Monarchical Government Research Articles

Areopagitica: ‘The Known Rules of Antient Libertie’

Though Milton at no point in Areopagitica attacks monarchical government directly, his position in this treatise is implicitly republican. The vocabulary of Areopagitica is full of echoes of republican discourse, with terms like “tyranny,” “slavery,” “yoke,” “servile,” “thraldom,” as well as “true liberty.” In a number of eloquent metaphorical passages, the search for truth is presented both as a sacred duty and as a communal task, performed by free individuals working independently in a common cause. The extended metaphor of “the virgin Truth,” hewed into “a thousand peeces” to be patiently reassembled “in every joynt and member,” like many passages in Areopagitica, is simultaneously classical and Christian in its allusions and its imagery. In the celebrated “fugitive and cloistered virtue” passage, anticipating the action of Paradise Lost, the reading of books is presented as one of many instances of the exercise of moral choice, “triall … by what is contrary.” Conflating Biblical and classical allusions, Milton here redefines “the rules of antient libertie” in terms of the freedom of the will, extended to Adam and Eve and their descendants by their creator, in accordance with Milton's Arminian theology.

Indebted state versus intermediary state: who owes what to whom?

Ratios of public debt to GDP are much discussed these days and questions concerning debt relative to taxation have long been explored by fiscal scholars. With respect to monarchical regimes, it seems reasonable to treat public debt as similar to personal debt, recognizing that a monarch is not an ordinary person. When public debt arises through parliamentary assemblies, however, the similarity of form between public and personal debt vanishes because a parliamentary assembly does not trade on its own account; to the contrary, it is a type of intermediary that brings together people who buy bonds and people who later pay the bondholders. In a republic there is no sovereign who is indebted to ruled subjects. The institutional framework of republican governance transforms public borrowing into a process of intermediation among citizens, which leads in turn to the alternative orientation toward public debt that this paper explores.

I.V. Kurukin, A.B. Plotnikov, 19 janvarja – 25 fevralja 1730 goda

What happened in Russia in January-February 1730? It is absolutely clear that neither for the readers nor for the authors is the issue simply one of reconstructing the course of events. The attempt by a group of imperial dignitaries to establish a limited monarchical regime during the interregnum; the difficult and in many ways enforced dialogue between the verkhovniki (the members of the Supreme Privy Council) and the shljakhetstvo (the nobility); the short but extraordinarily strong outburs...

Os tradutores da Casa do Arco do Cego e a ciência iluminista: a conciliação pelas palavras

Entre 1799 e 1801, funcionou em Lisboa a Casa Literária do Arco do Cego. Voltada para a publicação de obras científicas e didáticas ligadas à aplicação das ciências naturais, a Arco do Cego foi dirigida pelo frei José Mariano da Conceição Veloso, naturalista brasileiro e tradutor incansável. Para realizar o objetivo de trazer o progresso para o reino português por meio da instrução, as atividades da Arco do Cego ocorreram dentro de um sistema de mecenato em que a coroa portuguesa arcava com as despesas dos projetos. Essas despesas incluíam aquelas referentes ao pagamento dos tradutores recrutados por Frei Veloso, como Manoel Jacinto Nogueira da Gama, matemático, filósofo naturalista e professor que traduziu obras nas áreas de matemática e engenharia. As traduções publicadas sob a supervisão de Veloso eram introduzidas por dedicatórias e prefácios de tom laudatório escritos pelos tradutores, que assim reconheciam seu débito com a monarquia e declaravam sua fidelidade à Coroa e às tradições portuguesas. O objetivo deste trabalho é mostrar que esses paratextos funcionaram como instrumentos para a aceitação dos princípios científicos iluministas, pois as ideias progressistas eram apresentadas aos leitores portugueses por discursos comprometidos com as tradições do antigo regime português e com a retórica escolástica.

Indebted State versus Intermediary State: Who Owes What to Whom?

Ratios of public debt to GDP are much discussed these days and questions concerning debt relative to taxation have long been explored by fiscal scholars. With respect to monarchical regimes, it seems reasonable to treat public debt as similar to personal debt, recognizing that a monarch is not an ordinary person. When public debt arises through parliamentary assemblies, however, the similarity of form between public and personal debt vanishes because a parliamentary assembly does not trade on its own account; to the contrary, it is a type of intermediary that brings together people who buy bonds and people who later pay the bondholders. In a republic there is no sovereign who is indebted to ruled subjects. The institutional framework of republican governance transforms public borrowing into a process of intermediation among citizens, which leads in turn to the alternative orientation toward public debt that this paper explores.

Mortuary Variability at Salamis (Cyprus)

The Royal Necropolis and the Cellarka cemetery at Iron Age Salamis (Cyprus) have notable funerary shifts that likely reflect changes in socio-political organization. Construction of the Royal Tombs eventually ceased in favor of grave reuse, roughly when initial elite Cellarka burials appeared in emulation of the Royal Necropolis. This study modifies Rupp’s (1988) argument that the Royal Tombs represent aggrandizing individuals who legitimized a monarchical government through funerary display. Instead, it is argued that the Salaminian burials show transformations in social stability indicative of power being renegotiated among competing regions. Not only were social statuses at stake but also inter regional social, political and economic relations, especially as they are concerned with territorial boundaries and mercantile privileges. A Salaminian strategy for island supremacy over the other early city-kingdoms, particularly Kition, emphasized international relations through display of foreign items and through legitimizing claims of association with Bronze Age Enkomi. The development of the elaborate mortuary displays at Salamis, subsequent restrictions in funerary behavior and even perhaps the often-claimed parallels to Homer are all part of this process of multi-regional competition.

Mortuary Variability at Salamis (Cyprus): Relationships between and within the Royal Necropolis and the Cellarka Cemetery

The Royal Necropolis and the Cellarka cemetery at Iron Age Salamis (Cyprus) have notable funerary shifts that likely reflect changes in socio-political organization. Construction of the Royal Tombs eventually ceased in favor of grave reuse, roughly when initial elite Cellarka burials appeared in emulation of the Royal Necropolis. This study modifies Rupp’s (1988) argument that the Royal Tombs represent aggrandizing individuals who legitimized a monarchical government through funerary display. Instead, it is argued that the Salaminian burials show transformations in social stability indicative of power being renegotiated among competing regions. Not only were social statuses at stake but also inter regional social, political and economic relations, especially as they are concerned with territorial boundaries and mercantile privileges. A Salaminian strategy for island supremacy over the other early city-kingdoms, particularly Kition, emphasized international relations through display of foreign items and through legitimizing claims of association with Bronze Age Enkomi. The development of the elaborate mortuary displays at Salamis, subsequent restrictions in funerary behavior and even perhaps the often-claimed parallels to Homer are all part of this process of multi-regional competition.

Hope, Fear and Dance Dance Dance: Popular Music in 1960s Iran

In the decades preceding Iran's 1979 revolution, the country underwent rapid cultural change, implemented in part by a monarchic regime seeking to ‘modernize’ the nation. As Iran's then Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, increased his personal power in the 1960s, many Iranians resented aspects of his policy of ‘westernization’. This resentment was a significant factor in the emerging revolutionary movement. At the same time, many Iranians welcomed aspects of what they saw as western modernity, including its effects on popular music. Iranian popular culture changed most radically in the 1960s, when popular music shifted from the styles seen as ‘eastern’ that were prominent in the 1950s to the ‘westernized’ styles that would dominate the 1970s. This article examines the complexities of this shift, focusing on the music of popular singers Googoosh, Delkash, Vigen, Susan and Aghasi, as well as beat bands such as the Rebels. It analyses the effects on musical practices of cinema, television and the gap between rich and poor in 1960s Iran, as well as the problematic notions of modernity and ‘the West’. Finally, the article considers the position of 1960s Iranian popular music today, especially its role as an object of nostalgia in Iran and the diaspora.

Gli anniversari della Rivoluzione e della Repubblica in Spagna. I casi di Madrid e Barcellona

The long-term establishment of a symbolic, iconographic and ritual framework was essential for the development and maintenance of culture in Spain. The effects and diffusion of this framework were enacted in particular by the celebration of a whole series of commemorative acts of broad scope and varied themes. Thus certain Republican days were established, constructing a calendar which acted as an alternative to the Catholic calendar and the official one fixed by the monarchical regime, and which, beyond the simple purpose of any calendar, attempted to mark and modulate the annual activity of the various centres throughout Spanish territory. This essay attempts to analyse the long-term evolution of the forms and impact of these celebrations. The tensions and conflicts of the many Republican memories that had been elaborated can be ascertained through the comparison of the cases of Madrid and Barcelona, which presented as many shared elements as essential differences, with special regard to the nationalistic implications of the opposing ideologies. The essay focuses on the multiple conflicts and tensions within these symbolic and cultural constructions, which could not be limited to a single theme.

Historical Endogeneity: Origins and Determinants of Constitutional Choices

This paper discusses the historical and political determinants in the formation and choice of constitutional systems. Historically, parliamentary systems evolved from monarchic regimes. British colonial structures also favored the installation for parliamentary systems in localized colonies, mostly those in the Caribbean and Countries as Canada and Australia. On the other hand, national liberation movements, since the nineteenth century, have consistently pushed countries into presidential systems. Political independence in non European countries, where monarchs were not available, posed problems of national representation and defense in the design of the new institutions, setting the conditions for the creation of government systems other than parliamentary monarchies. Concerning civil-military relations, the military were also very important in European monarchies in resisting democracy and full parliamentary government, as well as in supporting the sovereign powers of monarchs in military and foreign policy matters. In new republics the military were also supportive of increasing the powers of the presidency and toppling democratic regimes. Military are indifferent between presidential regimes and parliamentary systems as long as they keep their autonomy and direct access to the sovereign. In this respect, the constitutional definition of the office of the commander-in-chief is among the most significant concerns of the military to guarantee this access.

Brasileiro tradutor e/ou traidor: Frei José Mariano da Conceição Veloso.

This article is concerned with a specific phenomenon of the history of translation into Portuguese, the boom of translation of scientific and didactic texts in the turn of the 18th century in Portugal, in which a considerable number of Brazilians were involved. We focus the work of Friar José Mariano da Conceição Veloso, who has lately been referred to as a key figure in the history of sciences and books publishing in Portugal and Brazil. Friar Veloso was translator, editor, and translation coordinator in charge of the work of translators concerned with pragmatic texts in Lisbon. Veloso’s involvement with the still incipient editorial industry in Portugal was linked to Portuguese Enlightenment, especially the dissemination of scientific knowledge that could be applied to the progress of the Portuguese kingdom. Clues of Friar Veloso’s close connection with the Portuguese official policies are found in the prefaces he wrote for his translations, and they are enough to include him withim a patronage system that defined the direction his editorial activities would take. Curiously, despite these ties to the authoritarian Portuguese monarchical regime, Friar Veloso’s work led to unexpected historical developments, such as the growth of the reading public and the improvement of printing techniques.

«Una columna fortísima del altar y del trono»: Pedro Gutiérrez de Cos, obispo de Huamanga y de Puerto Rico (1750-1833)

Pedro Gutierrez de Cos has not been sufficiently studies in Peruvian historiography and is scarcely mentioned once he left Peru, due to this it has not been possible to conduct an in-depth study about his option for independence, position which prevailed among his thinking and acting until his death in Puerto Rico. This articles aims to lim three aspects in Gutierrez de Cos: his academic and professional performance, from his beginnings in Peruvian higher education centers, until the obtention of tthe most important titles in the Hispanic-American ecclesiastic sphere; the political conservative ideas, pillars of the monarchic government and his performance in their respective ecclesiastic destinations; and, among all of these, the independentist political unrest in Peru. The monarchical spirit of Gutierrez de Cos enabled him to acquire another bishopric beyond this ocean.

Islamic terrorism

Islamic terrorism

Side Effects of Regime Building in Jordan: The State and the Nation

Both the September 1970 Jordanian ‘civil war’ and the signing of the Jordanian National Charter in 1991 mark critical junctures in the processes of state, regime, and nation building in the kingdom. The subduing of the fedayeen in 1970–71 eliminated the final significant challenger to the sovereignty of the Jordanian state. The National Charter brought historic opposition groups together to grant legitimacy to the monarchical regime. Both the solidification of state power and the consolidation of the regime, however, had the unintended side effect of undermining the building of national unity on foundations other than a monarchical ‘civic’ nationalism.

Oliver Cromwell, European Historical Myth? The Case of the Italian States in Seventeenth-Century Representations of Cromwell

Oliver Cromwell's centrality in English history is an unquestionable fact, but the issue of his 'greatness' remains historically controversial. It relates to his reputation through time1 and to his capacity to divide successive generations over the historical meaning of the English civil wars and Interregnum.2 Yet the unrelenting process in pursuit of Oliver Cromwell has been limited solely to British sources, with scant attention paid to foreign sources. When we are concerned with such a dominant personality, the study of his reputation and its representation is crucial to the recovery of his place in history, because only reputations survive oblivion. Seventeenth-century Europe saw the growth of periodical information and of the book market, so that while Cromwell's deeds concerned primarily the British Isles, his reputation transcended British boundaries arousing great interest among contemporary Europeans. As a first step towards the reconstruction of this European dimension of Cromwell's reputation in the seventeenth century, this essay examines in turn the sources available to Italian observers. We will first consider the diplomatic sources, such as the reports sent by the ambassadors of the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany, and of the Republics of Venice and Genoa, then the sources of periodical information like the newsbooks and the printed or manuscript 'avvisi' (advices), and finally the writings on Cromwell which were published and circulated in the Italian states of the time.3Among the Italian states, the only ones which had official representation in London during the Interregnum were the Republics of Venice and Genoa, and the Grand Dukedom of Florence. From 1618 Alessandro Salvetti Antelminelli, who came from a noble but impoverished family of Lucca, was the accredited resident in London for the Grand Dukedom of Tuscany.4 Until 1649, Oliver Cromwell appeared only sporadically in his dispatches to the Court of the Grand Duke Federico II de' Medici. Equally the dispatches sent to the resident by the Florentine Secretary of State, the Bali Gondi, did not mention Cromwell until 1652. Cromwell's name appears more frequently with the Irish campaign of 1649-50. This man of extraordinary steadiness, wrote Alessandro Salvetti, subdued the rebel neighbour to the government of the 'free commonwealth', and he was sure he would bring the war to an end in a very short time.5 Nevertheless the situation of the Commonwealth appeared unstable to the Florentine resident owing to 'religion and to the people's discontent for the increasing taxation'.6 In this context, it was reported in London that many MPs wished to proceed to the election of a king. In the opinion of Salvetti this was the only way to rule a country 'which has always been governed by a monarch'.7 The Florentine resident heard of many suggestions that Cromwell would have been crowned by Parliament, despite the opposition of Presbyterians who feared he 'aims to become king by means of the army'.8In Salvetti's correspondence between 1653 and 1654 the prevailing image of Cromwell is of a moderate politician who adopted a tolerant religious policy. Cromwell was recognized as the leader of the Independents party. Although the Catholic Salvetti was critical of English religious and social radicalism, he was conscious of the shrewdness with which Cromwell dealt with the danger it presented. In July 1653, John Lilburne, just released, was again prosecuted by Cromwell in person because he considered him 'factious and popular'.9 Later, in opposition to the growth of the Anabaptist faction, Cromwell, at the time he became Lord Protector, was obliged to take from the Nominated Assembly 'that authority in which he put them'.10This image of Cromwell as a pragmatist changed after the exclusion of the Nominated Assembly. In December 1653 Salvetti wrote that the present government 'is now absolutely and despotically handled by Mister Gen. Cromwell', while, after the election of the first Parliament of the Protectorate, Salvetti was convinced that 'although we will have no more king, nevertheless we will have always a monarchical government'. …

Redefining the Libyan revolution: the changing ideology of Muammar al-Qaddafi

On 1 September 1969, the Free Unionist Officers movement, led by Captain Muammar al-Qaddafi, executed a successful coup d'état, overthrowing the monarchical regime that had ruled Libya since independence in 1951. From the outset, Qaddafi articulated a comprehensive, well-thought-out ideology, grounded in the revolutionary trinity of freedom, socialism and unity. For almost two decades, continuity and consistency were the dominant characteristics of the ideology of the One September Revolution; however, internal and external pressures combined to force Qaddafi to introduce small but noteworthy reforms in the second half of the 1980s. Following a prolonged period of international isolation, Qaddafi at the end of the 1990s again began to tout significant reforms. In the process, most of the major ideological tenets of the One September Revolution were modified, replaced, or discarded. The unique system of direct democracy developed by the Libyan leader in the 1970s remained the only important element of his original ideology to prove largely impervious to change.

Iran's New Iraq

The US invasion of Iraq has revolutionized the strategic architecture of the Persian Gulf in a manner that is still difficult to fully appreciate. Among the relationships that have been dramatically altered by America's move are the ties between Iran and Iraq. A critical examination reveals that more than territorial disputes or contending hegemonic aspirations, it was ideology that caused tension and ultimately war between these two states from 1980-88. While the earlier monarchical governments managed to contain their disputes, the ideological regimes of Saddam Husayn and the Iranian mullahs ultimately waged a devastating war against each other. Today, for the first time, ideology does not seem to be a source of friction between the two states, portending a more favorable relationship. The question then becomes, can the United States transcend its visceral suspicions of Iran and recognize that its long-term nemesis may be a source of stability? Iran's relations with no other country have been as complicated and tortuous as its ties with Iraq. It was once assumed that Iran and Iraq were natural antagonists, destined to have relations marked by friction and tension. Given the countries' prolonged war in the 1980s and their sustained attempts to assert influence in the Persian Gulf, such a narrative has a degree of historical justification. Still, today there are emphatic voices suggesting that post-Saddam Iraq with its empowered Shi'ite majority is likely to emerge as a close ally, if not an actual subsidiary, of the Islamic Republic. The question then becomes, which of these two accounts actually come closest to reality? The turbulent history between the two nations can alternatively support a variety of assessments and predictions. It is true that the two sides fought a vicious war that destroyed both countries' infrastructure and scarred a generation. And yet, how does one explain the long periods of cooperation between them in the years since Iraq assumed its formal independence in 1932? The answer lies in the domestic political complexion of the two states. When both Iran and Iraq were governed by conservative monarchies, they managed to regulate their competition, contain their differences, and even cooperate on issues of common concern. However, the revolutionary, Ba'thist regime in Iraq, which took power in 1968, found the Iranian Pahlavi dynasty objectionable, just as Iran's theocrats would later find Saddam Husayn reprehensible. All this is not to suggest that the two sides do not have territorial disputes or regional ambitions that may provoke difficulties. But such problems are much harder to resolve by regimes that are ideological antagonists. Much in the Middle East has changed in the past few years, as Saddam's tyranny has been displaced by American military intervention. The rise of the Shi'ite community in Iraq is likely to portend better relations with Iran, as many of Iraq's leading Shi'ite political actors have close and intimate ties with the Islamic Republic. Despite the alarmist discussions regarding Iran's determination to spread its revolution next door, for Tehran the critical issue remains preventing the Sunni domination of Iraqi politics. Far more than religious compatibility, it was the Iran-Iraq War that seemingly convinced the theocratic elite that the Sunni monopoly of power would inevitably lead them toward an aggressive pan-Arabist posture as a means of justifying their political hegemony. The rulers of the Islamic Republic have no illusions that the Shi'ites in Iraq are likely to concede to their authority, but they are merely seeking a more amenable set of interlocutors next door. For the first time since the overthrow of the Hashemite monarchy in 1958, Iraq is no longer a revisionist state infused with discursive pan-Arabist pretensions. After all the diplomatic maneuvers and conflicts, it was the American invasion that finally opened the possibility of not just improved, but friendly relations between two of the Middle East's most bitter enemies. …

The Cwezi-Kubandwa Debate: Gender, Hegemony and Pre-Colonial Religion in Bunyoro, Western Uganda

AbstractThe Cwezi-kubandwa cult was the most prominent form of religious belief in the interlacustrine region of East Africa during the pre-colonial period. It has long been regarded as providing ideological support to monarchical regimes across the region. Recently, though, scholars have contrasted the hegemonic ambitions of the state with evidence that Cwezi-kubandwa also provided opponents of pre-colonial authority structures with both ideological and organizational resources. In particular historians of the cult have hypothesized that Cwezi-kubandwa offered women a refuge from patriarchal political and domestic institutions, and that Cwezi-kubandwa was dominated by women in terms of its leadership, membership and idioms. This article challenges the new orthodoxy by suggesting that both traditional religion's hegemonic and counter-hegemonic roles may have been over-estimated. A re-examination of the Nyoro sources indicates instead that Cwezi-kubandwa was far from homogeneous and dominant, that kubandwa was not obviously oppositional to other, supposedly male-dominated, religious beliefs, and that Cwezi-kubandwa brought female exploitation as well as empowerment. These findings require either a re-evaluation of the nature of Cwezi-kubandwa across the region, or recognition that the cult was much more geographically diverse than has hitherto been believed.

Os diretos humanos à luz da história e do sistema jurídico contemporâneo

This work consists of the analysis of human rights from a historical and juridical perspective of its theoretical statute. A consequence of humanity’s historical and social progress, human rights has a gradual affirmation, varying according to the political, juridical and axiological transformations carried out by the action of institutions and men in the course of the historical process. The glorious revolution, the North American Independence, the French Revolution, the emergence of the first constitutional letters, the constitution of Liberal States, the World Wars, the emergence of Interventionist States and the legitimating crisis of the Lawful Social Democratic States were paradigmatic events to understand the process of formation and consolidation of human rights in its various levels. The first level rights (political and civil rights) were materialized in a bourgeoisie liberal constitutionalist model. It is about a rationalizing model, the basis that support the bourgeoisie in power, that is based on contemplating rational premises from humanism, rationalism, secularism, and scientificism, in opposition to the monarchic regime, absolutist and sacred of the Modern States. This juridical paradigm is based on the protection of the individual freedom and security and introduces to the world a for-mal conception of Constitution based on two fundamental characteristics: the Idea of the State’s division of powers, and the idea of negative rights declaration – right of opposition and resistance against the State. However, this bourgeoisie-individualist liberal juridical model goes into crisis: with the development of the capitalist economy (and its social tensions), with the formation of economical monopolies at the end of 19th century, with the possible insurgence from socialism and, due to market’s inability of self-regu-lation, the State was faced with innumerable difficulties to keep the same passive structure, and with the distancing from the social expectations, such as those proposed by the principles of economical liberalism. The Capitalist State founded on liberal premises, as a political, social and economical posture, needed to be reformulated and open to the social influences in order to preserve the structural fundaments and the legitimating of the Capitalist State. These are the basis for the transformation of the Liberal State into the Social State and the progressive institutionalization of second level rights (economical, social and cultural rights based not only on freedom, but also on equality). With such an institutional reformulation, and in name of the preservation of the capitalist system itself, the State starts, from the perception of insufficiency of the Liberal State model, to provide material equality and social inclusion, a more interventionist and managerial face – conciliation of the capitalist development with its necessary legitimization. With time, the Lawful Democratic Social State, the support of emancipating transformation, starts to demonstrate signs of crisis due to the increasing expenditure in the administration of the State machine and in the conduction of the public thing (public deficit), added to the financial inability of the State to comply with its institutional obligations. In this period of crisis of the providing State model (post-interventionist), the transnationalization of the economy and the markets lead the State and the Law to directly suffer the influxes and the imperatives of the globalized economy, the interests of the financial market, the neo-liberalism and the increasing emphasis on rationalization of the trans-nationalized capitalist economy. This reality produces an intense process of delegitimating of the democratic system. Concomitantly to this crisis, perhaps due to the necessity to recover the values of the contemporaneous democracy, appears in the social scene a new cate-gory of rights. They are the third level rights, representative of the new aspirations of fraternity (solidarity rights relative to development, peace, the individual and peoples self-determination, and the environment). These are human rights translators of the existence of a minimum consensus about some demands that are inherent to the human condition itself. The third level rights appear as the result of the demand to rescue the democratic system working, legitimization and effectiveness, with the incorporation of new expectations born from social consensus – direct expression of the popular will and participation and of a project for democracy’s progressive and mutual action to be carried out in an international level.

The Modern Prince in the Age of the Third Wave: Economic Reform and Political Democratization in Morocco and Jordan

This article deals with the question of dual transition by examining two Arab monarchical regimes of Morocco and Jordan. The two countries represent different paths of Middle Eastern monarchies weathering through the agony of dual transition. Each country has its own combination of economic and political liberalization. While Morocco is showing the sign of a trade-off between successful economic reform and lagging democratization, Jordan is approaching the type of economics and politics go together. This path divergence constitutes the dependent variable in this essay, whereas economic structure and political cleavages serve as two independent variables. I conclude that rentierism can be a contributing factor to democratization as well as an obstacle to economic reform. Once the decline of exogenous rents begins, the state with any intention of pushing for economic reform is obliged to choose one from two options: either forming a democratic consensus or resorting to authoritarian measures. The fiscal crisis of a “rentier state ” increases the political costs of authoritarian leadership and thereby leads incumbent rulers to opt for the distribution of economic burdens by way of democratic opening. Jordan fits the case. In contrast, a “productionist state ” does not have to make political concessions to facilitate economic reform because its economy is more inward-looking. Morocco is closer to the latter.