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The iron law of oligarchy suggests that new governments tend to reproduce old leadership structures, even after taking away power from their predecessors. Therefore, revolutionaries who overthrow absolutist, extractive regimes often create similar regimes in their place.
The Iron Law of Oligarchy Quotes in Why Nations Fail
The Why Nations Fail quotes below are all either spoken by The Iron Law of Oligarchy or refer to The Iron Law of Oligarchy. For each quote, you can also see the other terms and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 12
Quotes
This form of the vicious circle, where extractive institutions persist because the elite controlling them and benefiting from them persists, is not its only form. […] In a form that the sociologist Robert Michels would recognize as the iron law of oligarchy, the overthrow of a regime presiding over extractive institutions heralds the arrival of a new set of masters to exploit the same set of pernicious extractive institutions.
The logic of this type of vicious circle is also simple to understand in hindsight: extractive political institutions create few constraints on the exercise of power, so there are essentially no institutions to restrain the use and abuse of power by those overthrowing previous dictators and assuming control of the state; and extractive economic institutions imply that there are great profits and wealth to be made merely by controlling power, expropriating the assets of others, and setting up monopolies.
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The Iron Law of Oligarchy Term Timeline in Why Nations Fail
The timeline below shows where the term The Iron Law of Oligarchy appears in Why Nations Fail. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 12: The Vicious Circle
In “ The Iron Law of Oligarchy ,” Acemoglu and Robinson explain how the Derg, a left-wing military group, overthrew Ethiopia’s traditional,...
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...South, the same vicious circle kept recreating extractive institutions in Ethiopia. Sociologists call this “ the iron law of oligarchy .” New leaders promise radical change, overthrow the government, and then rule exactly like their...
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...them before. Elsewhere, the vicious circle continues even when the political elite changes because of the iron law of oligarchy . Extractive institutions don’t check the new elite’s power, but rather give them a huge...
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Chapter 13: Why Nations Fail Today
...agriculture industry and created a hyperinflation crisis. Mugabe’s rise to power is another example of the iron law of oligarchy . Acemoglu and Robinson reiterate that extractive political and economic institutions are always the real...
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...are much less extractive than Sierra Leone’s.) Even after periods of collapse and civil war, the iron law of oligarchy can still hold—for instance, Siaka Stevens’s party won the election again in Sierra Leone in...
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