Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-dnltx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T03:12:50.805Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Democratic Contradictions in European Settler Colonies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

Jack Paine Open the ORCID record for Jack Paine [Opens in a new window]
Jack Paine*
Affiliation:
University of Rochesterjackpaine@rochester.edu.
Get access

Abstract

How did political institutions emerge and evolve under colonial rule? This article studies a key colonial actor and establishes core democratic contradictions in European settler colonies. Although European settlers’ strong organizational position enabled them to demand representative political institutions, the first hypothesis qualifies their impulse for electoral representation by positing the importance of a metropole with a representative tradition. Analyzing new data on colonial legislatures in 144 colonies between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries shows that only British settler colonies—emanating from a metropole with representative institutions—systematically exhibited early elected legislative representation. The second hypothesis highlights a core democratic contradiction in colonies that established early representative institutions. Applying class-based democratization theories predicts perverse institutional evolution—resisted enfranchisement and contestation backsliding—because sizable European settler minorities usually composed an entrenched landed class. Evidence on voting restrictions and on legislature disbandment from Africa, the British Caribbean, and the US South supports these implications and rejects the Dahlian path from competitive oligarchy to full democracy.

Keywords

colonialismdemocracyEuropean settlersinstitutions
Type
Research Article
Information
World Politics , Volume 71 , Issue 3 , July 2019 , pp. 542 - 585
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 2019 

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.)

References

Abernethy, David B. 2000. The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires, 1415–1980. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. 2001. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review 91, no. 5: 1369–401. doi: 10.1257/aer.91.5.1369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. 2002. “Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 117, no. 4: 1231–94. doi: 10.1162/003355302320935025.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James A.. 2005. “The Rise of Europe: Atlantic Trade, Institutional Change, and Economic Growth.” American Economic Review 95, no. 3: 546–79. doi: 10.1257/0002828054201305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Albertus, Michael. 2015. Autocracy and Redistribution: The Politics of Land Reform. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ansell, Ben W., and Samuels, David J.. 2014. Inequality and Democratization: An Elite Competition Approach. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boix, Carles, Miller, Michael, and Rosato, Sebastian. 2013. “A Complete Data Set of Political Regimes, 1800–2007.” Comparative Political Studies 46, no. 12: 1523–54. doi: 10.1177/0010414012463905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Christopher, Anthony John. 1984. Colonial Africa. London, UK: Croom Helm London.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1982. Regimes in Tropical Africa: Changing Forms of Supremacy, 1945–1975. Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Collier, Ruth Berins. 1999. Paths toward Democracy: The Working Class and Elites in Western Europe and South America. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coppedge, Michael, John, Gerring, Carl, Henrik Knutsen, Staffan, Lindberg, and Jan, Teorell. 2018. “V-Dem [Country-Year/Country-Date] Dataset v8. Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Project.” At https://www.v-dem.net/en, accessed March 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert Alan. 1971. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
De Juan, Alexander, and Pierskalla, Jan Henryk. 2017. “The Comparative Politics of Colonialism and Its Legacies: An Introduction.” Politics and Society 45, no. 2: 159–72. doi: 10.1177/0032329217704434.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Delivagnette, Robert L. 1970. “French Colonial Policy in Black Africa, 1945 to 1960.” In Gann, L. H. and Duignan, Peter, eds., Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960, vol. 2: The History and Politics of Colonialism 1914–1960. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press: 450–502.Google Scholar
Denoon, Donald. 1983. Settler Capitalism: The Dynamics of Dependent Development in the Southern Hemisphere. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duffy, James. 1962. Portugal in Africa. New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Easterly, William, and Levine, Ross. 2016. “The European Origins of Economic Development.” Journal of Economic Growth 21, no. 3: 225–57. doi: 10.1007/s10887-016-9130-y.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elliott, John Huxtable. 2007. Empires of the Atlantic World: Britain and Spain in America, 1492–1830. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Emerson, Rupert. 1962. From Empire to Nation: The Rise to Self-Assertion of Asian and African Peoples. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Engerman, Stanley L., and Sokoloff, Kenneth L.. 2011. Economic Development in the Americas since 1500: Endowments and Institutions. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fails, Matthew D., and Krieckhaus, Jonathan. 2010. “Colonialism, Property Rights and the Modern World Income Distribution.” British Journal of Political Science 40, no. 3: 487–508. doi: 10.1017/S0007123410000141.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, Glenn. 2010. The Disenfranchisement Myth: Poor Whites and Suffrage Restriction in Alabama. Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press.Google Scholar
Finer, Samuel Edward. 1997. The History of Government, vol. III: Empires, Monarchies, and the Modern State. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gerring, John, Daniel, Ziblatt, Johan, Van Gorp, and Julián, Arévalo. 2011. “An Institutional Theory of Direct and Indirect Rule.” World Politics 63, no. 3 (July): 377–433. doi: 10.1017/S0043887111000104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, William A. 1976. British Slave Emancipation: The Sugar Colonies and the Great Experiment, 1830–1865. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Greene, Jack P. 2010a. “Introduction: Empire and Liberty.” In Greene, Jack P., ed., Exclusionary Empire: English Liberty Overseas, 1600–1900. New York, N.Y: Cambridge University Press: 1–24.Google Scholar
Greene, Jack P. 2010b. “Liberty and Slavery: The Transfer of British Liberty to the West Indies, 1627–1865.” In Greene, Jack P., ed., Exclusionary Empire: English Liberty Overseas, 1600–1900. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press: 50–76.Google Scholar
Hailey, William Malcolm. 1957. An African Survey, Revised 1956. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hanson, Mark. 1974. “Organizational Bureaucracy in Latin America and the Legacy of Spanish Colonialism.” Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs 16, no. 2: 199–219. doi: 10.2307/174737.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haring, Clarence Henry. 1947. The Spanish Empire in America. New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hariri, Jacob Gerner. 2012. “The Autocratic Legacy of Early Statehood.” American Political Science Review 106, no. 3: 471–94. doi: 10.1017/S0003055412000238.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hariri, Jacob Gerner. 2015. “A Contribution to the Understanding of Middle Eastern and Muslim Exceptionalism.” Journal of Politics 77, no. 2: 477–90. doi: 10.1086/680727.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartz, Louis. 1964. The Founding of New Societies: Studies in the History of the United States, Latin America, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. New York, N.Y.: Harcourt Brace & World.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey. 2000. States and Power in Africa: Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kahler, Miles. 1981. “Political Regime and Economic Actors: The Response of Firms to the End of Colonial Rule.” World Politics 33, no. 3 (April): 383–412. doi: 10.2307/2010208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Key, V. O. 1949. Southern Politics in State and Nation. New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.Google Scholar
Komisarchik, Mayya. 2018. “Electoral Protectionism: How Southern Counties Eliminated Elected Offices in Response to the Voting Rights Act.” Working Paper, Harvard University.Google Scholar
Kousser, J. Morgan. 1974. The Shaping of Southern Politics: Suffrage Restriction and the Establishment of the One-Party South, 1880–1910. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Lange, Matthew, Mahoney, James, and Hau, Matthias vom. 2006. “Colonialism and Development: A Comparative Analysis of Spanish and British Colonies.” American Journal of Sociology 111, no. 5: 1412–62. doi: 10.1086/499510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lankina, Tomila, and Lullit, Getachew. 2012. “Mission or Empire, Word or Sword? The Human Capital Legacy in Postcolonial Democratic Development.” American Journal of Political Science 56, no. 2: 465–83. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00550.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, Alex and Paine, Jack. 2019. “British Colonialism and Democracy: Divergent Inheritances and Diminishing Legacies.” Journal of Comparative Economics. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2019.02.001.Google Scholar
Lepore, Jill. 2018. These Truths: A History of the United States. New York, N.Y.: W. W. Norton & Company.Google Scholar
Levitsky, Steven, and Way, Lucan A.. 2010. Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lützelschwab, Claude. 2013. “Settler Colonialism in Africa.” In Metzer, Jacob, Lloyd, Christopher, and Sutch, Richard, eds., Settler Economies in World History. Leiden, Netherlands: Brill: 141–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, James. 2010. Colonialism and Postcolonial Development: Spanish America in Comparative Perspective. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markoff, John. 1999. “Where and When was Democracy Invented?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, no. 4: 660–90.Google Scholar
Marshall, Monty G., and Gurr, Ted Robert. 2014. “Polity IV Project: Political Regime Characteristics and Transitions, 1800–2013.” At http://www.systemic peace.org/polity/polity4.htm, accessed March 6, 2018.Google Scholar
Mickey, Robert. 2015. Paths Out of Dixie: The Democratization of Authoritarian Enclaves in America’s Deep South, 1944–1972. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, Michael K. 2015. “Democratic Pieces: Autocratic Elections and Democratic Development since 1815.” British Journal of Political Science 45, no. 3: 501–30. doi: 10.1017/S0007123413000446.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Barrington. 1966. Social Origins of Democracy and Dictatorship: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston, Mass.: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Morse, Richard M. 1964. “The Heritage of Latin America.” In Hartz, Louis, ed., The Founding of New Societies: Studies in the History of the United States, Latin America, South Africa, Canada, and Australia. Boston, Mass.: Mariner Books: 123–77.Google Scholar
Mosley, Paul. 1983. The Settler Economies: Studies in the Economic History of Kenya and Southern Rhodesia 1900–1963. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narizny, Kevin. 2012. “Anglo-American Primacy and the Global Spread of Democracy: An International Genealogy.” World Politics 64, no. 2: 341–73. doi: 10.1017/S004388711200007X.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nikolova, Elena. 2017. “Destined for Democracy? Labour Markets and Political Change in Colonial British America.” British Journal of Political Science 47, no. 1: 19–45. doi: 10.1017/S0007123415000101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R.. 1989. “Constitutions and Commitment: The Evolution of Institutions Governing Public Choice in Seventeenth-Century England.” Journal of Economic History 49, no. 4: 803–32. doi: 10.1017 /S0022050700009451.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsson, Ola. 2009. “On the Democratic Legacy of Colonialism.” Journal of Comparative Economics 37, no. 4: 534–51. doi: 10.1016/j.jce.2009.08.004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owolabi, Olukunle P. 2014. “Colonialism, Development and Democratization: Beyond National Colonial Legacies.” APSA-Comparative Democratization Newsletter 12, no. 1: 2, 12–15.Google Scholar
Owolabi, Olukunle P. 2015. “Literacy and Democracy Despite Slavery: Forced Settlement and Postcolonial Outcomes in the Developing World.” Comparative Politics 48, no. 1: 43–66. At https://www.jstor.org/stable/43664169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paine, Jack. 2019a. “Redistributive Political Transitions: Minority Rule and Liberation Wars in Colonial Africa.” Journal of Politics, 81, no. 2: 505–23. doi: 10.1086/701635.Google Scholar
Paine, Jack. 2019b. “Replication Data for: Democratic Contradictions in European Settler Colonies.” Harvard Dataverse, V1. doi: 10.7910/DVN/LU8IDT.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paine, Jack. 2019c. Supplementary material for “Democratic Contradictions in European Settler Colonies.” doi: 10.1017/S0043887119000029.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Posada-Carbó, Eduardo. 1996. Elections before Democracy: The History of Elections in Europe and Latin America. New York, N.Y.: St. Martin’s Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 1991. Democracy and the Market: Political and Economic Reforms in Eastern Europe and Latin America. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, Adam. 2013. “Political Institutions and Political Events Dataset.” At https://sites.google.com/a/nyu.edu/adam-przeworski/home/data, accessed March 6, 2019.Google Scholar
Roberts, Stephen Henry. 1963. The History of French Colonial Policy: 1870–1925. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books.Google Scholar
Rogoziński, Jan. 2000. A Brief History of the Caribbean: From the Arawak and the Carib to the Present. New York, N.Y.: Plume Books.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, Dietrich, Stephens, Evelyne Huber, and Stephens, John D.. 1992. Capitalist Development and Democracy. Chicago, Ill.: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Rusk, Jerrold G. 2001. A Statistical History of the American Electorate. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.Google Scholar
Shadmehr, Mehdi. 2015. “Extremism in Revolutionary Movements.” Games and Economic Behavior 94: 97–121. doi: 10.1016/j.geb.2015.08.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Slater, Dan. 2010. Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia. New York, N.Y.: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spruyt, Hendrik. 2005. Ending Empire: Contested Sovereignty and Territorial Partition. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Suryanarayan, Pavithra, and White, Steven. 2019. “Slavery, Reconstruction, and Bureaucratic Capacity in the American South.” Working Paper. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.2951964.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, Myron. 1987. “Empirical Democratic Theory.” In Weiner, Myron and Ozbundun, Ergun, eds., Competitive Elections in Developing Countries. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press: 3–34.Google Scholar
Wells, Robert V. 1975. The Population of the British Colonies in America before 1776: A Survey of Census Data. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Woodberry, Robert D. 2012. “The Missionary Roots of Liberal Democracy.” American Political Science Review 106, no. 2: 244–74. doi: 10.1017/S0003055412000093.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrong, Hume. 1923. Government of the West Indies. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Young, Crawford. 1994. The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Paine Dataset

Dataset

https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/LU8IDT
Link
Supplementary material: PDF

Paine supplementary material

Paine supplementary material 1

Download Paine supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 350.7 KB