Recommendations for Further Reading

Here's one part of the explanation: "It is instructive to put the contribution of Acemoglu and Robinson in perspective and relate it to the literature that already existed in the late 1990s. . . .Recall that the standard answer to why elites gave up the control of economic and political institutions was embodied in modernization theory and related explanations.According to these theories, the process of socioeconomic development would eventually bring about democratization, essentially as a by product of economic progress.As societies become richer, this wealth brings about rising education, a more plentiful middle class, and gradually milder conflict over income inequality, factors which all favor democratization.