False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Inclusive institutions create virtuous cycles.
Let’s continue with England as our case study. 
It’s no fluke that when fundamental inclusive 
institutions are put in place, the result is inclusive 
economic reform.
That’s because inclusive institutions not only 
stimulate economic growth; they also effectively 
reinforce themselves over time.
As England’s political institutions became more 
pluralistic, it was in the interest of each powerful 
faction to ensure that every other faction’s power 
was circumscribed by law.
Step by step, during the nineteenth and 
twentieth centuries, these institutions became 
increasingly inclusive. The right to vote was 
extended beyond the landed elite, until suffrage 
was eventually universal for men and women, 
regardless of wealth.
It was thanks to the concerted efforts of the 
disenfranchised that universal suffrage was 
achieved. Workers’ strikes, social unrest, 
petitioning and campaigning all played their part.
However, the success of the disenfranchised did 
not exist in a vacuum. In part, institutions already 

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established in England were geared toward 
compromise. It was in the interests of the elite 
that stability and governance be maintained and 
orderly. There was no reason to allow the 
collapse of a system that had proved so 
financially successful. Better to heed demands, 
rather than let revolution stalk the land.
This increasing suffrage marked a shift toward 
more pluralistic political institutions which were 
now equipped to represent the economic 
interests of a greater share of people. Economic 
institutions, in turn, also became more inclusive.
While the mills of justice and suffrage turned 
slowly, the oil that kept things turning was the 
media.
It monitored the actions of the powerful and kept 
voters informed of political events. In short, it 
ensured the self-fulfilling process of institutional 
political inclusivity kept running.
We need only look across the pond for an 
example.
In the US, at the turn of the twentieth century, 
“robber barons” created powerful monopolies, 
such as Standard Oil and the US Steel 
Company. Between 1901 and 1921, however, 
presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Taft and 
Woodrow Wilson enacted anti-monopoly laws 
that shut down the barons’ attempts to procure 
more economic power.
It was due to the efforts of the press that abuses 
of power by these monopolies became a 
national issue. Soon, people across the country 
were demanding reform.