Nation states vs. united empire: Effects of political competition on economic growth

Is political fragmentation, i.e., nation states, more favorable to economic growth than political unification, i.e., a united empire? This study develops an endogenous-growth model to analyze the growth effects of fragmentation versus unification. Under unification, the economy is vulnerable to excessive Leviathan taxation and possibly subject to the costs of unifying heterogeneous populations. Under fragmentation, the competing rulers are constrained in taxation but spend excessively on military defense. If capital mobility is above (below) a threshold, then fragmentation (unification) would favor growth, and this threshold is increasing in the degree of defense competition and decreasing in the costs of heterogeneity.     

The perils of empire: nationhood and citizenship in Portugal

After the demise of the Portuguese empire and even more after joining the European Union, the Portuguese state redefined the borders of national belonging. The shift was one from a multi-continental nation, which included parts of Africa, to a more restricted definition of nationhood, one that stressed Portugal's connection to Europe and thus defined belonging by descent. This article, based on research conducted in Lisbon, Portugal in 2003, discusses the impact of this shift on Portuguese citizens of ethnically diverse backgrounds. The Portuguese state, media, academia, and civil society are all involved in constructing, disseminating, and hence consolidating a notion of nationhood that treats ethnically diverse minorities as foreigners, placing them outside the national community. Not producing or disseminating information on ethnic minorities, the Portuguese academia, media, and the state are all actively involved in reproducing a process that perpetuates exclusion and obstructs the construction of political alliances to confront widespread discrimination.     

帝国主权理论的现实悖论——评哈特和奈格里的《帝国——全球化的政治秩序》

哈特和奈格里《帝国》一书的核心论点就是,随着冷战结构的松动,资本主义市场与生产全球化的阻力被扫除,在全球层面出现了一种新的主权结构,这就是帝国。这种新帝国主权区别于传统国家主权,又不同于以民族国家为基础的帝国主义,而是一种新型全球性司法主权形式。哈特和奈格里通过美国宪法的理论演绎得出的帝国主权理论是与现实的民族国家主权相悖,在全球化的进程中,国家主权虽然受到某种程度的限制,但是这并等于一种帝国主权取代了国家主权,帝国主权理论与现实民族国家主权是相悖的。两位作者从美国历史出发建构的帝国主权理论暗含了一种美国中心主义的思想,为美国全球霸权提供了理论依据。     

我国加快经济发展方式转变的国际国内背景探析

我国加快经济发展方式转变有着深刻的国际国内背景。全球金融危机对我国经济发展方式形成了巨大的外部冲击,经济发展方式本身的不适应性和内在缺陷正在日益凸现,不仅经济发展方式本身不可持续,而且也不能适应整个国家经济发展方式面临根本性转变的形势。但同时值得注意的是,加快经济发展方式转变的外在压力正在转化为内在动力。     

An economic theory of economic analysis: the case of the School of Salamanca

Public Choice - The School of Salamanca often is identified as the first economic tradition in the history of the “dismal science”. Its members anticipated principles later developed by...     

Citizenship in a time of empire: the World Social Forum as a new public space

Under conditions of neoliberal globalization, structural adjustment and the war on terror, the progressive expansion of modern citizenship, both in its substance and geographic reach, is increasingly in question. Yet, popular demands for democratization, rights and participation are exploding worldwide. This article argues for shifts in focus in the study of citizenship from states, institutions and the national scale to cultural practices in civil society at multiple scales in order to discern and theorize emergent citizenship practices under conditions of ‘empire’. The article examines the World Social Forum as a new kind of public space, ‘placed’ but transnational, and giving rise to a transnational subaltern counterpublic. Through its practices, this counterpublic is forging a new paradigm of citizenship.     

Colombia: the fraught end of a long war

The ceasefire announced last week between the Colombian government and the FARC, ending 50 years of destructive war, will be followed soon by a final accord and a plebiscite, which is likely to ratify the accord. While these developments are welcome, the Colombian people remain resentful of the FARC's legitimisation and sceptical about the accord's sustainability. Implementation will be a stiff and ongoing challenge.     

The difference that empire makes: institutions and politics of citizenship in Germany and Austria

Austria has had much higher naturalization rates than Germany. Two arguments are made based on institutional regime theory and left political power. First, the imperial experiences of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that colonized 11 different nations explains Austria's relative openness, and the monocultural experience of the German Reich that tried to impose German language and culture on partitioned Poland casts light on Austria's open and Germany's rather closed approach to ethnic integration. This first argument covers initial state formation focusing on ethnicity, the Austrian colonization versus German occupation, different ethnicities and languages in the military and bureaucracy, and comparisons involving the partition of Poland and religion in Bavaria. The second argument is a political analysis of legislation concerning how institutionalized regime types and left/green party power influenced the naturalization policies that were enacted into law from 1946 to 2005. The post-World War II analysis shows the positive effects of left/green party power on naturalization, but the institutional regime hypothesis is still necessary to fully explain these differences. In the end, regime differences, and in the later period, left/green party power demonstrate why these two very similar countries have such different naturalization policies.     

The Reckoning: Official Inquiries and the Iraq War

The moral and political reverberations of the Iraq War of 2003 are still being felt all over the world. In the belligerent democracies of the West, official inquiries of all kinds and conditions have probed and exposed the nature of government, the reflexes of the national security state, and, most extraordinarily, the sensitive relations between rulers and intelligencers. For all parties the consequences have been severe. Focusing on Britain, and especially on the inquiries led by Lord Hutton and Lord Butler - an odd couple but a revelatory combination - this article takes stock of the reckoning.