The Political Economy of Collective Action, Inequality, and Development PDF
Preview The Political Economy of Collective Action, Inequality, and Development
The PoliTic al economy of collec Tive ac Tion, inequaliT y, and de veloPmenT This page intentionally left blank T h e P o l iT i c a l e co n o m y o f co l l e c Ti v e a c Ti o n , i n e q u a l i T y, a n d d e v e l o P m e n T William d. ferguson Stanford university Press Stanford, california Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any infor- mation storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States of America on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Ferguson, William D., author. Title: The political economy of collective action, inequality, and development / William D. Ferguson. Description: Stanford, California : Stanford University Press, [2020] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019049300 (print) | LCCN 2019049301 (ebook) | ISBN 9781503604612 (cloth) | ISBN 9781503611979 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Equality—Economic aspects. | Economic development. | Political development. Classification: LCC HM821 .F47 2020 (print) | LCC HM821 (ebook) | DDC 320.01/1—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049300 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049301 Cover image: iStock Cover design: Rob Ehle Typeset by Newgen in 10/14 Minion Regular dedicated to my wife, claudia Beckwith; my children, caitlin and Taylor Beckwith-ferguson; and to the memory of my parents, audrey i. and allen R. ferguson. This page intentionally left blank contents Preface: Sapiens and Neanderthals ix Acknowledgments xi introduction: Toward a framework for development Theory 1 PaRT i: foundations 1 collective-action Problems and institutional Systems 13 2 economic development, Political development, and inequality 43 PaRT ii: five Key developmental hypotheses and associated collective-action Problems 3 Public Goods, externalities, and collective-action Problems of Governance 85 4 economic foundations of unequal development 113 5 Power, Social conflict, institutional formation, and credible commitment 134 6 Policy innovations can Relax Political constraints 169 viii contents PaRT iii: Typologies and a new framework for development Theory 7 alternative Typologies of Social orders and Political Settlements 211 8 how context influences development 234 9 Business-State interactions 262 conclusion: a conceptual framework for development Theory 287 Appendixes 297 Notes 341 References 373 Index 397 Preface Sapiens and Neanderthals Thanks to their ability to invent fiction, Sapiens create more and more complex games, which each generation develops and elaborates even further. —Yuval Noah Harari, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015) According to historian Yuval Noah Harari (2015), from about 70,000 to 30,000 years ago, Homo sapiens vied with Homo neanderthalensis for dom- inance in areas of Europe and the Middle East. The Neanderthals were larger, stronger, better adapted to cold climates, and had larger brains. They also used tools and knew how to care for their sick. Neanderthals could dominate in one-on-one combat. Yet, Sapiens ultimately prevailed. Indeed, they exter- minated the Neanderthals. Sapiens triumphed because they had developed collaborative cognitive abilities that Neanderthals simply lacked. Specifically, Sapiens developed the ability to tell stories, not just about lions in bushes, but also about each other—that is, to gossip. This capability permitted forms of cooperation that Neanderthals could not achieve; it fostered organizing coop- erative activity among individuals, resolving some collective-action problems. Concurrently, Sapiens developed the ability to talk about things not present, “things they have never seen, touched, or smelled. . . . Only Homo sapiens can speak about things that don’t really exist, and believe six impossible things before breakfast” (Ibid., 24). Sapiens learned to share legends, myths, gods, and other abstract concepts (relevant later on) like nationhood. They shared stories that could forge common purpose, identity, and ideologies: “Fiction has enabled us to not merely imagine things, but to do so collectively” (Ibid., 25; emphasis in original). Collective storytelling facilitated rapid social ad- aptation to changing environments. To alter group behavior, Sapiens could change shared stories—a process much faster than genetic evolution. This ix
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