Crops and democracy

choi

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Matt Ridley, For Democracy, Bet on Peas Over Pineapples. Wall Street Journal, Apr 30, 2011.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704132204576285263320561604.html

Note:
(a) The article mentions "a fine new paper by Stephen Haber of Stanford and Victor Menaldo of the University of Washington."

It is
Haber S and Menaldo V, Rainfall, Human Capital, and Democracy. Apr 2, 2011.
http://www.innovation.hoover.org/media/file/Haber%20and%20Menaldo,%20Rainfall,%20Human%20Capital,%20Democracy%20April%202%202011.pdf

, whcih has about sixty web pages. You will have to read the abstract, pages 1-3 and 13 (about Figure 1), 14 (Figure 2) of the text, at least, to understand the argument.

Nowadays, the most populous city in China is Chingqing with annual precipitation of 1,140mm/45 in, followed by Shanghai (1,042.6mm/41.0 in) and Beijing (570mm/22.4 in). All figures are derived from Wikipedia (pages titled Chingqing, Geography of Shanghai, and Beijing). I assume, however, that Bejing was the largest city for centuries prior to the rise of Shanghai, which came to prominence adther the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. Beijing's figure fits into "persistent autocracries" which "overwhelmingly cluster in deserts and semi-arid environments (0-550 mm per year) and in the tropics (above 1300 mm per year)."

Haber is a fitting surname. Haber in Middle High German means "oats" and denotes a grower or dealer of oats.

(b) pulse (n; Middle English puls, probably from Anglo-French puuiz gruel, from Latin pult-, puls, probably from Greek poltos):
"the edible seeds of various crops (as peas, beans, or lentils) of the legume family; also : a plant yielding pulse"
www.m-w.com
(c)  For pastoralist, see pastoralism
(n): "livestock raising
(d) the author refers to "perish" "in both senses of that word." That is die (of animal) and decay (of meat).
(e) James Dole (1877–1958) in 1901 opened the first pineapple plantation in Oahu, Hawaii and founded teh present-day Dole Food Company.  
(f) The article tallies China in the column of persistent autocracies.
※ 修改:．choi 于 May  2 16:16:47 修改本文．[FROM: 129.10.0.0]