# S9 Ep35: The success of the embedded state

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/voxtalks-economics-504930/s9-ep35-the-success-of-the-embedded-state.md
Podcast: [VoxTalks Economics](https://stenobird.com/podcast/voxtalks-economics-504930)
Published: 2026-06-26T10:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://audioboom.com/posts/8921183
Audio file: https://audioboom.com/posts/8921183.mp3?modified=1782457145&sid=4966228&source=rss
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/voxtalks-economics-504930/episodes/s9-ep35-the-success-of-the-embedded-state
Duration seconds: 1221

## Resource

Who kept the courts sitting and the streetlights lit when the state had almost no money to pay anyone? Two hundred years ago, British local government ran on unpaid labour. In a parliamentary survey of the boroughs from 1835, two in three of the people doing local government work were not paid at all. James Robinson (University of Chicago, CEPR) explains how this succeeded in this week's episode of VoxTalks Economics. Robinson and his co-authors call this the "embedded state". Members of the elite willingly took the unpaid jobs because the postings carried prestige and led to Parliament, promotion or a paid post. Less glamorous or dead-end postings -- the jailer for example -- had to be paid But the unpaid officers were more productive than the paid ones. Robinson argues this is not a quirk of England at that time. Rwanda runs a high-capacity state today on much the same basis, without ever raising the taxes the IMF says a proper government needs. The lesson for anyone trying to make government work: start with the society, not the tax code. New episode of VoxTalks Economics. Link in bio. Image: William Benjamin Watkins by George Patten / Manchester Town Hall. The research behind this episode: Heldring, Leander, Davis Kedrosky, James A. Robinson, and Matthias Weigand. 2026. "The Success of the Embedded State in England." CEPR Discussion Paper No. 21460. Centre for Economic Policy Research, London. To cite this episode: Phillips, Tim, and James A. Robinson. 2026. "The success of the embedded state." VoxTalks Economics (podcast). Assign this as extra listening. The citation above is formatted and ready for a reading list or VLE. About the guest James A. Robinson is University Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy and the Department of Political Science, Univers…

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