Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-04T23:42:44.156Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of the Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Barry R. Weingast
Barry R. Weingast*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper develops a game-theoretic approach to the problem of political officials' respect for political and economic rights of citizens. It models the policing of rights as a coordination problem among citizens, but one with asymmetries difficult to resolve in a decentralized manner. The paper shows that democratic stability depends on a self-enforcing equilibrium: It must be in the interests of political officials to respect democracy's limits on their behavior. The concept of self-enforcing limits on the state illuminates a diverse set of problems and thus serves as a potential basis for integrating the literature. The framework is applied to a range of topics, such as democratic stability, plural societies, and elite pacts. The paper also applies its lessons to the case of the Glorious Revolution in seventeenth-century England.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 91 , Issue 2 , June 1997 , pp. 245 - 263
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1997

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

Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney. [1963] 1989. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Ames, Barry. 1987. Political Survival. Berkeley: University California Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origins and Spread of Nationalism. Rev. ed. London: Verso.Google Scholar
Baloyra, Enrique A. 1986. “Public Opinion and Support for the Regime: 1973–83.” In Venezuela: The Democratic Experience, Martz, John D. and Myers, David J.. Rev. ed. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Barry, Brian. 1970. Economists, Sociologists, and Democracy. London: Collier-Macmillan.Google Scholar
Bates, Robert H. 1983. “Modernization, Ethnic Competition, and the Rationality of Politics in Contemporary Africa.” In State versus Ethnic Claims: African Policy Dilemmas, ed. Rothchild, Donald and Olorunsola, Victor A.. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Burton, Michael, Gunther, Richard, and Higley, John. 1992. “Introduction: elite transformations and democratic regimes.” In Elites and Democratic Consolidation in Latin America and Southern Europe, ed. Higley, John and Gunther, Richard. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Calvert, Randall L. 1995. “Rational Actors. Equilibrium, and Social Institutions.” In Explaining Social Institutions, ed. Night, Jack and Sened, Itai. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1966. Political Oppositions. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 1994a. “Toward Democratic Consolidation.” Journal of Democracy 5 (1994):3–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 1994b. “Introduction: Political Culture and Democracy.” In Political Culture and Democracy in Developing Countries, ed. Diamond, Larry. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.Google Scholar
Diamond, Larry. 1996. “Is the Third Wave Over?” Journal of Democracy 7 (07):20–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, et al. 1994. The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments. Washington, DC: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Fearon, James, and Laitin, David. 1996. “Explaining Interethnic Cooperation.” American Political Science Review 90 (December): 715–35.Google Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence. 1984. American Law. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Fudenberg, Drew, and Maskin, Eric. 1986. “Folk Theorems in Repeated Games with Discounting and Incomplete Information.” Econometrica 54 (05):553–4.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1983. Nations and Nationalism. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Gibbons, Robert, and Rutten, Andrew. 1996. “Hierarchical Dilemmas.” Cornell University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Greif, Avner. 1994. “Cultural Beliefs and the Organization of Society: A Historical and Theoretical Reflection on Collectivist and Individualist Societies.” Journal of Political Economy 102 (10):912–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert R.. 1995. The Political Economy of Democratic Transitions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hand, Learned. 1952. The Spirit of Liberty. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Hardin, Russell. 1989. “Why a Constitution?” In The Federalist Papers and the New Institutionalism, ed. Grofman, Bernard and Wittman, Donald. New York: Agathon Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald. 1985. Ethnic Groups in Conflict. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Horowitz, Donald L. 1991. A Democratic South Africa: Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, Samuel. 1968. Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jones, J. R. 1972. The Revolution of 1688 in England. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1986. “Petroleum and Political Pacts: The Transition to Democracy in Venezuela.” In Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Latin America, ed. O'Donnell, Guillermo, Schmitter, Philippe C., and Whitehead, Laurence. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1990. “Dilemmas of Democratization in Latin America.” Comparative Politics 23 (10): 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Karl, Terry Lynn. 1994. “Central America in the Twenty-First Century: Prospects for a Democratic Region.” Stanford University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Key, V. O. Jr. 1961. Public Opinion and American Democracy. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1988. “Language Games.” Comparative Politics 20 (04):289–302.Google Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1992. Language Repertoires and State Construction in Africa. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Laitin, David D. 1994. “The Tower of Babel as a Coordination Game: Political Linguistics in Ghana.” American Political Science Review 88 (09):622–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1968. The Politics of Accommodation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1980. “The Structure of Inference.” In The Civil Culture Revisited, ed. Almond, Gabriel A. and Verba, Sidney. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Lijphart, Arend. 1984. Democracies: Patterns of Majoritarian and Consensus Government in Twenty-One Countries. New Haven: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1960. Political Man. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour Martin. 1963. The First New Nation: The United States in Historical and Comparative Perspective. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Loveman, Brian. 1993. The Constitution of Tyranny: Regimes of Exception in Spanish America. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Matsuyama, Kiminori. N.d. “Economic Development as a Coordination Problem.” In The Role of Government in East Asian Economies: Comparative Institutional Analysis, ed. Aoki, Masahiko, Okuno-Fujihara, Masahiro, and Kim, Hyung-ki. New York: Oxford University Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Meinig, D. W. 1993. The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History. Volume 2: Continental America, 1800–1867. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Milgrom, Paul, and Roberts, John. 1992. Economics, Organization, and Management. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Miller, John. 1992. “Crown, Parliament, and People.” In Liberty Secured? ed. Jones, J. R.. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Boston: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Moore, Glover. 1953. The Missouri Controversy: 1819–1821. Lexington: University of Kentucky Press.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1981. Structure and Change in Economic History. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C. 1993. “Institutions and Credible Commitment.” Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics 149 (03): 11–23.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1989. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-century England.” Journal of Economic History 44 (12):803–32.Google Scholar
O'Donnell, Guillermo, and Schmitter, Philippe C.. 1986. Transitions from Authoritarian Rule: Tentative Conclusions about Uncertain Democracies. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Ordeshook, Peter. 1992. “Constitutional Stability.” Constitutional Political Economy 3 (Spring/Summer):137.Google Scholar
Potter, David M. 1976. The Impending Crisis: 1848–1861. New York: Harper Torchbooks.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1995. “Democracy as an Equilibrium.” New York University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Rabushka, Alvin, and Shepsle, Kenneth A.. 1972. Politics in Plural Societies. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.Google Scholar
Remmer, Karen L. 1991. “The Political Impact of Economic Crisis in Latin America in the 1980s.” American Political Science Review 85 (09):777–800.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rustow, Dankwart A. 1970. “Transitions to Democracy.” Comparative Politics 2 (04):337–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitter, Philippe C. 1992. “Interests Systems and the Consolidation of Democracies.” In Reexamining Democracy: Essays in Honor of Seymour Martin Lipset, ed. Marks, Gary and Diamond, Larry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Schwoerer, Lois. 1981. The Declaration of Rights, 1689. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1991 [1918]. “The Crisis of the Tax State.” In Joseph A. Schumpeter, ed. Swedberg, Richard. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Shapiro, Ian. 1993. “Democratic Innovation: South Africa in Comparative Context.” Review article, World Politics 46 (1):121–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepan, Alfred. 1988. Rethinking Military Politics: Brazil and the Southern Cone. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Tsebelis, George. 1990. Nested Games: Rational Choice in Comparative Politics. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 1995. “The Economic Role of Political Institutions: Federalism, Markets, and Economic Development.” Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 11 (04):1–31.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 1997a. Institutions and Political Commitment: A New Political Economy of the American Civil War Era. Stanford University. Typescript.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. 1997b. “The Political Foundations of Limited Government: Parliament and Sovereign Debt in 17th and 18thcentury England.” In Frontiers of the New Institutional Economics, ed. Nye, John V. C. and Drobak, John N.. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Weingast, Barry R. N.d. “Constructing Trust: The Political and Economic Roots of Ethnic and Regional Violence.” In Where Is the New Institutionalism Now? ed. Haufler, Virginia, Soltan, Karol, and Uslaner, Eric. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. Forthcoming.Google Scholar
Williamson, Oliver. 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wood, Elisabeth Jean. 1995. “Agrarian Social Relations and Democratization: The Negotiated Resolution of the Civil War in El Salvador.” Ph.D. diss., Stanford University.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.