Democratic values and Institutions

by

Timothy Besley and Torsten Persson

Abstract

This paper builds a model of the two-way interaction between democratic values and institutions to bridge sociological research focusing on values with economics research which studies strategic decisions. Some citizens hold values that make them protest to preserve democracy with the share of such citizens evolving endogenously over time. There is then a natural complementarity between values and institutions creating persistence without assuming any form of commitment. The approach unifies ideas in the literature, explains observed patterns in the data on democratic values and political institutions and suggests new insights into sources of heterogeneity in values.