Colonial Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship

• In Event: The Deep History of States

Abstract

• In this book, we provide a new theory and empirical evidence on two core questions. First, why did colonies vary in their experiences under Western rule? Second, did the colonial period matter for subsequent regime trajectories? By expanding the historical focus and taking a more encompassing view of colonial-era variables, we demonstrate that the period of Western colonial rule is foundational for explaining democracy and dictatorship. We cannot understand contemporary electoral institutions without explaining the processes that created and sustained representative institutions under colonial rule, and maintained them afterwards. We take a broad historical and comparative focus by analyzing a global sample of Western European colonies over the entire period of European overseas rule. We highlight some, albeit historically rare, conditions under which external rule promoted democracy. To explain variation in colonial representation, we develop a theory of democratic reform that incorporates unique aspects of the colonial context. We consider a strategic interaction among three sets of colonial actors: metropolitan officials; white settlers; and colonists of color, which includes native inhabitants and forcibly migrated groups. First, metropolitan political institutions shaped the calculus of colonial officials and engendered a non-democratic ceiling effect. Second, the pro-democratic impulse of white settlers established representative institutions for themselves, if their metropole had parliamentary constraints. Third, colonizers would allow non-white colonists to contest for political power only if confident of their loyalty, or if they believed an anti-colonial revolt was imminent and would receive global support.

Authors

• Alexander Lee, University of Rochester

• Jack Paine, Emory University