Three Essays on New Political Economy

This dissertation presents three primarily theoretical essays focusing on the issue of how the landed elite attempts to remove the threat of revolution that is posed by the populace at large and, in doing so, to protect its wealth from expropriation. In each chapter, we compare two possible policies that could relax domestic conflict between the very rich and the poor, and sustain the control of current incumbents over the state. We investigate the conditions under which the incumbent prefers to implement one possible policy over the other.