impact of vote-buying on growth. We consider a model with a poverty trap where redistribution can promote growth. We show … that vote-buying contributes to the persistence of poverty as taxed wealthy people buy votes from poor people. We then show … that there exists a democratic constitution that breaks vote buying and promotes growth. Such a constitution involves …

constitution-making, which is nearly universally used, lacks a clear theoretical justification. Qualified majority rules increase … constitution-making processes in Poland, Bolivia and Egypt, which are three examples of diverging majority rules …