Furthermore, we differentiate between two previously conflated dimensions of political complexity: political hierarchy and functional differentiation, arguing that the latter — closely related to actual governing practices — should be more susceptible to the impact of direct rule.

Without such evidence on persistence, “institutional persistence” is observationally equivalent to “persistent effects” of precolonial institutions -- historical effects of institutions (e.g., leading to past development) that have persisted independent of the institutions themselves. 2/

Are political institutions persistent? A large literature on the long-term effects of precolonial African institutions assumes as much. But so far, we lacked quantitative evidence for this.

In our new PSRM paper, @carlmc.bsky.social and I investigate this... doi.org/10.1017/psrm...

polisky