Economic Crisis, Elite Conflict and Institutional Change in Empires
Product details
- ISBN 9783631896181
- Weight: 379g
- Dimensions: 148 x 210mm
- Publication Date: 27 Mar 2023
- Publisher: Peter Lang AG
- Publication City/Country: CH
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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The Ottoman and Habsburg Empires both faced the "general crisis" of the 17th century. Yet they responded to the crisis very differently. The Habsburgs centralized fiscal structures, which would facilitate economic development in the 19th century. The Ottomans, which initially had more centralized tax collection, opted for decentralization, paving the way for economic peripheralization. To account for this puzzle, this book offers a political-economic theory of institutional change that focuses on the structure and intensity of elite conflict over the distribution of resources. Using the comparative-historical method, the book demonstrates that high levels of conflict generated political incentives for centralization, and where such incentives were lacking, decentralization followed.
Tolga Demiryol is a political scientist at Altınbaş University, Istanbul, Turkey. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. His research interests include international political economy, economic interdependence, and the political economy of development.
