Bertocchi, Graziella; Overland, Jody; Spagat, Michael - Department of Economics, Royal Holloway University of London - 1998
By promoting some of the poor into the middle class and thereby co-opting them into the system, a self-interested elite reduces the threat of political instability and the risk of being overthrown. Co-optation is accomplished through the transfer of resources to some of the poor, enabling them...
