About This Course

This is the second course in the series “State, Law, and Economy”. The course series investigates the rationale for having the state, the law, from an economic framework. In the first course and learn about the crucial difference between democracies and autocracies as alternative political systems. We investigated how state and legal institutions influence economic development, and how economic development can affect political change or political development.

The second course looks at autocracies. Historically, autocracies were the most common sort of governmental structure. They are constantly challenged by two issues: (1) how to apportion power among the ruling coalition and (2) how to control the masses who do not have access to authority. We focus on the succession conflict, which invariably results in a shift in power relations. We investigate how these various approaches affect economic development and political institutions, as well as why the rule of law is crucial for the development of contemporary nations and economies.