Showing papers on "Democracy published in 2001"

Development and Crisis of the Welfare State: Parties and Policies in Global Markets

Abstract: This text offers a systematic examination of the origins, character, effects and prospects of generous welfare states in advanced industrial democracies in the post-World War II era. The authors demonstrate that prolonged government by different parties results in different welfare states, with strong differences in levels of poverty and inequality. Combining quantitative studies with historical qualitative research, the authors look closely at nine countries that achieved high degrees of social protection through different types of welfare regimes: social democratic states, Christian democratic states, and "wage earner" states.

Toward a Democratic Civil Peace? Democracy, Political Change, and Civil War, 1816-1992

Abstract: The “third wave of democratization” (Huntington 1991; Vanhanen 2000) has raised hopes for a more peaceful world. The thesis of the democratic peace suggests that the spread of democracy will promote a decline in interstate warfare (Doyle 1986; Russett 1993), at least once the unsettling effects of the transition period are overcome (Ward and Gleditsch 1998). But does democratization also lead to civil peace? Considerable research has examined how regime type or the level of democracy relates to domestic conflict. Much of it focuses on the result that semidemocracies (regimes intermediate between a democracy and an autocracy) exhibit a higher propensity for civil conflict than either extreme. Another strand of research focuses on how changes in regime lead to domestic conflict. This has implications for the former finding, since semidemocracies are more prone to regime change. Indeed, is the greater propensity for violence of intermediate regimes equivalent to the finding that states in political transition experience more violence? Are the results relating civil violence to level and change, in fact, one and the same finding? Or, are both explanations relevant? That is the key issue examined in this article. We link level of democracy and regime change in an empirical analysis that uses data from 152 countries in the period 1816 ‐1992. We also explore the implications of the direction and magnitude of political change. The statistical model we formulate overcomes some of the problems in research that is based on country-years, such as the fact that these do not constitute independent observations, as well as the possibility that the amount of civil war in the system of states fluctuates over time. Finally, our work adopts a multivariate framework with several control variables, among them socioeconomic and cultural factors, as well as spatial and temporal contagion. A separate analysis, with a more extensive set of control variables, is performed for the post‐World War II period.

Deepening Democracy: Innovations in Empowered Participatory Governance

Abstract: As the tasks of the state have become more complex and the size of polities larger and more heterogeneous, the institutional forms of liberal democracy developed in the nineteenth century—representative democracy plus technobureaucratic administration—seem increasingly ill suited to the novel problems we face in the twenty-first century. “Democracy” as a way of organizing the state has come to be narrowly identified with territorially based competitive elections of political leadership for legislative and executive offices. Yet, increasingly, this mechanism of political representation seems ineffective in accomplishing the central ideals of democratic politics: facilitating active political involvement of the citizenry, forging political consensus through dialogue, devising and implementing public policies that ground a productive economy and healthy society, and, in more radical egalitarian versions of the democratic ideal, ensuring that all citizens benefit from the nation’s wealth. The Right of the political spectrum has taken advantage of this apparent decline in the effectiveness of democratic institutions to escalate its attack on the very idea of the affirmative state. The only way the state can play a competent and constructive role, the Right typically argues, is to dramatically reduce the scope and depth of its activities. In addition to the traditional moral opposition of libertarians to the activist state on the grounds that it infringes on property rights and

What Are the Origins of Political Trust?: Testing Institutional and Cultural Theories in Post-communist Societies

Abstract: Popular trust in political institutions is vital to democracy, but in post-Communist countries, popular distrust for institutions is widespread, and prospects for generating increased political trust are uncertain given disagreements over its origins. Cultural theories emphasizing exogenous determinants of trust compete with institutional theories emphasizing endogenous influences, and both can be further differentiated into micro and macro variants. Competing hypotheses drawn from these theories are tested using data from 10 post-Communist countries in Eastern and Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. Aggregate data on economic and political performance are combined with survey data on interpersonal and political trust, political socialization experiences, and individual evaluations of national performance. Results strongly support the superiority of institutional explanations of the origins of political trust, especially micro-level explanations, while providing little support for either micro-cul...

Political Knowledge, Political Engagement, and Civic Education

Abstract: After decades of neglect, civic education is back on the agenda of political science in the United States. Despite huge increases in the formal educational attainment of the US population during the past 50 years, levels of political knowledge have barely budged. Today's college graduates know no more about politics than did high school graduates in 1950. Recent research indicates that levels of political knowledge affect the acceptance of democratic principles, attitudes toward specific issues, and political participation. There is evidence that political participation is in part a positional good and is shaped by relative as well as absolute levels of educational attainment. Contrary to findings from 30 years ago, recent research suggests that traditional classroom-based civic education can significantly raise political knowledge. Service learning—a combination of community-based civic experience and systematic classroom reflection on that experience—is a promising innovation, but program evaluations ha...

A Theory of Political Transitions

Abstract: We develop a theory of political transitions inspired by the experiences of Western Europe and Latin America. Nondemocratic societies are controlled by a rich elite. The initially disenfranchised poor can contest power by threatening revolution, especially when the opportunity cost is low, for example, during recessions. The threat of revolution may force the elite to democratize. Democracy may not consolidate because it is redistributive, and so gives the elite an incentive to mount a coup. Highly unequal societies are less likely to consolidate democracy, and may end up oscillating between regimes and suffer substantial fiscal volatility.

Republic.com

Abstract: From the Publisher: See only what you want to see, hear only what you want to hear; read only what you want to read. In cyberspace, we already have the ability to filter out everything but what we wish to see, hear, and read. Tomorrow, our power to filter promises to increase exponentially. With the advent of the Daily Me, you see only the sports highlights that concern your teams, read about only the issues that interest you, encounter in the op-ed pages only the opinions with which you agree. In all of the applause for this remarkable ascendance of personalized information, Cass Sunstein asks the questions, is it good for democracy? Is it healthy for the republic? What does this mean for freedom of speech? Republic.com exposes the drawbacks of egocentric Internet use, while showing us how to approach the Internet as responsible citizens, not just concerned consumers. Democracy, Sunstein maintains, depends on shared experiences and requires citizens to be exposed to topics and ideas that they would not have chosen in advance. Newspapers and braodcasters helped create a shared culture, but as their role diminishes and the customization of our communications universe increases, society is in danger of fragmenting, shared communities in danger of dissolving. In their place will arise only louder and ever more extreme echoes of our own voices, our own opinions. In evaluating the consequences of new communications technologies for democracy and free speech, Sunstein argues that the question is not whether to regulate the Net (it's already regulated), but how; proves that freedom of speech is not an absolute; and underscores the enormous potential of the Internet to rpomote freedom as well as its potential to promote "cybercascades" of like-minded opinions that foster and enflame hate groups. The book ends by suggesting a range of potential reforsm to correct current misconcpetions and to improve deliberative democracy and the health of the American republic.

The Invisible Hand of Democracy: Political Control and the Provision of Public Services

Abstract: Despite considerable normative support, analysts have failed to identify any systematic effects of democracy on domestic policy outputs. Building on a theory of the state as a monopoly producer of ...

Why Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State?

Abstract: EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS REDISTRIBUTE income among their citizens on a much larger scale than does the U.S. government. European social programs are more generous and reach a larger share of citizens. European tax systems are more progressive. European regulations designed to protect the poor are more intrusive. In this paper we try to understand why. The literature on the size of government is rich and varied. However, here we do not focus on the size of government as such, but rather on the redistributive side of government policies. Thus our goal is in one sense narrower than answering the question, "What explains the size of government?" since we focus on a single, but increasingly important, role of fiscal policy. Yet in another sense our focus is broader, because redistributive policies go beyond the government budget--think, for instance, of labor market policies. We consider economic, political, and behavioral explanations for these differences between the United States and Europe. Economic explanations focus on the variance of income and the skewness of the income distribution before taxes and transfers, the social costs of taxation, the volatility of income, and expected changes in income for the median voter. We conclude that most of these theories cannot explain the observed differences. Before-tax income in the United States has both a higher variance and a more skewed distribution. There is no evidence that the deadweight losses from taxation are lower in Europe. And the volatility of income appears to be lower in Europe than in the United States. However, there is some possibility that middle-class households in the United States have a greater chance of moving up in the income distribution, which would make the median voter more averse to redistribution. Political explanations for the observed level of redistribution focus on institutions that prevent minorities from gaining political power or that strictly protect individuals' private property. Cross-country comparisons indicate the importance of these institutions in limiting redistribution. For instance, at the federal level, the United States does not have proportional representation, which played an important role in facilitating the growth of socialist parties in many European countries. America has strong courts that have routinely rejected popular attempts at redistribution, such as the income tax or labor regulation. The European equivalents of these courts were swept away as democracy replaced monarchy and aristocracy. The federal structure of the United States may have also contributed to constraining the role of the central government in redistribution. These political institutions result from particular features of U.S. history and geography. The formation of the United States as a federation of independent territories led to a structure that often creates obstacles to centralized redistributive policies. The relative political stability of the United States over more than two centuries means that it is still governed by an eighteenth-century constitution designed to protect property. As world war and revolution uprooted the old European monarchies, the twentieth-century constitutions that replaced them were more oriented toward majority rule, and less toward protection of private property. Moreover, the spatial organization of the United States--in particular, its low population density--meant that the U.S. government was much less threatened by socialist revolution. In contrast, many of Europe's institutions were established either by revolutionary groups directly or by elites in response to the threat of violence. Finally, we discuss reciprocal altruism as a possible behavioral explanation for redistribution. Reciprocal altruism implies that voters will dislike giving money to the poor if, as in the United States, the poor are perceived as lazy. In contrast, Europeans overwhelmingly believe that the poor are poor because they have been unfortunate. …

Activist Challenges to Deliberative Democracy

Abstract: It seems there is an insuperable contradiction between two conceptions of social change : one rooted in collective action and critique by activists, the other based on the construction of a collective agreement after a fair deliberation, as argued by deliberative democrats. Through a dialogue between these two positions, this essay casts a new light on certain limitations of deliberative democratic norms, especially in a context of wide structural inequalities, making public discussion hardly ever equitable. In so doing this essay emphasizes the democratic virtues of non-deliberative and contentious political practices. It is only by opening deliberation to non-argumentative and critical forms of expression that it can achieve its ideal of inclusion and social change.

The Internet and Democratic Discourse: Exploring The Prospects of Online Deliberative Forums Extending the Public Sphere

Abstract: Three prominent 'camps' have emerged within Internet democracy rhetoric and practice, each drawing upon different models of democracy: communitarian, liberal individualist and deliberative. Much interest has been shown in the former two camps by researchers and policy makers. This paper turns to an examination of the possible realization of the third camp's vision - that the public sphere of rational-critical discourse will be extended through cyberspace. This paper's method is to compare existing online discourse with a set of requirements of the public sphere developed from the work of Jurgen Habermas. Previous research of cyber-interactions reveals a number of factors limiting the expansion of the public sphere online. Toexplore how these limitations may be overcome, the paper examines an online democracy project that explicitly attempts to foster deliberation. It is shown how this initiative has been able to successfully surmount many of the impediments identified in less structured online deliberatio...

The Deadlock of Democracy in Brazil

Abstract: Many countries have experimented with different electoral rules in order either to increase involvement in the political system or make it easier to form stable governments Barry Ames explores this important topic in one of the world's most populous and important democracies, Brazil This book locates one of the sources of Brazil's "crisis of governance" in the nation's unique electoral system, a system that produces a multiplicity of weak parties and individualistic, pork-oriented politicians with little accountability to citizens It explains the government's difficulties in adopting innovative policies by examining electoral rules, cabinet formation, executive-legislative conflict, party discipline and legislative negotiationThe book combines extensive use of new sources of data, ranging from historical and demographic analysis in focused comparisons of individual states to unique sources of data for the exploration of legislative politics The discussion of party discipline in the Chamber of Deputies is the first multivariate model of party cooperation or defection in Latin America that includes measures of such important phenomena as constituency effects, pork-barrel receipts, ideology, electoral insecurity, and intention to seek reelection With a unique data set and a sophisticated application of rational choice theory, Barry Ames demonstrates the effect of different electoral rules for election to Brazil's legislatureThe readership of this book includes anyone wanting to understand the crisis of democratic politics in Brazil The book will be especially useful to scholars and students in the areas of comparative politics, Latin American politics, electoral analysis, and legislative studiesBarry Ames is the Andrew Mellon Professor of Comparative Politics and Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh

Constructing the scientific citizen: Science and democracy in the biosciences

Abstract: The relationship between science policy and public opinion has become a lively topic in the UK - especially with regard to the BSE crisis and genetically modified foods. A number of governmental publications have recently advocated greater public dialogue and engagement. In this general context, the paper explores the configuration of scientific citizenship and of the scientific citizen within policy and consultation processes. Building upon a detailed examination of one important social experiment - the Public Consultation on Developments in the Biosciences - the social construction of both science and public consultation is considered. With particular attention to the framing of issues for public debate, the constitution of audience and the construction of citizenship, the paper argues the need to move beyond mere sloganizing over science and democracy. The discussion concludes with a presentation of competing technologies of community and an assessment of their significance for the future practice of s...

Accountability and Corruption: Political Institutions Matter

Abstract: The results of a cross-country empirical analysis suggest that political institutions are extremely important in determining the prevalence of corruption: democracy, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of the press are all associated with lower corruption. Using a cross-country panel, Lederman, Loayza, and Soares examine the determinants of corruption, paying particular attention to political institutions that increase political accountability. Previous empirical studies have not analyzed the role of political institutions, even though both the political science and the theoretical economics literature have indicated their importance in determining corruption. The main theoretical hypothesis guiding the authorsi empirical investigation is that political institutions affect corruption through two channels: political accountability and the structure of the provision of public goods. The results suggest that political institutions are extremely important in determining the prevalence of corruption: democracy, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of the press are all associated with lower corruption. In addition, the authors show that common findings of the earlier empirical literature on the determinants of corruption related to openness and legal traditionodo not hold once political variables are taken into account. This paper - a product of the Office of the Chief Economist, Latin America and the Caribbean Region - is part of a larger effort to conduct research on pressing policy issues in the region. The authors may be contacted at dlederman@worldbank.org or nloayza@worldbank.org.

Moving the State: The Politics of Democratic Decentralization in Kerala, South Africa, and Porto Alegre

Abstract: Over the past decade, a large number of developing countries have made the transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. The rebirth of civil societies, the achievement of new freedoms and liberties have all been celebrated with due enthusiasm. But now that the euphoria of these transitions has passed, we are beginning to pose the sobering question of what difference democracy makes to development, or to be more precise, whether democracy can help redress the severe social and economic inequalities that characterize developing countries. Two separate problems are involved here. The first parallels the western European literature on the rise of the welfare state and is centrally concerned with patterns of interest aggregation, and specifically the dynamics and effects of lower class formation. This literature has convincingly argued that political rights can be translated into social rights, and procedural democracy becomes substantive democracy, only to the extent that lower class demands are organized and find effective representation in the state. In the developing world however, uneven capitalist development, resilient social cleavages and various forms of bureaucratic authoritarianism have blunted lower class collective action. The three cases examined here, however, break with this pattern. In South Africa, Brazil, and the Indian state of Kerala, working-class

Democracy and the Foreigner

Abstract: Aknowledgments xiii Chapter 1. NATIVES AND FOREIGNERS: Switching the Question 1 Chapter 2. THE FOREIGNER AS FOUNDER 15 Dorothy and the Wizard 15 Rousseau's Lawgiver 18 Freud's Moses 25 Girard's Scapegoat 33 Democracy and Foreignness 38 Chapter 3. THE FOREIGNER AS IMMIGRANT 41 The Book of Ruth as a Foreign-Founder Text 41 Ruth 42 Immigration and Founding 45 Ozick's Ruth: Convert or Migrant? 48 Kristeva's Ruth: The Ideal Immigrant 55 Gender and the Foreign-Founder 58 Kristeva's Orpahs: Cosmopolitanism without Foreignness 62 Mourning, Membership, Agency, and Loss: Ruth's Lessons for Politics 67 Chapter 4. THE FOREIGNER AS CITIZEN 73 The Myth of an Immigrant America 73 Class Mobility as American Citizenship 80 Ethnic Bases of Social Democracy: Michael Walzer's Immigrant America 82 Foreign Brides, Family Ties, and New World Masculinity 86 Dramatizing Consent: The Universal Charms of American Democracy 92 Taking Liberties: Intimations of a Democratic Cosmopolitanism 98 Chapter 5. THE GENRES OF DEMOCRACY 107 Does Democracy Have a Genre? 108 Democracy's Romance: A Tale of Gothic Love 115 Notes 123 Bibliography 173 Index 199

New public management : the transformation of ideas and practice

Abstract: Introduction, Tom Christensen, Per Laegreid a transformative perspective on administrative reforms, Tom Christensen, Per Laegreid. The transformation of administrative reforms - NPM ideas and processes: national, international and transnational constructions of new public management, Kerstin Sahlin-Andersson the process of reform in the era of public sector transformation, John Halligan. The transformation of administrative systems - effects of NPM: new public management - undermining political control?, Tom Christensen, Per Laegreid the effects of corporatization on political control, Hans Robert Zuna transforming top civil servant systems, Per Laegreid transforming state employees' unions, Paul G. Roness policy capacity and the effects of new public management, Martin Painter transforming governmental culture - a sceptical view of new public management, Robert Gregory. The transformation of reform theory and democratic ideas: reform theory meets new public management, Anders Forsell transforming politics - towards new or lesser roles for democratic institutions?, Synnove Jenssen transforming governance in the new millennium, Tom Christensen, Per Laegreid.

The Silent Takeover: Global Capitalism and the Death of Democracy

Abstract: Named one of the best books of the year by "The Sunday Times" of London, and already a bestseller in England, Noreena Hertz's "The Silent Takeover" explains how corporations in the age of globalization are changing our lives, our society, and our future -- and are threatening the very basis of our democracy. Of the world's 100 largest economies, fifty-one are now corporations, only forty-nine are nation-states. The sales of General Motors and Ford are greater than the GDP (gross domestic product) of the whole of sub-Saharan Africa, and Wal-Mart now has a turnover higher than the revenues of most of the states of Eastern Europe. Yet few of us are fully aware of the growing dominance of big business: newspapers continue to place news of the actions of governments on the front page, with business news relegated to the inside pages. But do governments really have more influence over our lives than businesses? Do the parties for which we vote have any real freedom of choice in their actions? Already sparking intense debate in England and on the Continent, "The Silent Takeover" provides a new and startling take on the way we live now and who really governs us. The widely acclaimed young socio-economist Noreena Hertz brilliantly and passionately reveals how corporations across the world manipulate and pressure governments by means both legal and illegal; how protest, be it in the form of the protesters of Seattle and Genoa or the boycotting of genetically altered foods, is often becoming a more effective political weapon than the ballot-box; and how corporations in many parts of the world are taking over from the state responsibility for everything from providing technology forschools to healthcare for the community. While the activities of business, frequently under pressure from the media and the consuming public, can range from the beneficial to the pernicious, neither public protest nor corporate power is in any way democratic. What is the fate of democracy in the world of the silent takeover? "The Silent Takeover" asks us to recognize the growing contradictions of a world divided between haves and have-nots, of gated communities next to ghettos, of extreme poverty and unbelievable riches. In the face of these unacceptable extremes, Noreena Hertz outlines a new agenda to revitalize politics and renew democracy.

Information and Political Engagement in America: The Search for Effects of Information Technology at the Individual Level

Abstract: Some aspects of democracy appear more sensitive than others to the availability throughout society of political information. Individual-level political engagement poses a puzzle in this regard. An instrumentalquantitative conception of information that is central to rational theories and is also found in some behavioral theories of participation appears contradicted by historical trends. I treat the contemporary expansion in political information made possible by new information technology as a form of natural experiment. I test for a relationship between information availability and political engagement using survey data about Internet use in the period 1996-99. This test is relevant to the applied debate over whether the information revolution will prove salutary for participation, and at the same time sheds light on contending theories of information. I find little relationship exists; the only form of participation which is demonstrably connected to Internet use is donating money This finding fails to...

Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy

Abstract: Preface ix Introduction: Dry Bones Rattling 3 1. Cimmunity Building and Political Renewal 15 2. A Theology of Organizing: From Alinsky to the Moden IAF 40 3. Beyond Local Organizing: Statewide Power and a Regional Network 72 4. Bridging Communities across Racial Lines 98 5. Deepening Multiracial Collaboration 124 6. Effective Power: Campaigning for Community-Based Policy Initiatives 162 7. Congretional Bases for Political Action 191 8. Leadership Development: Participation and Authority in Consensual Democracies 211 9. Conclusion: Restoring Faith in Politics 239 Notes 265 Index 309

Networks and Netwars: The Future of Terror, Crime and Militancy

Abstract: From the Publisher: Book Introduction: The fight for the future makes daily headlines. Its battles are not between the armies of leading states, nor are its weapons the large, expensive tanks, planes and fleets of regular armed forces. Rather, the combatants come from bomb-making terrorist groups like Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda, drug smuggling cartels like those in Colombia and Mexico, and militant anarchists like the Black Bloc that ran amok during the Battle of Seattle. Other protagonists are civil-society activists fighting for democracy and human rights-from Burma to the Balkans. What all have in common is that they operate in small, dispersed units that can deploy niimbly-anywhere, anytime. They know how to penetrate and disrupt, as well as elude and evade. All feature network forms of organization, doctrine, strategy, and technology attuned to the information age. And, from the Intifadah to the drug war, they are proving very hard to beat; some may actually be winning. This is the story we have to tell. Author Bios: DAVID F. RONFELDT (Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University) is a senior social scientist at RAND whose research focus includes information revolution, netwar, cyberocracy, strategic swarming and the rise of transnational networks of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). JOHN ARQUILLA (Ph.D., Political Science, Stanford University) is a RAND consultant and a professor of foreign policy at the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.

Investing in the Peace: Economic Interdependence and International Conflict

Abstract: Research appears to substantiate the liberal conviction that trade fosters global peace. Still, existing understanding of linkages between cone ict and international economics is limited in at least two ways. First, cross-border economic relationships are far broader than just trade. Global capital markets dwarf the exchange of goods and services, and states engage in varying degrees of monetary policy coordination. Second, the manner in which economics is said to inhibit cone ict behavior is implausible in light of new analytical insights about the causes of war. We discuss, and then demonstrate formally, how interdependence can ine uence states’ recourse to military violence. The risk of disrupting economic linkages— particularly access to capital— may occasionally deter minor contests between interdependent states, but such opportunity costs will typically fail to preclude militarized disputes. Instead, interdependence offers nonmilitarized avenues for communicating resolve through costly signaling. Our quantitative results show that capital interdependence contributes to peace independent of the effects of trade, democracy, interest, and other variables. Students of world politics have long argued that peace is a positive externality of global commerce. Theorists like Montesquieu and Kant and practitioners like Woodrow Wilson asserted that economic relations between states pacify political interaction. Mounting evidence in recent years appears to substantiate these claims. Multiple studies, many identie ed with the democratic peace, link interstate trade with reductions in militarized disputes or wars. 1 While we concur with the evolving

Thirty years of social accounting, reporting and auditing: what (if anything) have we learnt?

Abstract: In an increasingly complex world with increasingly powerful organisations it seems inevitable that society – or groups in society – would become anxious about whether these organisations could be encouraged to match that power with an appropriate responsibility. This is the function of accountability – to require individuals and organisations to present an account of those actions for which society holds them – or would wish to hold them – responsible. And the history of social accounting, at its most fundamental, is a history of attempts to develop this accountability. It seems to me that the widespread and systematic practice of social and environmental accounting is a deeply essential element in any well-functioning, complex democracy. The corollary is that the absence of such mechanisms raises fundamental questions about the nature of modern democracies. This article briefly outlines what I believe to be the three strands of social accounting. It then identifies a few of the lessons that we may be able to learn from current experience and, in particular, how social accounting is related to accountability, democracy and sustainability. The central issue of the tension between accountability and control is touched upon: I then illustrate how the stakeholder model can be used to help define the social account, and conclude with a few words on attestation.

Mandates and Democracy: Neoliberalism by Surprise in Latin America

Abstract: Sometimes politicians run for office promising one set of policies, and if they win, switch to very different ones Latin American presidents in recent years have frequently run promising to avoid pro-market reforms and harsh economic adjustment, then win and transform immediately into enthusiastic market reformers Does it matter when politicians ignore the promises they made and the preferences of their constituents? If politicians want to be reelected or see their party reelected at the end of their term, why would they impose unpopular policies? Susan Stokes develops a model of policy switches and tests it with statistical and qualitative data from Latin American elections over the last two decades She concludes that politicians may change policies because unpopular policies are best for constituents and best serve their own political ambitions Nevertheless, even though good representatives sometimes switch policies, abrupt change tends to erode the quality of democracy

One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy

Abstract: At no other moment in history have the values of business and the corporation been more nakedly and arrogantly in the ascendant Combining popular intellectual history with a survey of recent business culture, Thomas Frank traces an idea he calls 'market populism' - the notion that markets are, in some transcendent way, identifiable with democracy and the will of the people The idea that any criticism of things as they are is elitist can be seen in management literature, where downsizing and ceaseless, chaotic change are celebrated as victories for democracy; in advertising, where an endless array of brands seek to position themselves as symbols of authenticity and rebellion; on Wall street, where the stock market is identified as the domain of the small investor and common man; and, in the right-wing politics of the 1990s and the popular theories of Tom Peters, Charles Handy and Thomas Friedman "One Market Under God" is Frank's counterattack against the onslaught of market propaganda Mounted with the weapons of common sense, it is lucid and tinged with anger, betrayal and a certain hope for the future

Accountability and corruption: political institutions matter

Abstract: Using a cross-country panel, Lederman, Loayza, and Soares examine the determinants of corruption, paying particular attention to political institutions that increase political accountability. Previous empirical studies have not analyzed the role of political institutions, even though both the political science and the theoretical economics literature have indicated their importance in determining corruption. The main theoretical hypothesis guiding the authors�empirical investigation is that political institutions affect corruption through two channels: political accountability and the structure of the provision of public goods. The results suggest that political institutions are extremely important in determining the prevalence of corruption: democracy, parliamentary systems, political stability, and freedom of the press are all associated with lower corruption. In addition, the authors show that common findings of the earlier empirical literature on the determinants of corruption�elated to openness and legal tradition�o not hold once political variables are taken into account.