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Public debt and the birth of the democratic state : France and Great Britain, 1688-1789
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ISBN: 9780521071277 0521809673 9780521809672 9780511510557 0521071275 1107132002 0511180799 0511064128 0511307713 0511510551 128043385X 0511204841 0511072589 9780511064128 9786610433858 6610433852 Year: 2003 Publisher: Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press,

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Abstract

This book develops new theory about the link between debt and democracy and applies it to a classic historical comparison: Great Britain in the eighteenth century which had strong representative institutions and sound public finance vs. ancient regime France, which had neither. The book argues that whether representative institutions improve commitment depends on the opportunities for government creditors to form new coalitions with other social groups, more likely to occur when a society is divided across multiple political cleavages. It then presents historical evidence to show that improved access to finance in Great Britain after 1688 had as much to do with the development of the Whig Party as with constitutional changes. In France, it is suggested that the balance of partisan forces made it unlikely that an early adoption of 'English-style' institutions would have improved credibility.

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