Economic Formalization in Political Science Research

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[...] Self-Enforcing Democracy - Adam Przeworski (2008) ; A Note on Taxation, Development and Representative Government - Robert Bates et Donald Lien Da-Hsiang (1985) - Formalisation économique dans la recherche en science politique Text 1 - Przeworski, Adam,' Self-Enforcing Democracy', in Donald A. Wittman, and Barry R. Weingast (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy (2008; online edn,Oxford Academic Sept. 2009), https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199548477.003.0017 Texte 2 - Bates, R. H. and D.-H. D. Lien A Note on Taxation, Development and Representative Government. [...]

[...] In this sense, the institution is the watchmaker whose precision conditions the survival of the political regime and civil peace. In the text by Bates and Lien, which borrows a historical, genealogical method, the State is a key formation, because it is its emergence and its needs that have conditioned the necessity of a mode of permanent deliberation between this permanent actor and the merchant class. It is indeed the very dynamics of the European State that explains the need to resort to democracy. [...]

[...] Scientific Framework Scientific Knowledge Method (induction / deduction) Both texts proceed by deductive method. Adam P. deduces from the link between income per capita and democratic stability an inference, and a series of consequences in understanding the democratic fact. Bates and Lien deduce from the co-temporality between tax reform and the emergence of democracy causal links that strongly condition the nature of democracy, its function in a particular social world, that of the modern age and nascent capitalism, which then continues. [...]

[...] As a result, democracy remains strongly characterized by a negotiation stake between the political and financial worlds. Summary of the content (main results) For Adam P., democracy, which must not mask the conflicting nature of society, is only sustainable at the cost of its tireless consolidation against the forces of fragmentation that are at work. In this, he explicitly departs from contractualist theories, which he "sweeps away" by considering that democracy is not the fruit of a contract because no third party guarantees the contract. [...]

[...] In both texts, social classes are actors in political History. However, we consider these classes as gathering individuals who are aware of their interest and play a role in deciding (voting, in the first text, supporting a policy or not in the second). Other actors are mentioned, such as ethnic groups, for Adam P., but to relativize their role. Analytical Framework Criterion of rationality on which it is based (implicit or explicit): omniscient rationality, limited rationality. The two texts are inscribed in the explicit paradigm of the application to politics of the figure of [...]