Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-p566r Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T11:35:04.632Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Feudalism, Collaboration and Path Dependence in England’s Political Development

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Abstract

This article presents a formal model of path dependence inspired by England’s history. The introduction of feudalism after the Norman Conquest – the critical juncture – created a large elite that rebelled frequently. The king fought these revolts with the help of collaborators he recruited from the masses. In compensation, he made these collaborators members of the elite. This was a cost-effective form of compensation: rents were only partly rival, and so new elite members only partially diluted the rents received by the king. The dilution from adding new members decreased as the elite grew in size, generating positive feedback and path dependence. This mechanism can account for the extension of rights in England in the early stages of its journey towards democracy.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Department of Political Economy, King’s College London (email: gabriel.leon@kcl.ac.uk). I am grateful to Toke Aidt, Ben Dilks and Anja Shortland for their very helpful comments. Online appendices are available at https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123417000825.

References

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2000a. Political Economy, Governance, and Development: Political Losers as a Barrier to Economic Development. American Economic Review 90 (2):126130.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2000b. Why Did the West Extend the Franchise? Democracy, Inequality, and Growth in Historical Perspective. Quarterly Journal of Economics 115:11671199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2001. A Theory of Political Transitions. American Economic Review 91 (4):938963.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2012. Why Nations Fail: the Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. London: Profile Books Ltd.Google Scholar
Acharya, Avidit, and Lee, Alexander. 2016. Path Dependence in European Development: Medieval Politics, Conflict and State Building. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Aidt, Toke S., and Franck, Raphael. 2015. Democratization Under the Threat of Revolution: Evidence from the Great Reform Act of 1832. Econometrica 83 (2):505547.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angelucci, Charles, Meraglia, Simone, and Voigtländer, Nico. 2017. The Medieval Roots of Inclusive Institutions: From the Norman Conquest to the Great Reform Act. Unpublished.Google Scholar
Barlow, Frank. 1999. The Feudal Kingdom of England, 1042–1216. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
Barrow, Geoffrey W. S. 1956. Feudal Britain: The Completion of the Medieval Kingdoms, 1066–1314. London: Edward Arnold Publishers.Google Scholar
Bates, David. 1982. Normandy before 1066. Essex: Longman Group Limited.Google Scholar
Blaydes, Lisa, and Chaney, Eric. 2013. The Feudal Revolution and Europe’s Rise: Political Divergence of the Christian West and the Muslim World Before 1500 CE. American Political Science Review 107 (1):1634.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2015. Political Order and Inequality: Their Foundations and their Consequences for Human Welfare. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooke, Christopher. 1961. From Alfred to Henry III: 8711272. New York: The Norton Library.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, and Smith, Alastair. 2009. Political Survival and Endogenous Institutional Change. Comparative Political Studies 42 (2):167197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Bruce, Smith, Alastair, Siverson, Randolph M., and Morrow, James D.. 2003. The Logic of Political Survival. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, David. 2004. The Struggle for Mastery. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1999. Paths toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Congleton, Roger. 2011. Perfecting Parliament: Constitutional Reform, Liberalism, and the Rise of Western Democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Downing, Brian M. 1989. Medieval Origins of Constitutional Government in the West. Theory and Society 18 (2):213247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyer, Christopher. 2002. Making a Living in the Middle Ages: the People of Britain, 850–1520. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ertman, Thomas. 1997. Birth of the Leviathan: Building States and Regimes in Medieval and Early Modern Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, Oded, and Moav, Omer. 2006. Das Human-Kapital: A Theory of the Demise of the Class Structure. Review of Economic Studies 73 (1):85117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galor, Oded, Moav, Omer, and Vollrath, Dietrich. 2009. Inequality in Landownership, the Emergence of Human-Capital Promoting Institutions, and the Great Divergence. Review of Economic Studies 76 (1):143179.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Haskins, Charles H. 1909. Normandy under William the Conqueror. The American Historical Review 14 (3):453476.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollister, C. Warren. 1965. The Military Organization of Norman England. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hollister, C. Warren. 2003. Henry I. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Howard, Michael. 1976. War in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Huber, Evelyne, Rueschmeyer, Dietrich, and Stephens, John D.. 1993. The Impact of Economic Development on Democracy. Journal of Economic Perspectives 7 (3):7185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jack, William, and Lagunoff, Roger. 2006. Dynamic Enfranchisement. Journal of Public Economics 90:551572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O., and Verba, Sidney. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Larson, Laurence M. 1910. The Political Policies of Cnut as King of England. The American Historical Review 15 (4):720743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lizzeri, Alessandro, and Persico, Nicola. 2004. Why Did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Scope of Government, with an Application to Britain’s Age of Reform. Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (2):707765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lorenzen, Peter, Fravel, M Taylor, and Paine, Jack. 2017. Qualitative Investigation of Theoretical Models: The Value of Process Tracing. Journal of Theoretical Politics 29 (3):467491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MooreJr., Barrington Jr., Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Newman, Charlotte A. 1988. The Anglo-Norman Nobility in the Reign of Henry I: The Second Generation. Philadelphia, PA: University of Philadelphia Press.Google Scholar
North, Douglass C., Wallis, John Joseph, and Weingast, Barry R.. 2009. Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Page, Scott E. 2006. Path dependence. Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1 (1):87115.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peltzer, Jorg. 2004. Henry II and the Norman Bishops. The English Historical Review 119 (484):12021229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2000. Increasing returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics. American Political Science Review 94 (2):251267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2004. Politics in Time: History, Institutions, and Social Analysis. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Stephens, Evelyne Huber, and Stephens, John D.. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, Hannis. 1889. The Origin and Growth of the English Constitution: An Historical Treatise. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle/Rivington.Google Scholar
Voigtländer, Nico, and Voth, Hans-Joachim. 2013a. How the West ‘Invented’ Fertility Restriction. American Economic Review 103 (6):22272264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Voigtländer, Nico, and Voth, Hans-Joachim. 2013b. The Three Horsemen of Riches: Plague, War, and Urbanization in Early Modern Europe. Review of Economic Studies 80:774811.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Leon supplementary material

Appendix

Download Leon supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 1.3 MB