Why is There no Revolution in North Korea? The Political Economy of Revolutions Revisited
Abstract
The paper critically assesses the Acemoglu-Robinson approach to revolutions, as it is focused on inequality of wealth or income rather than on collective-action problems. We show that income inequality is not a sufficient and not even a necessary condition for a revolution to occur. Rather, a necessary condition for a revolution is that any subpopulation can expect net benefits from it, for which inequality is not a precondition. As a result, a certain structure of commitment devices or their absence rather than inequality is crucial for explaining why revolutions sometimes occur and sometimes not.
Keywords
credible commitments; dictatorship; political economy; redistribution
Cite as
Apolte, T. (2012). Why is There no Revolution in North Korea? The Political Economy of Revolutions Revisited. Public Choice, 150, 561–578.Details
Publication type
Research article (journal)
Peer reviewed
Yes
Publication status
Published
Year
2012
Journal
Public Choice
Volume
150
Start page
561
End page
578
Language
English
ISSN
0048-5829
DOI