Democratic Politics,War and Catch-Up

The paper is an attempt to see whether Mancur Olson's Rise and Decline of Nations provides a theoretical and empirical basis for understanding the poor economic performance of the English-speaking nations in the postwar era. On both counts Olson's thesis is found wanting. Theoretically, it neglects the vital role of the state's coercive function in the achievement of collective goals. Empirically, it is confused and conflates the effects of economic convergence, wartime economic disruption and democratic participation. The `awfulness' of English-speaking performance is demonstrated to be largely an outcome of the first two of these factors and not the third.