-Speaking Africa’, Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 8(31): 369–389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, S. M. (1959), ‘Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy’, American Political Science Review, 53(1): 69–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maseland, R. (2018), ‘Is Colonialism History? The Declining Impact of Colonial Legacies on African Institutional and Economic Development’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(S2): 259–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maseland, R. (2021), ‘Contingent Determinants’, Journal of Development Economics, 151(C): art. 102654.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newton, A. P., Benians, E. A. and Walker, E. A. (1963), The Cambridge History of the British Empire, vol. 8: South Africa, Rhodesia and the Protectorates, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Olsson, O. (2004), ‘Unbundling ex-colonies: A comment on Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson, 2001’, University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics Working Paper No. 146.Google Scholar
Olsson, O. (2009), ‘On the Democratic Legacy of Colonialism’, Journal of Comparative Economics, 37(4): 534–551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paine, J. (2019), ‘Redistributive Political Transitions: Minority Rule and Liberation Wars in Colonial Africa’, Journal of Politics, 81(2): 505–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paldam, M. and Gundlach, E. (2018), ‘Jumps Into Democracy: Integrating the Short and the Long Run in the Democratic Transition’, Kyklos, 71(3): 456–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parker, F. (1959), ‘Education of Africans in Southern Rhodesia’, Comparative Education Review, 3(2): 27–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlik, J. B. and Young, A. T. (2020), ‘Medieval European Traditions in Representation and State Capacity Today’, Economics of Governance, 21(2): 133–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pavlik, J. B. and Young, A. T. (2021), ‘The Legacy of Representation in Medieval Europe for Incomes and Institutions Today’, Southern Economic Journal, 88(1): 414–448.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, A. (1991), Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America, New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidler, V. (2014), ‘When do Institutional Transfers Work? The Relation Between Institutions, Culture and the Transplant Effect: The Case of Borno in North-Eastern Nigeria’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10(3): 371–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Seidler, V. (2018), ‘Copying Informal Institutions: The Role of British Colonial Officers During the Decolonization of British Africa’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 14(2): 289–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statesman's Yearbook (1950–1954), Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year, London: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Treisman, D. (2020), ‘Democracy by Mistake: How the Errors of Autocrats Trigger Transitions to Freer Government’, American Political Science Review, 114(3): 792–810.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigt, S. (2020), Constitutional Economics: A Primer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Whittlesey, D. (1937), ‘British and French Colonial Technique in West Africa’, Foreign Affairs, 15(2): 362–373.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zakaria, F. (1997), ‘The Rise of Illiberal Democracy’, Foreign Affairs, 76(6): 22–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar