oligarchy is not inevitable. Either some preexisting inclusive
elements in institutions, or the presence of broad coalitions
leading the fight against the existing regime, or just the
contingent nature of history, can break vicious circles. Just
like the civil war in Sierra Leone, the Glorious Revolution in
1688 was a struggle for power. But it was a struggle of a
very different nature than the civil war in Sierra Leone.
Conceivably some in Parliament fighting to remove James
II in the wake of the Glorious Revolution imagined
themselves playing the role of the new absolutist, as Oliver
Cromwell did after the English Civil War. But the fact that
Parliament was already powerful and made up of a broad
coalition consisting of different economic interests and
different points of view made the iron law of oligarchy less
likely to apply in 1688. And it was helped by the fact that
luck was on the side of Parliament against James II. In the
next chapter, we will see other examples of countries that
have managed to break the mold and transform their
institutions for the better, even after a long history of
extractive institutions.