Equity and Political Economy in Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes is often viewed as a seminal figure in the development of the homo economicus philosophical anthropology central to the acquisitive, bourgeois morality of liberal modernity. The present study challenges this interpretation of Hobbes as an antecedent to free market ideology by arguing that his political economy presupposed a complex relation between contract, law, and social networks of credit informed by prudence and robust norms of equity. The normative claims of equity permeate Hobbes's holistic account of political economy and inform his vision of liberal statecraft that gave priority to prudential judgment against economic determinism, especially as Hobbes understood trade, taxation, allocation of resources, and the provision of social welfare. I will conclude by reflecting upon how Hobbes's political economy both reveals the internal diversity within the liberal intellectual tradition and can help us to better understand and critique contemporary liberal states and democratic theory.     

Effects of Administrators' Aspirations,Political Principals' Priorities,and Interest Groups' Influence on State Agency Budget Requests

This article addresses a long‐standing question in public budgeting: What factors influence bureau/agency budget request decisions? Empirical results confirm the complexity of variables that explain different levels of budget requests by over 1,000 state administrative agencies. The expected significant influence of administrator (agency head) aspirations was clearly present. But other important sources enter into the decision of agencies to satisfy rather than maximize. These include the strategic roles, activities, and priorities of governors, legislatures, and interest groups. These political principals' influence operates to constrain, discipline, or even augment agency budget requests.     

Making sense of North Korea: “National Stalinism” in comparative-historical perspective

This paper examines the striking institutional parallels between the seemingly inexplicable DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and Ceausescu's Romania. It argues that in both cases, the role of strong anti-liberal ideology that combined both far left and far right nationalist elements was highly significant in sustaining the regime and therefore should not be underestimated. While developments elsewhere in the Soviet bloc deprived the Ceausescu regime of potential nationalist cards it could play and thus precipitated regime change, the DPRK regime was able to hold on to power by using imagined and real external threats to justify its ongoing domestic repression and reinforce its nationalist claims.     

Deregulation of dismissal law and unjust dismissal in Korea

Using data of Korean court cases, related to the unjust dismissal claims between 1987 and 2000, this paper examines how the deregulation of Korean dismissal law in 1998 affects the incidence of unjust dismissals. Logit estimation to identify the determinants of unjust dismissal rate in Korea shows that deregulation of the dismissal law led to a higher incidence of unjust dismissals. Reasons for this empirical result were explored. These included misinterpretations of the law on the part of employers, due to the disorderly process of legislation and poor coordination in industrial relations, changes in court's adjudication criteria influenced by socio-economic factors, and finally misalignment of law and economic conditions.     

The challenge of operations research in the developing country

The application of operations research/management science in the developing country has met with uneven success. Social, cultural, and political factors have constrained direct application of OR technology from industrialized countries to developing countries. Review of OR experience in the United States, especially pitfalls and successes of OR application, does provide significant information which can benefit the application of operations research in the developing country. Successful application of operations research is apt to be highly beneficial if operations researchers in the developing country can effectively deal with the challenges of cultural constraints, an uncertain decision environment, human resource management, and a bounded rationality unique to each developing country.     

The perpetual assault on progress

His most recent book (with Richard B. McKenzie) is Quicksilver Capital.