Nikhil Kalyanpur at The Price of Power:
Historically, economic elites pushed for stronger courts, better property rights, and even elections. There was an underlying logic: elites are fundamentally afraid of the state expropriating them, and domestic political development — the rule of law, democracy — can restrain arbitrary government action.
But recent elites are at best indifferent and at worst complicit in the democratic backsliding of Russia, Hungary, Turkey, and now the United States. Some of that can surely be explained by today’s plutocrats expecting to make wins by aligning themselves with the government. Cash in some short-term gains for potential random punishment down the line.
But I think the main explanation is that elites no longer have the incentive to fight for the rule of law at home. They can buy it abroad.
More here.
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