ASPIRING FOR CHANGE: A THEORY OF MIDDLE CLASS ACTIVISM

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Heng; Suen, Wing
• 署名单位: University of Hong Kong
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12346
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 1318-1347
• 关键词: regime change; COORDINATION; equilibrium; DEMOCRACY; MODEL

摘要

We propose a regime change model in which people are uncertain about both the quality of a specific regime and governance in general. The poor perceive the current regime as bad, rationally infer that all governments are bad, and therefore believe mass movements are futile. The middle class are more sanguine about the prospect of good government, and believe that collective action is effective because they expect many fellow citizens to share the same view. This coordination game with incomplete information does not admit monotone equilibrium but exhibits multiple interval equilibria, where middle class people are more likely to attack the regime.