Innovating Works

ORIG_STATE

Financiado
Colonization, Early Institutions and the Origin of State Capacity and Democratiz...
"My research project proposes studying the origin of state capacity, democracy and political dynasties using the colonial conquest of Latin America as a natural experiment. Much of the recent work on comparative politics and devel... "My research project proposes studying the origin of state capacity, democracy and political dynasties using the colonial conquest of Latin America as a natural experiment. Much of the recent work on comparative politics and development uses large historical events as fruitful experimentation laboratories. However, the colonial experience looks more similar to a ""bundle treatment"" than a single treatment. It is difficult to disentangle the role of differences in legal origin from the influences of human capital, etc. To try to overcome this problem, past empirical approaches use a variety of methods like case studies, panel data, country-fixed effects, and instrumental variables. I will try to move one step further in this debate by considering the initial years of the Spanish colonization of Latin America as a natural experiment. My methodological approach has four advantages. First, since I only analyse the initial years of colonization, my empirical strategy is based on the fact that the initial conquerors had no knowledge of the land that they intended to conquer. The second advantage is that, in working with the colonization of Latin America, we only have one colonial power, Spain, which avoids the traditional problems of diversity of legal origins. The third advantage is that the contracts (Capitulaciones), that the conquerors signed with the King before embarking to America, and before even knowing anything about the land that he would conquer, and other documents from the Archivo de Indias, provide very rich details on the rules that governed the early institutions (power to tax and rule, the use of military power, the treatment of indigenous groups, etc.). Finally, these documents contain information to locate the initial settlements at the subnational level. The colonization of the Americas and the information contained in the Capitulaciones found in the Archivo de Indias provides a unique opportunity to advance the debate on these crucial questions." ver más
31/10/2027
UPF
2M€
Duración del proyecto: 64 meses Fecha Inicio: 2022-06-20
Fecha Fin: 2027-10-31

Línea de financiación: concedida

El organismo HORIZON EUROPE notifico la concesión del proyecto el día 2022-06-20
Línea de financiación objetivo El proyecto se financió a través de la siguiente ayuda:
ERC-2021-ADG: ERC ADVANCED GRANTS
Cerrada hace 3 años
Presupuesto El presupuesto total del proyecto asciende a 2M€
Líder del proyecto
UNIVERSITAT POMPEU FABRA No se ha especificado una descripción o un objeto social para esta compañía.
Total investigadores 321