3 posts
One person, one vote does not produce one person, one unit of political influence. Organized minorities shape agendas, candidates, and attention between elections—for better and for worse.
Elections can remove entrenched rulers and create accountability. But anti-corruption reform begins only when winners change the rules, incentives, and institutions that will also constrain their successors.
Every ideology presents itself as the thing holding society together. Across 475 elections in 62 countries, what actually predicts whether a government survives is material performance — largely regardless of its ideology. But the reverse claim, that delivering goods buys you loyalty, turns out to be false too.
