This paper seeks to provide an improved understanding of the origins of democracy. It begins by developing a … the magnitude of those time-inconsistency problems and, hence, the likelihood of democracy. A comparison of ancient Greek … city-states suggests that the conditions under which democracy first emerged support the model. Other potential …

, democracy. We apply the model to ancient Greece. Many of the famously democratic poleis (city-states) of Greece’s Classical …-growth political institution (the tyrant) that led in turn to increased wealth and, eventually, to democracy. These findings are … consistent with critical junctures theory – the institutional path determines both wealth and democracy …