Carvalho, Jean Paul and Dippel, Christian <br/><br/>
Elite identity and political accountability: a tale of ten Islands 

 - The Economic Journal   
 - 130(631), Oct, 2020: p.1995-2029 
<br/><br/> Emancipation of slaves in the 1830s transformed the political elites of the British Caribbean plantation islands. New elites were more accountable to the citizenry. We develop a theory in which two factors limit and possibly reverse the effect of this on political outcomes, with legislators: (i) ‘stepping up’ to pass extractive policies; and/or (ii) weakening democratic institutions. The theory is supported by an historical analysis of ten Caribbean plantation islands, based on original archival data on legislator race, occupation and roll-call voting. Eventually, all assemblies that experienced a significant change in composition dissolved themselves and converted to British ‘Crown Rule’. – Reproduced