August 21, 2006

King Leopold and Government Constraint

Belgian King Leopold II's rule is a case of instututional and cultural contraints limiting a government. It's a case of two Leopolds. As king of Belgium he implemented free trade, and the nation prospered. It prospered so much Leopold undertook public building projects that gave him the name "King-Builder."

But there was another Leopold. In Africa he personally owned the Congo Free State. There he had fewer constraints. He could more easily do what he wanted for personal enrichment. Millions perished.

Brian Micklethwait summarizes well Leopold's lessons to political economists:

Leopold II, pursuer of ultimate and permanent power whenever and wherever he could find it, was able to let rip in Africa, but not in Belgium. Her was a civilised Belgian ruler not because he liked his fellow Belgians and welcomed their massed and massive influence over him. He hated it. He just did, in Belgium, what he had to do. The environment made the difference.

Countries are governed the way they are, not because the politicians in some countries are intrinsically more greedy and corrupt than they are in other countries, or for that matter because people in different countries differ in their willingness to accept tyranny, but because different countries differ in the constraints they place upon rulers.

"Bruce Bueno de Mesquita on the Logic of Political Survival and the Two Faces of King Leopold II of Belgium"

"The Political Economy of Power"