The consequences of the US DOJ’s antitrust activities: A macroeconomic perspective

Do the antitrust law enforcement activities of the US Department of Justice act as exogenous “technology shocks” or as “markup shocks” limiting market power and promoting economic growth? We analyze annual time series data from 1947 to 2003 on three measures of federal antitrust intervention: the ratio of the Antitrust Division’s budgetary expenditures to GDP as well as the numbers of civil and criminal antitrust cases instituted. We find that changes in the levels of these policy variables act like negative technology shocks and that the negative effects are transitory; antitrust policy generates no subsequent offsetting increases in productivity.     

The Two-Party System and the Federal Political Process

As part of its transition program to civilian federal democracy,the federal military government has constitutionalized a two-partysystem along federal lines, provided funding and other facilitiesto the two parties, and established institutions, such as theNational Electoral Commission and the Directorate for SocialMobilisation, to supervise and oversee the two-party process.This regimentation is seen as being necessary because Nigeriahas not been able to sustain either democracy or a stable partysystem in the past. The stage has been set, therefore, for themaintenance of a two-party system in the Third Republic, butmany problems remain to be resolved before the stable, competitiveparty system becomes rooted in Nigeria's federal system, societaldiversity, and political culture.     

After the Earthquake: The President's Budget for FY 1996

What changes has the political earthquake of November 1994 wreaked on the federal budget and, in particular, on the president's budget? Are the policy dynamics of federal budgets so entrenched that they transcend politics and are impervious to shocks? Or do the political changes presage radical policy changes, reversing decades of cumulative commitments? Are budgetary institutions and processes flexible enough to accommodate enhanced conflicts while maintaining their integrity and purpose? This article discusses the fate of the 1995 budget and the initial problems faced in the president's budget for 1996.     

The Federation — What Makes It Work and What Should We Be Thinking About for the Future

The Australian Federation is unique. Like all federations there is a division of powers between the various levels of government. However, unlike almost all other federations, the Australian Federation requires the cooperation of the states and the Commonwealth in order to achieve their institutional functions. This federal system can properly be described as 'cooperative federalism'. An understanding of the role of the states within this federal system suggests an urgent need for major constitutional reform at the state level.     

On distinguishing between Leviathan and Public Interest governments in a federal state

The purpose of this paper is to derive testable implications for the proposition that provincial governments in a specific federal system are Leviathans, that is, revenue maximizers. The Leviathan model, associated with Brennan and Buchanan (1980) hypothesizes that governments behave like monopolies who seek to maximize their revenue. This model is contrasted with an alternative hypothesis, the Public Interest Theory. A theoretical model of a federal state, based on the Canadian system, is constructed and testable implications are derived. The principal feature of the model is that it is set in the context of a particular game involving the federal government, provincial governments and a consumer. In attempting to model this situation, care has been taken to try to incorporate as many institutional features of the Canadian federal system as possible, while still allowing the model to be somewhat parsimonious. With some modification, the model may be applicable to other countries with similar federal systems.     

"Federal Character" and Management of the Federal Civil Service and the Military

The "federal character" principle, which has been enshrinedin Nigeria's Constitution since 1979, seeks to ensure that appointmentsto public service institutions fairly reflect the linguistic,ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the country.Application of the principle in the federal civil service andthe military has amounted to a confused balancing of the meritprinciple and the quota system, based essentially on statesof origin. This has had adverse consequences for both institutionsin terms of discipline, morale, and overall effectiveness andefficiency. Faithful implementation of universal primary educationand imaginative rehabilitation of secondary and tertiary educationare required to ensure equal opportunities for all citizensto compete for civil service positions on the basis of merit.With regard to the military, only rapid implementation of theconstitutional provision on compulsory military training anda definitive end to military rule can help to reduce the salienceof the "federal character" principle.     

Federal legislative activism in Australia: a new approach to testing Wagner’s law

This paper considers the relationship between government growth and real GDP per capita by developing models of federal legislative output in Australia since 1901. Growth in legislation is found to be negatively related to growth in real income per capita in the short-run, implying that legislation responds to temporary economic shocks, but without a robust long-run relationship with the level of income. The growth in the number of pages of legislation enacted and legislative complexity also show a negative short-run relationship with growth in real national income per capita and a positive long-run relationship with the level of income.     

Public Opinion on U.S. Federal and Intergovernmental Issues in 2006: Continuity and Change

A 2006 trend survey found that Americans most often select localgovernment as giving them the most for their money, followedby the federal and state governments. African Americans aremost supportive of the federal government as giving them themost for their money; Hispanics are most supportive of localgovernment. As in many previous years, the local property taxwas viewed as the worst tax, followed by the federal incometax, state sales tax, and state income tax. Americans displayedreduced trust and confidence in the federal government; however,trust in all three spheres of government—federal, state,and local—dropped between 2004 and 2006, possibly reflectiveof the poor response of all governments to Hurricane Katrina.Analysis of surveys since 1972 reveals that there has been along-term decline in the public's support for the federal governmentand a corresponding increase in support of state and especiallylocal governments.     

How should large and small countries be represented in a currency union?

We present a simple model of optimal representation in a federal central bank that balances two opposing forces: the wish to insulate common monetary policy from changing preferences at the national level, and the attempt to avoid an overly active or passive reaction to idiosyncratic national economic shocks. A perfect match between economic size and voting rights is rarely optimal, and neither is the “one country, one vote principle”. There are indications that the pattern of over- and under-representation of member countries in the ECB Council might be extreme.     

Economic shocks and democratic consolidation: Historical evidence from party-level electoral volatility in France

The emergence of a stable party system is a central aspect of democratic consolidation. Building a novel historical dataset, we analyze how economic growth affected the party-level electoral volatility during the consolidation of the French democracy over the Third Republic (1870-1940). We document an asymmetric effect in that positive economic shocks produced electoral stability, while negative shocks had not the expected destabilizing effect. Moreover, a positive shock had a disproportionally stabilizing effect during economic prosperity, four times stronger than during an average economic conjuncture. As France experienced strong positive shocks over this period, our results imply that the party system consolidation may have been driven by a few exceptionally high growth episodes. We also find evidence suggesting that positive shocks developed voters’ support for institutionally stable parties.     

Public Opinion on Federalism in the United States and Canada in 2002: The Aftermath of Terrorism

This research reports on a public-opinion survey on intergovernmentaland border issues in Canada and the United States conductedin mid-April 2002. In the United States, there was an upsurgein public support for the federal government in 2002 over 2001,and a slight decline in public evaluations of state and localgovernments. Increased support for the federal government wasespecially notable among whites, Republicans, and respondentswith post-undergraduate education-groups that previously registeredlow support for the federal government. Canadians reported lesssatisfaction with all governments in their federal system, lowersupport for their federal government, and much more regionaland partisan division over intergovernmental issues. On internationalborder issues, Americans and Canadians generally agreed thata common border-security policy would be a good idea, thoughCanadians were slightly more likely than Americans to preferease of cross-border trade over improved border security.     

The Savings and Loan Debacle and Erosion of the Dual System of Bank Regulation

The crisis in the banking and thrift industries is catalyzinga shift in the traditional system of dual state-federal bankregulation toward the federal government and away from the states.Erosion in this system has been evident for the past decadedue to actions of the Congress, federal regulators, and thejudiciary. The dual system has two sets of flaws. One is regulatorycompetition that encourages weak monitoring of financial institutionsby states. The other is created by the "moral hazard" of thecurrent system of federal deposit insurance. There are two pathsto reform. One is continued erosion of the power of the states.The alternative is to provide incentives that reinforce thedual system of regulation and deter the sources of "moral hazard."     

碎裂型政府架构下的行政事务管理——以美国湿地管理机制为例

在政府管理过程中,跨部门、跨层级复杂行政关系的协调一直是难以解决的重大问题,多头管理往往导致具体事务管理上的困境.美国政府向来以权力分散、碎裂著称,在具体行政事务上也经常出现"九龙治水"的多头管理局面,但是美国行政机构的效率之高也是有目共睹的.因此,美国碎裂型政府架构如何运作、如何将不利条件转化为行政管理的驱动力就成为研究的热点.以美国湿地管理与保护机制为例,分析在具体行政事务管理中的政府行为;结合联邦主义理论、府际关系理论及府际管理理论,解释美国碎裂型政府方面的优势,构筑了分析模型.在这个分析模型中,环境保护署和陆军工程兵团等核心管理部门的清晰权限、相互之间的合作与制衡直接决定着湿地事务管理的绩效,而联邦的三权分立、各州及地方政府、权力及资源权属状况、社会利益团体等多方面因素构成了核心管理部门的外部环境;外部环境限定了核心管理部门的行动范围,也赋予它们必要的资源和权力.因此在湿地管理方面,美国围绕着若干重要的联邦机构,联合其它相关联邦机构及各州、地方政府,再吸收社会组织和个人的建设性参与,形成了一套法网严密、执法适度、资助得力、公民积极配合的高效管理机制.     

美国联邦政府的宽带薪资试验及其启示

20世纪80年代以来,随着内外部环境的变化,建立在严格的职位分类基础之上的美国联邦政府传统薪资系统受到越来越多的挑战。为此,美国联邦政府开始探索适用于政府部门的新型薪资结构,宽带薪资试验就是这种尝试之一。三项宽带薪资试验对于美国政府机构乃至美国私营企业的薪资体系创新都产生了深远的影响。试验不仅揭示了宽带薪资是公共部门薪资体系的发展方向之一,而且对我国公共部门的薪资体系改革具有重要的借鉴意义。     

Clinton's Education Policy and Intergovernmental Relations in the 1990s

This article describes key Clinton administration initiativesin education and the framework that underlies them. It thenaddresses four aspects of intergovernmental relationships highlightedby current federal policy: an emphasis on policy coherence withinand across governments; the emerging importance of "national,"as opposed to federal, policy leadership; the acceptance ofthe key role of states in education policy; and, perhaps, morestability in the federal system related to the convergence ofpolicy at all levels around results or outcomes.     

在分散与统一之间——美国食品安全监管事权划分探析

美国食品安全事权划分,在形式上呈现分散特征,联邦层面有十多个机构参与食品监管事务,州、地方、部落、领地有3000多个独立的监管机构来保障本地食品安全,这种分散特征主要是由美国的宪政体制、权力结构的分散性和政策输出的不确定性造成的。但在实际运行过程中,各监管机构之间通过正式的和非正式的协调活动,彼此之间分享了权力,共享了食品安全监管标准,达到了一定的统一性。我国食品安全事权划分可在明晰监管机构间的责任、保持事权划分稳定性以培养专业能力、建立倒金字塔式的监管任务结构方面借鉴美国的经验。     

Federal-State Relations in Gun Control: The 1993 Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, which took effectin February 1994, sets minimum nationwide requirements for thesale of handguns and establishes a national criminal-backgroundinformation system. Each of these thrusts of Brady involvesfundamental issues of federalism. The first involves the traditionalgive-and-take between the states and the federal governmentin sorting out specific authority over the prohibition of firearmsales. The second thrust, establishing a national informationnetwork, requires cooperation of all the states and the federalgovernment. This article reviews Brady in the context of twenty-fiveyears of federal gun-control activity, examines its impact onfederal-state relations, and addresses the development of anational criminal-history information network linking the statesand the federal government.     

The Nuer Concept of Covenant and Covenantal Way of Life

The Nuer have a strong covenantal tradition but without the"federal" political apparatus associated with two or more "levels"of "government" in a federal system of government. There areimportant features of Nuersociety pertaining to ideas of covenant,breach of covenant, and reestablishing the bonds of covenantalrelationships that have important implications for all covenantingsocieties. The way they think about themselves, their relationshipswith each other, and their relationships with the larger world,are essential elements in what constitutes their way of life.     

Devolutionary Federalism and Elazar's Typology: The Arkansas Response to Reagan's New Federalism

This article examines the relationship between the federal andstate governments with regard to the Reagan administration'sNew Federalism. The underlying concern centers on the financialrelationship among governments portrayed by Elazar's typologyof federal aid. The focus of this investigation is directedtoward the adjustments being made by the states to accommodatethe financial and administrative changes occurring on the nationallevel, as illustrated by the case of Arkansas. The analysiscenters on two questions: 1) Has the New Federalism initiativeachieved Reagan's goals of decentralizing governmental authorityback to the states? 2) Has a major redirection in the federalsystem been achieved by reducing the federal financial obligationin the intergovernmental system? The changes being made in thefederal system, as reflected by the adjustments occurring amongthe states, may signal an important realignment of federalism.     

Two Cheers for Paperwork: The Value and Burden of Federal Reporting

In principle, reporting by state and local governments to thefederal government is essential to the design and implementationof national policy. In practice, reporting often engenders resentmentof federal intrusion and is often dismissed as a waste of stateand local resources. Is reporting useless? Does it strengthenthe federal government at the expense of state and local governments?We asked federal, state, local, and site officials about thevalue and burden of five specific reporting systems in elementaryand secondary education. Common assumptions about reportingdid not correspond to respondent reactions. Both value and burdencascade through the intergovernmental system, reaching policymakersin all governments. Although critics seldom discriminate betweentypes of reporting, we found that reporting designed to improvecompliance with federal standards evoked different judgmentsof value and burden than reporting designed for assistance.These results suggest some new approaches to federal policygoverning the collection of information and to the design ofindividual reporting systems.