Michael Albertus > Quotes

“Over the past few decades, advances in mathematical modeling and state-of-the-art statistical techniques have allowed scholars to examine the differences between democracy and dictatorship more carefully and systematically than ever before. The first generation of work using these tools seemed to corroborate the basic intuition that democracy is of the people, enacted by the people – and, crucially, for the people – in opposition to tyranny by one man or oligarchy by the few. But cracks have begun to emerge in the consensus that democracies are actually forged by the people and that their policies are intended to benefit the people”
― Michael Albertus, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy

“A more modern literature formalizes the notion that political equality equals economic equality.”
― Michael Albertus, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy

“A more modern literature formalizes the notion that political equality equals economic equality. This literature builds from the well-established finding that political parties have a tendency to coalesce around the median, or representative, voter in their policy platforms. Because the distribution of pre-tax and transfer income is inevitably unequal throughout the world, this puts class conflict waged between the rich and poor at the center of political life. That means that under democracy there will be redistribution between social classes: the rich will pay higher taxes than the poor and the poor will receive transfers that will narrow the gap between them and the rich (Meltzer and Richard 1981).”
― Michael Albertus, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy

“democracy distributes power more evenly than its alternatives, and almost always enables the poor to soak the rich.”
― Michael Albertus, Authoritarianism and the Elite Origins of Democracy