Comparative Politics Workshop with Stephan Haggard

DateApril 13, 2015

Time12:30pm

Location
4357 Bunche Hall

Contact
Contact Information
Belinda SunnuPhone bsunnu@polisci.ucla.edu

Presenter:Stephan M. Haggard, UC San DiegoTitle: “Inequality, Distributive Conflict and Reversions from Democracy during the Third Wave”About the Topic:This talk reports on findings from a book manuscript on inequality, distributive conflict and regime change (co-authored with Robert Kaufman, Rutgers Univ.). A cluster of formal models by Boix as well as Acemoglu and Robinson has advanced the idea that institutional change may be driven by underlying class conflicts. In particular, democracy may be overthrown by elites challenged by democratic redistribution. We subject this theory to both quantitative and qualitative empirical test using a unique dataset on the presence or distributive conflict during the Third Wave. We find little evidence that inequality matters nor that distributive conflict is consequential for reversions from democratic rule. We emphasize, rather, a cluster of factors we label “weak democracy syndrome”: praetorian histories, economic crises and the deeper problem of weak institutional constraints on the political process. About the Speaker:Stephan Haggard (Ph.D. 1983, UC Berkeley) is Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, Director of the Korea-Pacific Program, and Distinguished Professor of Political Science at UC San Diego’s School of International Relations and Pacific Studies. He works on the political economy of developing countries — with a particular interest in Asia and on the Korean peninsula – and his current research focuses on the relationship between inequality, democratization, and authoritarianism in such countries.  Prof. Haggard has written extensively on the political economy of North Korea (with Marcus Noland), including Famine in North Korea: Markets, Aid, and Reform (2007) and Witness to Transformation: Refugee Insights into North Korea (2011).  He is also editor of the Journal of East Asian Studies and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

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