On Dictatorship, Economic Development and Stability

of people is the limit to the dictator’s power. To remain in power he has to create the
conditions dissuading these threats. These conditions depend on the choice of his prefer-
ences but also on the economic performance and the risk of anarchy in case of a regime
change. Our model emphasizes the conception that between dictatorship and democracy,
there may be an anarchic situation working in favor of the stability of dictatorship.

Nevertheless, by focusing on social order and economic welfare, our model ignores a possi-
ble presence of political liberties in the citizens’ preferences, and hence, the attractiveness
effect of democracy on the stability of dictatorship. However, as shown in Acemoglu,
Robinson, and Verdier (2004), this attractiveness is counterbalanced by the difficult and
yet necessary cooperation among various groups in the polities to establish democracy.

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