This paper investigates the role of violent civil conflicts during the process of democratization for the quality of … emerging democracies, and in particular, the protection of civil (political and economic) liberties. A simple theory in which … different groups may engage in violent conflict in order to become the ruler predicts a crucial role of the democratization …

We identify permanent democratic transitions during the Third Wave of Democratization and the nineties, when many … that democratization is more likely to emerge in affluent and especially educated societies. Economic development and …

Theory and empirics are ambiguous on the effect of democracy on growth. Cross-country studies find that democracy has … regime change and not democratization. We identify and examine 90 successful, failed, and gradual transitions that have … occurred over the last half century. This new classification permits us to compare successful episodes of democratization with …

individuals can get involved in predation activities. Decisions about public policies concern the extent of fiscal redistribution … evolution of the economy in which both the political regimes and public policies are endogenously determined. The theory … conditional on beliefs about property rights enforcement. Democratization is endogenous, but the features of democracies are shown …

probability of democratization by around 7 percentage points. We also find that rainfall does not affect transitions from …

redistributive taxation. In a formal model of redistribution with international migration and fiscal competition we derive the main …

in the population who interacts with a (richer) agenda setter in Congress in setting redistribution. While the setter … managed to cap redistribution in the pre-war period, the War itself pushed up the status-quo tax burden, raising the … bargaining power of the median voter as defense spending receded. This raised the equilibrium level of redistribution. The higher …