Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-8mjnm Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-17T23:30:11.777Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Collective Action and Representation in Autocracies: Evidence from Russia’s Great Reforms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2017

PAUL CASTAÑEDA DOWER*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison
EVGENY FINKEL*
Affiliation:
George Washington University
SCOTT GEHLBACH*
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin–Madison
STEVEN NAFZIGER*
Affiliation:
Williams College
*
Paul Castañeda Dower is an Assistant Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 427 Lorch Street, Madison, WI 53706 (pdower@wisc.edu).
Evgeny Finkel is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, George Washington University, 2115 G Street NW, Suite 419, Washington, DC 20052 (efinkel@gwu.edu).
Scott Gehlbach is a Professor of Political Science, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 110 North Hall, Madison, WI 53706 (gehlbach@polisci.wisc.edu).
Steven Nafziger is an Associate Professor of Economics, Williams College, 24 Hopkins Hall Drive, Williamstown, MA 01267 (snafzige@williams.edu).

Abstract

We explore the relationship between capacity for collective action and representation in autocracies with data from Imperial Russia. Our primary empirical exercise relates peasant representation in new institutions of local self-government to the frequency of peasant unrest in the decade prior to reform. To correct for measurement error in the unrest data and other sources of endogeneity, we exploit idiosyncratic variation in two determinants of peasant unrest: the historical incidence of serfdom and religious polarization. We find that peasants were granted less representation in districts with more frequent unrest in preceding years—a relationship consistent with the Acemoglu-Robinson model of political transitions and inconsistent with numerous other theories of institutional change. At the same time, we observe patterns of redistribution in subsequent years that are inconsistent with the commitment mechanism central to the Acemoglu-Robinson model. Building on these results, we discuss possible directions for future theoretical work.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Dower acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Grant No. 14.U04.31.0002. Gehlbach acknowledges the financial support of the Graduate School and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education at UW Madison. For helpful comments, we thank Ingo Rohlfing and three anonymous referees; Quarmul Ashraf, Onur Bakiner, Chris Carter, Jasper Cooper, Oeindrila Dube, Jon Eguia, Jeff Frieden, Calvin Garner, Gunes Gokmen, Steve Hoch, Dmitrii Kofanov, Andrei Markevich, David McDonald, Marc Meredith, Jack Paine, Bob Powell, John Reuter, Jim Robinson, Bryn Rosenfeld, Jason Seawright, Emily Sellars, Ken Shepsle, Anand Swamy, Georgiy Syunyaev, Henry Thomson, Christian Welzel, and Galina Zudenkova; participants in seminars at Columbia, Emory, Harvard, the Higher School of Economics, LSE, the New Economic School, Penn, Penn State, Rochester, the Ronald Coase Institute Workshop on Institutional Analysis in Tallinn, UC Berkeley, UC Irvine, Washington, Washington University, Williams, and Wisconsin; and participants in annual meetings of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Economic History Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the Society for Institutional and Organizational Economics.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2000. “Why did the West Extend the Franchise? Democracy, Inequality, and Growth in Historical Perspective.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 115 (4): 1167–99.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2001. “A Theory of Political Transitions.” American Economic Review 91 (4): 938–63.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Aidt, Toke S., and Franck, Raphäel. 2015. “Democratization under the Threat of Revolution: Evidence from the Great Reform Act of 1832.” Econometrica 83 (2): 505–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aidt, Toke S., and Jensen, Peter S., 2014. “Workers of the World, Unite! Franchise Extensions and the Threat of Revolution in Europe, 1820–938European Economic Review 72 (C): 5275.Google Scholar
Aidt, Toke S., and Leon, Gabriel. 2016. “The Democratic Window of Opportunity: Evidence from Riots in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 60 (4): 694717.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertus, Michael. 2015. Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Almond, Gabriel A., and Verba, Sidney. 1989. The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Alston, Lee J., Libecap, Gary D., and Mueller, Bernardo. 1999. Titles, Conflict, and Land Use: The Development of Property Rights and Land Reform on the Brazilian Amazon Frontier. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baum, Christopher, Schaffer, Mark E., and Stillman, Steven. 2007. “Enhanced Routines for Instrumental Variables/Generalized Method of Moments Estimation and Testing.” Stata Journal 7 (4): 465506.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellows, John, and Miguel, Edward. 2009. “War and Local Collective Action in Sierra Leone.” Journal of Public Economics 93 (11): 1144–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy, Persson, Torsten, and Reynal-Querol, Marta. 2016. “Resilient Leaders and Institutional Reform: Theory and Evidence.” Economica 83 (332): 584–623.Google Scholar
Blattman, Christopher. 2009. “From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda.” American Political Science Review 103 (2): 231–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Brady, Nyle C., and Weil, Ray R.. 2002. The Nature and Property of Soils. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Brückner, Markus, and Ciccone, Antonio. 2011. “Rain and the Democratic Window of Opportunity.” Econometrica 79 (3): 923–47.Google Scholar
Bueno de Mesquita, Ethan. 2010. “Regime Change and Revolutionary Entrepreneurs.” American Political Science Review 104 (3): 446–66.Google Scholar
Buggle, Johannes C., and Nafziger, Steven. 2016. “Long-Run Consequences of Labor Coercion: Evidence from Russian Serfdom.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Burke, Paul J., and Leigh, Andrew. 2010. “Do Output Contractions Trigger Democratic Change?American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics 2 (4): 124–57.Google Scholar
Bushen, Artur. 1863. Nalichnoe naselenie Rossii za 1858 god. St. Petersburg: Karl Vul’f.Google Scholar
Campante, Filipe R., and Do, Quoc-Anh. 2009. “A Centered Index of Spatial Concentration: Axiomatic Approach with an Application to Population and Capital Cities.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Chernozhukov, Victor, and Hansen, Christian. 2008. “The Reduced Form: A Simple Approach to Inference with Weak Instruments.Economics Letters 100: 6871.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, Ruth B. 1999. Paths toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Crews, Robert. 2003. “Empire and the Confessional State: Islam and Religious Politics in Nineteenth Century Russia.” American Historical Review 108 (1), 5083.Google Scholar
Dafoe, Allan, and Lyall, Jason. 2015. “Communication Technologies and Political Conflict: Insights from New Data, Designs, and Questions.” Journal of Peace Research 52 (3): 401–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, Sarah. 2012. “Organizational Legacies of Violence.” Journal of Peace Research 49 (3): 473–91.Google Scholar
Deal, Zack. 1981. Serf and State Peasant Agriculture: Khar’kov Province, 1842–1861. New York: Arno Press.Google Scholar
Dennison, Tracy K. 2011. The Institutional Framework of Russian Serfdom. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Domar, Evsey D. 1970. “The Causes of Slavery or Serfdom: A Hypothesis.” Journal of Economic History 30 (1): 1832.Google Scholar
Domar, Evsey D., and Machina, Mark J.. 1984. “On the Profitability of Russian Serfdom.” Journal of Economic History 44 (4): 919–55.Google Scholar
Dorsch, Michael T., Dunz, Karl, and Maarek, Paul. 2015. “Macro Shocks and Costly Political Action in Non-democracies.” Public Choice 162 (3): 381404.Google Scholar
Dorsch, Michael T., and Maarek, Paul. 2015. “Inefficient Predation and Political Transitions.” European Journal of Political Economy 37: 3748.Google Scholar
Druzhinin, N. M. 1946 and 1958. Gosudarstvennye krest’iane i reforma P. D. Kiseleva. Moscow: Akademiia nauk SSSR.Google Scholar
Easley, Roxanne. 2008. The Emancipation of the Serfs in Russia: Peace Arbitrators and the Development of Civil Society. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Eklof, Benjamin. 1988. “Kindertempel or Shack? The School Building in Late Imperial Russia.” Russian Review 47 (2): 561–84.Google Scholar
Engelstein, Laura. 2000.“The Dream of Civil Society in Tsarist Russia: Law, State and Religion.” In Civil Society Before Democracy: Lessons from Nineteenth-century Europe, eds. Bermeo, Nancy Gina and Nord, Philip G.. Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield, 2342.Google Scholar
Esteban, Joan-María, and Ray, Debraj. 1994. “On the Measurement of Polarization.” Econometrica 62 (4): 819–51.Google Scholar
Esteban, Joan-María, and Ray, Debraj. 2008. “On the Salience of Ethnic Conflict.” American Economic Review 98 (5): 2185–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fal’bork, G., and Charnoluskii, V., eds. 1900–1905. Nachal’noe narodnoe obrazovanie v Rossii. 4 vols. St. Petersburg: Imperatorskoe vol’noe ekonomicheskoe obshchestvo.Google Scholar
Fearon, James D., and Laitin, David D.. 2003. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97 (1): 7590.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny. 2015. “The Phoenix Effect of State Repression: Jewish Resistance during the Holocaust.” American Political Science Review 109 (2): 339–53.Google Scholar
Finkel, Evgeny, Gehlbach, Scott, and Olsen, Tricia. 2015. “Does Reform Prevent Rebellion? Evidence from Russia’s Emancipation of the Serfs.” Comparative Political Studies 48 (8): 9841019.Google Scholar
Frieden, Nancy Mandelker. 1981. Russian Physicians in an Era of Reform and Revolution, 1856–1905. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Galiani, Sebastian, and Torrens, Gustavo. 2014. “Autocracy, Democracy, and Trade Policy.” Journal of International Economics 93 (1): 173–93.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Jennifer, and Przeworski, Adam. 2006. “Cooperation, Cooptation, and Rebellion under Dictatorships.” Economics and Politics. 18 (1): 126.Google Scholar
Garmiza, V. V. 1957. Podgotovka zemskoi reformy 1864 goda. Moscow: Moscow University.Google Scholar
Gassebner, Martin, Lamla, Michael J., and Vreeland, James Raymond. 2013. “Extreme Bounds of Democracy.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57 (2): 171–97.Google Scholar
Geddes, Barbara. 1999. “What Do We Know about Democratization after Twenty Years?Annual Review of Political Science 2: 115– 44.Google Scholar
Gehlbach, Scott. 2013. Formal Models of Domestic Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gehlbach, Scott, and Keefer, Philip. 2011. “Investment without Democracy: Ruling-party Institutionalization and Credible Commitment in Autocracies.” Journal of Comparative Economics 39 (2): 123–39.Google Scholar
Gerschenkron, Alexander. 1965. “Agrarian Policies and Industrialization, Russia 1861–1917.” In The Cambridge Economic History of Europe (VI). The Industrial Revolutions and After: Incomes, Population and Technological Changes (2), eds. Habakkuk, H.J., and Postan, M.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 706 800.Google Scholar
Haggard, Stephan, and Kaufman, Robert R.. 2012. “Inequality and Regime Change: Democratic Transitions and the Stability of Democratic Rule.” American Political Science Review 106 (3): 495516.Google Scholar
Hoch, Steven L. 1986. Serfdom and Social Control in Russia: Petrovskoe, a Village in Tambov. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ialtaev, Dmitrii, 2012. “Okhrannaia deiatel’nost’ politsii v nepodkontrol’nykh zhandarmerii uyezdakh Kazanskoi gubernii vo vtoroi polovine XiX v.” Vestnik Samarskogo Gosudarstvennogo Universiteta 2 (1): 42–5.Google Scholar
Ivanov, Leonid, ed. 1964. Krest’ianskoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v 1861–1869 gg.: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Mysl’.Google Scholar
Jha, Saumitra, and Wilkinson, Steven. 2012. “Does Combat Experience Foster Organizational Skill? Evidence from Ethnic Cleansing during the Partition of South Asia.” American Political Science Review 106 (4): 883907.Google Scholar
Khoziaistvennyi Departament, Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh del. 1878–1890. Sbornik pravitel’stvennykh rasporiazhnii po delam, do zemskikh uchrezhdenii otnosiashchimsia. 2nd ed. 13 vols. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Khristoforov, Igor’. 2011. Sud’ba Reformy: Russkoe krest’ianstvo v pravitel’stvennoi politike do i posle otmeny krepostnogo prava (1830–1890-e gg.). Moscow: Sobranie.Google Scholar
Komissiia o Gubernskikh i Uyezdnykh Uchrezhdeniiakh. 1890. Istoricheskaia zapiska o khode rabot po sostavleniiu i primeneniiu polozheniia o zemskikh uchrezhdeniiakh. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Kotkin, Stephen. 2009. Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of the Communist Establishment. New York: Modern Library.Google Scholar
Larionova, Maria B. 2013. “Dvoriane Permskoi gubernii v XVIII–nachale XX veka: chislennost’, sostav, zemel’naia sobstvennost’.” Vestnik Permskogo Universiteta 22 (2): 1834.Google Scholar
Lipset, Seymour M. 1959. “Some Social Requisites of Democracy: Economic Development and Political Legitimacy.” American Political Science Review 53 (1): 69105.Google Scholar
Lizzeri, Alessandro, and Persico, Nicola. 2004. “Why did the Elites Extend the Suffrage? Democracy and the Schope of Government with an Application to Britain’s ‘Age of Reform’.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 119 (2): 707–65.Google Scholar
Malloy, James A. 1969. “N. A. Miliutin and the Zemstvo Reform of 1864.” Slavic and East-European Studies/Etudes Slaves et Est-Europeenes XIV: 83102.Google Scholar
Markevich, Andrei, and Zhuravskaya, Ekaterina. 2016. “The Economic Effects of the Abolition of Serfdom: Evidence from the Russian Empire.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Mitra, Anirban, and Ray, Debraj. 2014. “Implications of an Economic Theory of Conflict: Hindu-Muslim Violence in India.” Journal of Political Economy 122 (4): 719–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montalvo, Josè G., and Reynal-Querol, Marta. 2003. “Religious Polarization and Economic Development.” Economics Letters 80: 201–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Montalvo, Josè G., and Reynal-Querol, Marta. 2005. “Ethnic Polarization, Potential Conflict, and Civil Wars.” American Economic Review 95 (3): 796816.Google Scholar
Moon, David. 1999. The Russian Peasantry 1600–1930: The World the Peasants Made. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Moon, David. 2001. The Abolition of Serfdom in Russia, 1762–1907. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Nafziger, Steven. 2011. “Did Ivan’s Vote Matter? The Political Economy of Local Democracy in Tsarist Russia.” European Review of Economic History 15 (3): 393441.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nafziger, Steven. 2012. “The Political Economy of Rural Primary Education in Tsarist Russia.” Working paper, Department of Economics, Williams College.Google Scholar
Obchinnikov, V. M., ed. 1872. Zakony o zemskikh vyborakh. Viatka, Russia.Google Scholar
Okun’, Semen, ed. 1962. Krest’ianskoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v 1850–1856 gg.: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo sotsial’no-ekonomicheskoi literatury.Google Scholar
Okun’, Semen, and Sivkov, Konstantin, eds. 1963. Krest’ianskoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v 1857–mae 1861 gg.: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo sotsial’no-ekonomicheskoi literatury.Google Scholar
Pischke, Jörn-Steffen. 2007. “Lecture Notes on Measurement Error.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 2009. “Conquered or Granted? A History of Suffrage Extensions.” British Journal of Political Science 39 (2): 291321.Google Scholar
Putnam, Robert. 1993. Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Riasanovsky, Nicholas. 1959. Nicholas I and Official Nationality in Russia, 1825–1855. Berkeley: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, James C. 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Semykina, Anastasia, and Wooldridge, Jeffrey M.. 2010. “Estimating Panel Data Models in the Presence of Endogeneity and Selection.” Journal of Econometrics 157 (2): 375–80.Google Scholar
Seregny, Scott. 1999. “Power and Discourse in Russian Elementary Education: The School Inspectorate, 1869–1917.” Jahrbucher fur Geschichte Osteuropas. 47 (2): 161–86.Google Scholar
Starr, S. Frederick. 1972. Decentralization and Self-Government in Russia, 1830–1870. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Stock, James, and Yogo, Motohiro. 2005. “Testing for Weak Instruments in Linear IV Regression.” Identification and Inference for Econometric Models, eds. Andrews, Donald W.K. and Stock, James H.. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 80108.Google Scholar
Ticchi, Davide, and Vindigni, Andrea. 2008. “War and Endogenous Democracy.” Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Troinitskii, Aleksandr. 1861. Krepostnoe naselenie v Rossii, po 10-i narodnoii perepisi: Statisticheskoe issledovanie. Saint Petersburg: Karl Vul’f.Google Scholar
Tsentral’nyi Statisticheskii Komitet, Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh del. 1866. Statisticheskii vremennik” Rossiiskoi Imperii. Vol. 1 (Series I). St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Tsentral’nyi Statisticheskii Komitet, Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh del. 1870. Statisticheskii vremennik” Rossiiskoi Imperii. Vol. 10 (Series II). St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Tsentral’nyi Statisticheskii Komitet, Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh del. 1884. Sel’skiia uchilishcha v Evropeiskoi Rossii i Privislianskikh guberniiakh. Vol. 1 (Series III). Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Tsentral’nyi Statisticheskii Komitet, Ministerstvo Vnutrennikh del. 1886. Sbornik svedenii po Rossii za 1883 god. Vol. 8 (Series III). Statisticheskii vremennik Rossiiskoi imperii. St. Petersburg.Google Scholar
Weidmann, Nils B. 2016. “A Closer Look at Reporting Bias in Event Data.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (1): 206–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weingast, Barry. 1997. “The Political Foundations of Democracy and the Rule of Law.” American Political Science Review 91 (2): 245–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wucherpfennig, Julian, Hunziker, Philipp, and Cederman, Lars-Erik. 2016. “Who Inherits the State? Colonial Rule and Postcolonial Conflict.” American Journal of Political Science 60 (4): 882–98.Google Scholar
Zaionchkovskii, Petr. 1968. Otmena Krepostnogo Prava v Rossii. 3rd ed. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.Google Scholar
Zaionchkovskii, Petr, and Paina, Esfir’, eds. 1968. Krest’ianskoe Dvizhenie v Rossii v 1870–1880 gg.: Sbornik Dokumentov. Moscow: Nauka.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Dower et al supplementary material

Dower et al supplementary material 1

Download Dower et al supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 579.2 KB