Bryn Rosenfeld: The autocratic middle class: how state dependency reduces the demand for democracy

Excerpt

The global expansion of the middle class, documented by World Bank data, has been accompanied by arguments that it will demand better governance and democracy in line with Barrington Moore’s observation that “no bourgeoisie, no democracy.” According to Acemoglu and Robinson (2006), “almost all revolutionary movements were led by middle class actors” (p. 39). Samuel Huntington (1991) argues that “in virtually every country the most active supporters of democratization came from the urban middle class” (p. 67). Rosenfeld’s book tests this argument using data from Russia and other post-Soviet states. Each of the book’s eight chapters examines a problematic aspect of the actions of the middle class in authoritarian societies. The methodology is interdisciplinary with an eclectic mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods including interviews, participant observation, field studies, and official data. The book’s framework questions modernization and distributive theories of democratization that accord the middle class a central role. …