Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP13031
Authors: Daron Acemoglu; James A. Robinson
Abstract: Societies under similar geographic and economic conditions and subject to similar external influencesnonetheless develop very different types of states. At one extreme are weak states with littlecapacity and ability to regulate economic or social relations. At the other are despotic states whichdominate civil society. Yet there are others which are locked into an ongoing competition with civilsociety and it is these, not the despotic ones, that develop the greatest capacity. We develop a modelof political competition between state (controlled by a ruler or a group of elites) and civil society(representing non-elite citizens), where both players can invest to increase their power. The modelleads to different types of steady states depending on initial conditions. One type of steady state,corresponding to a weak state, emerges when civil society is strong relative to the state (e.g., havingdeveloped social norms limiting political hierarchy). Another type of steady state, corresponding to adespotic state, originates from initial conditions where the state is powerful and civil society is weak.A third type of steady state, which we refer to as an inclusive state, emerges when state and civilsociety are more evenly matched. In this last case, each party has greater incentives to invest to keepup with the other, which undergirds the rise of high-capacity states and societies. Our frameworkhighlights that comparative statics with respect to structural factors such as geography, economicconditions or external threats, are conditional — in the sense that depending on initial conditionsthey can shift a society into or out of the basin of attraction of the inclusive state.
Keywords: Civil Society; Contest; Political Divergence; State Capacity; Weak States
JEL Codes: H4; H7; P16
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Civil Society Strength (L39) | Weak State (P16) |
| State Power (P26) | Despotic State (P16) |
| Civil Society Weakness (O17) | Despotic State (P16) |
| State and Civil Society Balance (P16) | Inclusive State (H19) |
| State and Civil Society Competition (P39) | State Capacity (H11) |