Exam 9: Varieties of Dictatorship

If members of a winning coalition get "paid" with things like money, special legal protections, or special business advantages, then this is an example of the government providing:

Military dictatorships rule in an altruistic manner and are unburdened by economic interests:

In the country of Qatar, the successor to the king is selected by the ruling family by consensus based on their own best interests. Based on this information, Qatar can be labeled a:

Dictatorships that rely on the support of a "junta" of leaders of the armed forces to remain in power are called:

All of the following dictators are examples of personalist dictators EXCEPT:

Table l: Effect of W and W/S on Health Care Dependent variable: Government spending on health care as share of GDP. Independent variables Model 1 Model 2 Winning coalition 4.0(0.61) Selectorate -0.35(0.51) W/S 3.9(0.49) Constant 3.0(0.32) 2.8(0.33) N 1204 1204 0.22 0.22 GDP = gross domestic product. -Consider the results from Model 1 in Table 1, above. Does an increase in the Winning coalition significantly increase, decrease, or have no effect on the government spending on health care (measured as the share of GDP)?

Once we apply the selectorate theory to our usual typology of regime types (democracies as well as various types of dictatorships), it provides us with a potential story both for why democracies produce a relatively high level of material well-being and for why some dictatorships perform better than others.

We are able to use the concepts of W (the winning coalition) and S (the selectorate) from the selectorate theory to make useful distinctions among regime types such as democracies, monarchies, military juntas, and so on. However, the authors of the selectorate theory themselves only consider the institutions in each country that determine W and S, rather than talking about countries in terms of being democracies or dictatorships (or different types of dictatorships).

In the United States of America, who belongs to the selectorate?

According to the selectorate theory put forth by Bueno de Mesquita, Morrow, Siverson, and Smith, what are the two attributes of a polity that create incentives for leaders to produce economic growth and other desirable policy outcomes? Explain the mechanism by which these institutional features create such incentives and summarize the empirical evidence presented in class that is consistent with this theory. What, if anything does this theory say about the relationship between policy performance and democracy? What does it say about the relationship between policy performance and autocracy?

A key part of the selectorate theory is that the actions of the leader (e.g., setting the tax rate) can affect the level of economic growth for the entire country.

What set of institutions makes kleptocracy most likely?

Personalistic dictators rely on ______ to maintain the loyalty of their support coalition and the citizenry more generally.

Military dictatorships often claim the "guardians of the national interest:"

What is the basic assumption behind the selectorate theory?

If you were a member of the winning coalition, what type of institutions would you want to set up (assuming that you wanted to receive as many goods as possible)?

The dictatorship type that will be in office the shortest time is expected to be:

According to the selectorate theory, when are we likely to see the best economic performance?

Consider Figure 1, below, and answer the following questions. Figure 1 -Looking at Figure 1, where would you place most modern democracies?

Those dictators that hold elections and tolerate some degree of pluralism yet violate democratic standards are called: