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The political economy of ideas
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Mukand, Sharun W. and Rodrik, Dani (2018) The political economy of ideas. Working Paper. Coventry: University of Warwick. Department of Economics. Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) (1163). (Unpublished)
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Official URL: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/research/w...
Abstract
We develop a conceptual framework to highlight the role of ideas as a catalyst for policy and institutional change. We make an explicit distinction between ideas and vested interests and show how they feed into each other. In doing so the paper integrates the Keynes-Hayek perspective on the importance of ideas with the currently more fashionable Stigler-Becker (interests only) approach to political economy. We distinguish between two kinds of ideational politics – the battle among different worldviews on the efficacy of policy (worldview politics) versus the politics of victimhood, pride and identity (identity politics). Political entrepreneurs discover identity and policy ‘memes’ (narratives, cues, framing) that shift beliefs about how the world works or a person’s belief of who he is (i.e. identity). Our framework identifies a complementarity between worldview politics and identity politics and illustrates how they may reinforce each other. In particular, an increase in identity polarization may be associated with a shift in views about how the world works. Furthermore, an increase in income inequality is likely to result in a greater incidence of ideational politics. Finally, we show how ideas may not just constrain, but also ‘bite’ the interests that helped propagate them in the first instance.
Item Type: | Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper) | ||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HB Economic Theory | ||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics | ||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Economics -- Philosophy, Identity politics -- Mathematical models | ||||||
Series Name: | Warwick economics research papers series (WERPS) | ||||||
Publisher: | University of Warwick. Department of Economics | ||||||
Place of Publication: | Coventry | ||||||
ISSN: | 0083-7350 | ||||||
Official Date: | April 2018 | ||||||
Dates: |
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Number: | 1163 | ||||||
Number of Pages: | 40 | ||||||
Institution: | University of Warwick | ||||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||||
Publication Status: | Unpublished | ||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||
Description: | This paper also appears as CAGE discussion paper 370 |
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Date of first compliant deposit: | 12 March 2018 | ||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 12 March 2018 |
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