We describe Aristotle's mathematical model of weighted voting to explain and implement decision-making in democracies, oligarchies and the mixed states that combine elements of both systems. This model, originally presented in textual form, extends the known history of social choice theory back...

This paper examines the potential for automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to induce a broader economic decline, impacting not only labor but also the owners of capital and advanced technology. While automation has traditionally favored skilled over unskilled workers, recent advancements...

This paper focuses on the relationship between capitalism and the decline in democracy in the West over the past quarter-century. Using data from the V-Dem Institute, Freedom House, and the World Inequality Database, a strong correlation is found between inequality, the rise of tech...

Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led Western governments to impose extensive sanctions on the Russian economy and the people who maintain the regime - the so-called oligarchs. The enforcement of these sanctions and the manoeuvres of these oligarchs to evade them have created new...

The Russian war of aggression has deepened relations between the EU and Ukraine. This can be seen, above all, in Ukraine’s EU candidate status. Despite the war, Ukraine continues to pursue many reforms, even if their pace has slowed since February 2022. The strong concentration of power in the...

Autobauer, die Rekordsummen an Aktionäre ausschütten, dann aber nach staatlichen Hilfen rufen und mit Streichung von Arbeitsplätzen drohen. Luftfahrtunternehmen, die Flugzeuge bauen, die nicht fliegen können und Menschenleben kosten. Ein globaler Überbietungswettbewerb in...

At the end of the Cold War the west imposed economic "shock therapy" on the countries of the former Soviet Union to rapidly turn the communists into capitalists, creating oligarchs. One of the few Africa countries where shock therapy was imposed was Mozambique. Shock therapy was intended to push...

Martial Law exacerbated cronyism and oligarchy by concentrating power into the hands of one political clan. Technocratic industrial policy combined with political anti-oligarch rhetoric spurred the rationalization and liberalization of different economic sectors, with substantial state support...

"To an American, oligarchy is something that happens somewhere else. In Oligarchy in America, Luke Winslow reveals oligarchy's deep intellectual roots and alarming growth in America. The book provides conceptual tools the lack of which have prevented Americans from recognizing oligarchy at home....

This paper is the 19th Jaime V. Ongpin Memorial Lecture delivered by the author last 21 October 2020. The first section discusses inequality and its double-edged nature with respect to inclusive growth and development. The paper then elaborates on the related features of oligarchy and...

This paper develops a partial equilibrium model to account for stylized facts about the behavior of oligarchs, politically and economically strong conglomerates in transition and developing countries. The model predicts that oligarchs are more likely than other owners to invest in productivity...

This paper develops a model where this is a trade-off between the enforcement of the property rights of different groups. An oligarchic' society, where political power is in the hands of major producers, protects their property rights, but also tends to erect significant entry barriers,...

We develop a dynamic political economy model in which investment in the state capacity to levy taxes and deter crime is a policy variable, and we study the evolution of state capacity when policy is chosen by an elite. We show that democratization in the sense of expansion of the elite leads to...

Who are the post-Soviet oligarchs? Have they been members of the nomenklatura before 1991? Did they accumulate their initial wealth before or after privatization? To answer these questions, I have compiled an original data set of oligarchs drawing on publicly available biographical data in the...

We study an infinite-horizon multilateral bargaining game in which the status quo policy, players' recognition probabilities, and their voting weights are endogenously determined by the previous bargaining outcome. With perfectly farsighted players, we show that the equilibrium long-run outcome...

The first ever guide to oligarchs as a global and historical phenomenon. Today, more than twenty oligarchs serve as heads of state or government in countries such as Russia, South Africa, Lebanon, and El Salvador. Many have a net worth in excess of $1 billion, and they all – whether directly...

Based on an original large-N dataset of individual Ukrainian oligarchs and qualitative evidence, this article tests competing perspectives on the political power of big capital. We find, surprisingly, that neither the assumption of direct power by the oligarchs, nor the mobility of oligarchic...

We examine the decision of wealthy business owners to protect their holdings from expropriation and arbitrary taxation through proxies, shell companies, and offshore firms. Our theoretical framework emphasizes the role of political connections in decisions to obfuscate. Linking information from...

Corporate law and governance scholarship has traditionally focused on understanding the agency costs that result from unresolved conflicts of interest between shareholders and management. This agency problem becomes trivial when corporate ownership is concentrated, as is the case in many...

"Oligarchy is a threat to the republic. Joseph Fishkin and William Forbath show that, for most of US history, Americans saw the Constitution as responding to that threat by imposing on legislators a duty to break up oligarchy, block corporate political power, and ensure a broad distribution of...

"This book presents a study of the complex relationship between the Russian state and big business during Vladimir Putin's first two presidential terms (2000-2008). Based on extensive original research, it focuses on the interaction of Russia's political executive with the 'oligarchs'. It shows...

This chapter extends the obsolescing bargaining model (OBM) (associated with international joint ventures in authoritarian states) to show how it is relevant to multinational companies (MNCs) operating in evolving non-democratic oligarchic regimes. Using four critical cases from international...

Introduction, Part One: In Advance of The Presidency, 1. Family Dynamics, Privileged Disadvantages, and Coming of Age, 2. A Lifetime of Deviance, Deception and Dishonesty, 1970-2016, 3. Weaponizing the Law, Litigation, and Legality, Part Two: Squandering the Presidency, 4. Campaigns and Policies...

This paper analyses the impact of the fear of losing social status (la peur du déclassement) on the levels of democratisation and economic growth. In a formal model where education makes an individual's vote count and generates positive externalities for all agents in the economy, I examine the...

This study examines the effects of oligarch ownership on corporate capital structures. Using panel data from Ukraine, I find that oligarch-owned companies employ significantly more debt and liabilities than their peers. However, there is no direct relation between oligarch ownership and target...

There is demand among Russia's oligarchs for systemic change, but not for the rule of law proper. Instead, it is the de facto accountability of political elites and improved relations with the West that the Russian oligarchs want from the Kremlin. However, the oligarchs currently lack the...

We trace the rise of the so called oligarchs in post-Soviet Russia and examine their relationship to income distribution in Russia. When Russia moved to a market economy in the 1990s a new business elite evolved. Russia's distinctive path towards market economy, among other factors, gave rise to...

This paper combines national accounts, survey, wealth and fiscal data (including recently released tax data on high-income taxpayers) in order to provide consistent series on the accumulation and distribution of income and wealth in Russia from the Soviet period until the present day. We find...