Skip to main content
Log in

Inclusiveness, Growth, and Political Support

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Eastern Economic Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper links political support to economic growth. Governments gain support from wealth creation and income redistribution, and the quest for support links differences in economic systems to differences in political systems; inefficiencies persist when they raise support. Depending on how a government obtains it, the quest for support can either lower efficiency and raise the consumption cost of growth or lead to inclusiveness, efficiency, and sustainable growth, a kind of ‘political invisible hand.’ If they do not already exist, however, the incentive to adopt the institutions needed to make this invisible hand work well is likely to be low.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Acemoglu, Daron, Suresh Naidu, Pascual Restropo, and James A. Robinson. 2019. Democracy Does Cause Growth. Journal of Political Economy 127 (1): 47–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2001. Inefficient Redistribution. American Political Science Review 95 (3): 649–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Acemoglu, Daron, and James A. Robinson. 2012. Why Nations Fail. New York: Crown Business.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aghion, Philippe, Heike Harmgart, and Natalia Weisshaar. 2008. Fostering Growth in Transition Economies. Ch. 3 of EBRD. Transition Report 2008: Growth in Transition. London: EBRD.

  • Anderson, Gary M., and Peter J. Boettke. 1997. Soviet Venality: A Rent-Seeking Model of the Communist State. Public Choice 93 (1–2): 37–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • APO (Asian Productivity Organization). 2015, 2017. APO Productivity Databook 2015, 2017. Tokyo: Keio U. Press.

  • Aslund, Anders. 2002. Building Capitalism: The Transformation of the Former Soviet Bloc. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baker, Dean. 2015. The Upward Redistribution of Income: Are Rents the Story? Center for Economic and Policy Research, Working Paper.

  • Bleaney, Michael. 1991. Economic Growth in the Soviet Union, 1950–1986. Economics of Planning 24 (January): 121–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beason, Dick, and Dennis Patterson. 2004. The Japan that Never Was: Explaining the Rise and Fall of a Misunderstood Country. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Callis, Robert and Melissa Kresin. 2014. Residential Vacancies and Homeownership in the Third Quarter 2014. U.S. Census Bureau News, CB 14-187, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC (Oct. 28), p. 5.

  • Callis, Robert and Melissa Kresin. 2015. Residential Vacancies and Homeownership in the Fourth Quarter 2014. U.S. Census Bureau News, CB 15-08, U.S. Dept. of Commerce, Washington, DC (Jan. 29), p. 1.

  • Chang, Eric C.C., Miriam A. Golden, and Seth J. Hill. 2010. Legislative Malfeasance and Political Accountability. World Politics 62 (2): 177–220.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Del Rosal, Ignacio. 2011. The Empirical Measurement of Rent-Seeking Costs. Journal of Economic Surveys 25 (2): 298–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Easterly, William, and Stanley Fischer. 1995. The Soviet Economic Decline. World Bank Economic Review 9 (3): 341–371.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freeland, Chrystia. 2012. Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else. New York: Penguin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayek, Friedrich A. 1945. Use of Knowledge in Society. American Economic Review 35 (4): 519–530.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hsieh, Chang-Tai. 2002. What Explains the Industrial Revolution in East Asia? Evidence from the Factor Markets. American Economic Review 92 (3): 502–526.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Karabarbounis, Loukas, and Brent Neiman. 2014. The Global Decline of the Labor Share. Quarterly Journal of Economics 129 (1): 61–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krugman, Paul. 2009. The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lizzeri, Alessandro, and Nicola Persico. 2001. The Provision of Public Goods under Alternative Electoral Incentives. American Economic Review 91 (1): 225–255.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lowry, Annie. 2012. French Duo See (Well) Past Tax Rise for Richest. New York Times (April 17), p. A1.

  • Mian, Atif, Amir Sufi, and Emil Verner. 2017. Household Debt and Business Cycles Worldwide. Quarterly Journal of Economics 132 (4): 1755–1817.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ofer, Gur. 2008. Soviet Growth Record. In The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics, 2nd ed, ed. Steven N. Durlauf and Lawrence E. Blume. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parente, Stephen L. and Edward C. Prescott. 2004. A Unified Theory of the Evolution of International Income Levels. Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 333 (March).

  • Rodrik, Dani. 2014. Rethinking Democracy. Prague: Project Syndicate.

    Google Scholar 

  • Saez, Emmanuel. 2014. Income and Wealth Inequality: Evidence and Policy Implications. Neubauer Collegium Lecture, University of Chicago. Online at emi.berkely.edu/~saez/lecture_saez_chicago14.pdf.

  • Salinas-Jimenez, Maria del Mar, and Javier Salinas-Jimenez. 2011. Corruption and Total Factor Productivity: Level or Growth Effects? Portuguese Economic Journal. 10 (2): 109–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sanchez, Juan M. and Emircan Yurdagul. 2014. A Look at Japan’s Slowdown and its Turnaround Plan. The Regional Economist, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (January).

  • Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1950. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, Adam. 1976. An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Campbell, R.H., A.S. Skinner, and W.B. Todd, eds., Oxford: Clarendon Press.

  • Svolik, Milan W. 2012. The Politics of Authoritarian Rule. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Office of Productivity and Technology. 2008. Comparative Real Gross Domestic Product Per Capita and Per Employed Person: 16 Countries, 1960–2007. Washington, D.C. (July 7).

  • van Ark, Bart, Mary O’Mahoney, and Marcel P. Timmer. 2008. The Productivity Gap Between Europe and the United States: Trends and Causes. Journal of Economic Perspectives 22 (1): 25–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weitzman, Martin. 1970. Soviet Postwar Economic Growth and Capital-Labor Substitution. American Economic Review 60 (4): 676–692.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zakaria, Fareed. 1997. The Rise of Illiberal Democracy. Foreign Affairs 76 (6): 22–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Richard Carson.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Carson, R. Inclusiveness, Growth, and Political Support. Eastern Econ J 46, 557–575 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-020-00171-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41302-020-00171-7

Keywords

JEL Classification

Navigation