study the self-perpetuation of political elites. We find that legislators who enjoy longer tenures are significantly more … is causal: a longer period in power increases the chance that a person may start (or continue) a political dynasty …. Therefore, dynastic political power is self-perpetuating in that a positive exogenous shock to a person's political power has …

D Our analyses of congressional voting confirm the existence of this non-party elite coalition. While these elites lost … retroactively by 50 percent. A group of New England and Midwestern elites opposed the Salary Grab, along with congressional franking …

favors to specific individuals, groups, or localities. This fundamentally inegalitarian system provided political elites with …

nondemocracy to democracy, alters the distribution of de jure political power, but the elite can intensify their investments in de … we refer to as invariance. When the model is enriched to allow for limits on the exercise of de facto power by the elite …We construct a model of simultaneous change and persistence in institutions. The model consists of landowning elites …

society consists of rich and poor individuals. The rich are initially in power, but expect to transition to democracy, which … rents for bureaucrats than would an efficient state structure. When the poor come to power in democracy, they will reform …

) and civil society (representing non-elite citizens), where both players can invest to increase their power. The model …. We develop a dynamic contest model of the potential competition between state (controlled by a ruler or a group of elites …

We demonstrate that personal connections amongst politicians have a significant impact on the voting behavior of U ….S. politicians. Networks based on alumni connections between politicians, as well as common seat locations on the chamber floor, are …