Landholding Inequality and the Consolidation of Democracy: Evidence from Nineteenth-Century France
研究了19世纪法国土地持有不平等如何通过大地主影响农业工人投票行为，削弱对共和派的支持，从而威胁民主巩固。
In this article, I investigate the effect of landholding inequalities on the democratization process in nineteenth-century France. I focus on the 1849 election, which followed the establishment of the Second Republic (1848–1851), and on the first six elections of the Third Republic (1870–1940), which took place between 1876 and 1893. I find that stronger landholding inequalities were associated to a lower support for the Republicans, and therefore constituted a threat to the consolidation of democracy. I provide evidence that large landowners resisted the establishment of democracy by influencing the electoral behavior of economically dependent agricultural workers.