The rise and decline of European parliaments, 1188–1789¹

Abstract

This article quantifies the activities of medieval and early modern parliaments. It traces the long‐term evolution of this European institution, and offers a first pass at analysing its impact on long‐term economic development. Starting in Spain in the twelfth century, parliaments gradually spread over the Latin west between 1200 and 1500. In the early modern period, parliaments declined in influence in southern and central Europe and further gained in importance in the Netherlands and Britain, resulting in an institutional ‘Little Divergence’ between 1500 and 1800. We discuss the background of this phenomenon in detail. Moreover, by analysing the effects of parliamentary activity on city growth we find that these differences in institutional development help to explain the economic divergence between north‐western and southern and central Europe.

Does democracy drive income in the world, 1500–2000?

“…At the city level, city-states of medieval Italy, Flanders and Switzerland had a guild democratic system (Murdock, 1967;Muhlberger and Paine, 1993). At the state level, van Zanden et al (2012) show that some form of democracy has existed in several European states since the 12th century.…”

Different Paths to the Modern State in Europe: The Interaction Between Warfare, Economic Structure, and Political Regime

“…45 Since, during the early modern era, the main prerogative and main expenditure item for the ruler and the central apparatus was interstate war-making, this would suggest that a representative regime better matched increases in war pressure with increases in tax revenues. In this vein, Hoffman and Rosenthal (1997) and Rosenthal (1998) 44 Bonney (1999), Van Zanden, Buringh, andBosker (2011), Körner (1995). 45 Ross (2004, 234).…”

State capacity and great divergence, the case of Qing China (1644–1911)

“…29. On the rise of Parliaments and the West, see North and Weingast (1989), Brewer (1989, 66 67), Greif (2005), Prak and van Zanden (2006), Van Zanden, Buringh, and Bosker (2012), and Mokyr and Nye (2007).…”