Did Gorbachev as General Secretary Become a Social Democrat?

As General Secretary, Gorbachev evolved from a Communist reformer to a socialist of the social democratic type. The most important programmatic documents of the CPSU in 1990–1991, on which Gorbachev had the predominant influence, were essentially social democratic. (Many in the Party apparatus had no intention of implementing them.) From 1988, Gorbachev was advocating fundamental change of the Soviet system, although there were zig-zags in his public pronouncements under the pressure of events. Ill-understood both at home and abroad, Gorbachev's social democratic ideas were ‘outflanked’ by the market fundamentalism and political impatience of his radical opponents and frustrated by the implacable enmity of conservative defenders of the vanishing Communist party-state.     

Did Public Transfers Crowd Out Private Transfers in Korea During the Financial Crisis?

How effective are public transfers in protecting households facing financial crisis-induced negative shocks? Existing studies have not yet carefully considered the inter-relationship between public transfers and the existing private transfer network. In the context of the financial crisis in Korea, this paper investigates the possible crowding-out effect of public transfers on private transfers by explicitly considering the endogenous responses of private transfers against public transfers. By using two Korean household-level panel data sets for the periods of 1995–1998 and 1998–2003, we found a post-crisis, but not pre-crisis crowding-out effect of public transfers; more importantly, a crowding-in effect is observed during the crisis. The results suggest that private transfer networks were strengthened under the initial phase of the financial crisis, which possibly complemented public transfers due to the lack of effective formal safety nets, while public transfers became effective after the crisis, thereby replacing private transfers. Our results suggest that particularly at the initial stage of the crisis, the government could have played an important role in assisting households to weather the negative impacts of the crisis.     

Support and Opposition for Invading Iraq: Did the President's Speech Make a Difference?

Utilizing data from the annual San Antonio Survey, this research addresses the issue of support and opposition to invading Iraq among respondents randomly selected from Bexar County, Texas. Data were collected prior to and after President Bush addressed the nation on October 7, 2002, seeking broad citizen support for his plan, allowing us to ascertain whether or not his speech impacted the attitudes of potential voters. Our results indicate that the President's speech, along with the extensive media coverage about it, was effective in gaining support for his proposal to invade Iraq. A multivariate logistic regression analysis also displayed that the speech still had a significant impact even after controlling for confidence in the president, political orientation, race, ethnicity, nativity, and socio-demographic context. The findings suggest support for earlier research indicating that the impact of presidential speeches could boost the approval of a policy, in particular, if the speech occurred during his first term of office, was considered a “major” speech, was devoted to one important topic, and its primary focus was on foreign policy. Under these conditions, such a speech portrays the president as a strong leader.     

Did the Big Stick Work? An Empirical Assessment of Scale Economies and the Queensland Forced Amalgamation Program

In 2007, the Queensland Government imposed forced amalgamation with the number of local authorities falling from 157 to just 73 councils. Amalgamation was based inter alia on the assumption that increased economies of scale would generate savings. This paper empirically examines pre- and post-amalgamation (2006/07 and 2009/10) for scale economies. For the 2006/07 data, evidence of economies of scale was found for councils with populations up to 98,000, and thereafter diseconomies of scale. Eight percent of councils in 2006/07 (ten councils) – representing 64% of the state’s population – exhibited diseconomies of scale. For the 2009/10 data, the average cost curve remained almost stationary at 99,000 residents per council, but almost 25% of all councils (thirteen councils) were now found to exhibit diseconomies of scale. The compulsory merger program thus increased the proportion of Queensland residents in councils operating with diseconomies of scale to 84%.     

The Changing Faces of Europeanisation: How Did the European Union Influence Corruption in Slovakia Before and After Accession?

The paper looks at the European Union's impact on corruption in Slovakia, both before and after the country's accession to the European Union. It shows that even though pre-accession channels of influence diminish or disappear, membership brings new means of influence. Our methodology looks beyond institutional changes and explicit anti-corruption mechanisms. Before 1999, the European Union's influence on corruption was close to zero, and between 1999 and 2004, its influence was strong and positive. Post-accession developments are more ambiguous, but despite an apparent worsening of corruption after 2004, we observe a transformation rather than a loss of European Union influence.