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Theocracy as a Form of Dictatorship |
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WINTROBE Ronald, PADOVANO Fabio |
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Affiliation: University of Western Ontario - Università Roma Tre |
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Keywords: Theocracies, Economics, Relation between Church and States |
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| Abstract: | The paper looks at the behaviour of theocracy. We first look at religion, and the reasons why people adopt religious beliefs. In particular we try to understand why people tend to believe in one God. We classify the reasons into two, one based on the desire for solidarity and the other based on individualistic goals (eg the desire for an afterlife). Then we turn to dictatorship, and briefly outline Wintrobe’s model of dictatorship. The third section extends this model to explain the behaviour of theocracy, a subject not considered previously. The predictions of this model are straightforward: compared to other forms of dictatorship, a theocracy will tend to have more power but a smaller budget (tax revenue). Finally we consider whether theocracies based on individualistic religions tend to perform better economically than those based on solidarity –oriented ones. |
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