Mancur Olson: Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development
Why do people allow others to rule over them despite constantly disagreeing with political agendas? Is being an American, a Canadian, a New Zealand Kiwi more or less important than a South African? Are American politicians, corrupt as they may be, actually guided by the invisible hand to guard my best interests because that in turn guards theres?
These are questions that Olson attempts to answer in his Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development article. Many things are implied or assumed that the reader will understand, and it would be to a reader’s advantage to examine the document closely and read it twice. While reading, ask yourself: “What has to be true for this to be possible?”.
The article explains the difference between roving bandits and stationary bandits. Before there were stationary bandits (dictators, presidents) there were roving bandits that would pillage communities and take from them what they wanted. The roving bandits eventually had a revelation and understood that they could get more from communities if they resided over them continuously and looked out after their well being and protected them. This so called monopolization of force enabled the stationary bandit to extract more money from these communities because the people had an incentive to work. The citizens knew that the bandit would protect them from other bandits.
I urge any student of politics or anybody interested in what is responsible for our current state to inspect the document.
Here is a link to the PDF for your inspection:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0003-0554(199309)87:3%3C567:DDAD%3E2.0.CO;2-H