Why are some countries more democratic than others? For most non-European countries, elections began under Western colonial rule. However, existing research largely overlooks these democratic origins. Analyzing a global sample of colonies across four centuries, this book explains the emergence of colonial electoral institutions and their lasting impact. The degree of democracy in the metropole, the size of the white settler population, and pressure from non-Europeans all shaped the timing and form of colonial elections. White settlers and non-white middle classes educated in the colonizer's language usually gained early elections but settler minorities resisted subsequent franchise expansion. Authoritarian metropoles blocked elections entirely. Countries with lengthy exposure to competitive colonial institutions tended to consolidate democracies after independence. By contrast, countries with shorter electoral episodes usually shed democratic institutions and countries that were denied colonial elections consolidated stable dictatorships. Regime trajectories shaped by colonial rule persist to the present day.
Why are some countries more democratic than others? For most non-European countries, elections began under Western colonial rule. However, existing research largely overlooks these democratic origins. Analyzing a global sample of colonies across four centuries, this book explains the emergence of colonial electoral institutions and their lasting impact. The degree of democracy in the metropole, the size of the white settler population, and pressure from non-Europeans all shaped the timing and form of colonial elections. White settlers and non-white middle classes educated in the colonizer's language usually gained early elections but settler minorities resisted subsequent franchise expansion. Authoritarian metropoles blocked elections entirely. Countries with lengthy exposure to competitive colonial institutions tended to consolidate democracies after independence. By contrast, countries with shorter electoral episodes usually shed democratic institutions and countries that were denied colonial elections consolidated stable dictatorships. Regime trajectories shaped by colonial rule persist to the present day.
Über den Autor
Alexander Lee is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester. He earned his Ph.D. from Stanford and his BA from Yale. His research focuses on the factors governing the success or failure of political institutions, especially the historical evolution of state capacity, the political economy of South Asia and the causes and consequences of identity politics. He is the author of The Cartel System of States: An Economic Theory of International Politics ( 2022), From Hierarchy to Ethnicity: The Politics of Caste in Twentieth-Century India (2020) and Development in Multiple Dimensions: Social Power and Regional Policy in India (2019).
Inhaltsverzeichnis
1. Introduction; 2. A theory of colonial electoral institutions; 3. Representation in settler colonies through 1850; 4. Imperial expansion and restrictive elections: 1850-1945; 5. Mass franchise expansion after 1945; 6. Postcolonial persistence; 7. Conclusion; Appendix: data and regression; Bibliography.
