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SUMMARY:Sir Richard Stone Annual Lecture: The Emergence of Weak\, Despotic
  and Inclusive States - Professor James Robinson\, University of Chicago
DTSTART:20180503T160000Z
DTEND:20180503T173000Z
UID:TALK80251@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dawn Bradley
DESCRIPTION:Societies under similar geographic and economic conditions and
  subject to similar external influences nonetheless develop very different
  types of states. At one extreme are weak states with little capacity and 
 ability to regulate economic or social relations. At the other are despoti
 c states which dominate civil society. Yet there are others which are lock
 ed into an ongoing competition with civil society and it is these\, not th
 e despotic ones\, that develop the greatest capacity. We develop a dynamic
  contest model of the potential competition between state (controlled by a
  ruler or a group of elites) and civil society (representing non-elite cit
 izens)\, where both players can invest to increase their power. The model 
 leads to different types of steady states depending on initial conditions.
  One type of steady state\, corresponding to a weak state\, emerges when c
 ivil society is strong relative to the state (e.g.\, having developed soci
 al norms limiting political hierarchy). Another type of steady state\, cor
 responding to a despotic state\, originates from initial conditions where 
 the state is powerful and civil society is weak. A third type of steady st
 ate\, which we refer to as an inclusive state\, emerges when state and civ
 il society are more evenly matched. In this case\, each party has greater 
 incentives to invest to keep up with the other\, and this leads to the mos
 t powerful and capable type of state\, while simultaneously incentivizing 
 civil society to be equally powerful as well. Our framework highlights tha
 t comparative statics with respect to structural factors such as geography
 \, economic conditions or external threats\, are conditional — in the se
 nse that depending on initial conditions they can shift a society into or 
 out of the basin of attraction of the inclusive state.
LOCATION:LG18\, Law Faculty
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