Issue Redefinition, Venue Change and Radical Agricultural Policy Reforms in Sweden and New Zealand

This paper compares radical agricultural policy reforms in Sweden and New Zealand in the 1980s and 1990s to establish which factors bring about such types of policy reforms. Ruling out a number of alternative explanations for reform found in the public policy and political economy literature, we focus on the role of reform strategies. We show that the redefinition of agricultural policy – from a matter of finding the balance between budgetary costs and farmers' income to considering agricultural policy as part of macroeconomic policies – was important, particularly in Sweden. Change of policy venue is the other reform strategy identified, which was crucial to the successful introduction of the reform. In both countries, ministers of finance deliberately shifted agricultural policymaking to arenas in which they were able to control the reform process.     

Party Politicisation Reversed? Non‐partisan Alternatives in Norwegian Local Politics

Based on time series data from Norwegian local elections, this article addresses the question of whether the party politicisation process in the local electoral arena is showing signs of reversal. We explore this question by looking at the extent to which non-partisan lists have existed over time in Norwegian municipalities and by an analysis of the degree to which the voters have supported them. Furthermore we examine the nature of the non-partisan lists, and finally we revisit earlier studies that showed that the party politicisation of local government increased participation.
The results show that national parties still dominate local politics. Nevertheless, non-partisan lists continue to mobilise. During the 1990s we witnessed a slight rise in the supply of non-partisan lists. However, supply decreased in the 2003 elections, probably owing to changes in the electoral law. In terms of representation, non-partisan lists appear successful. On average, during the time span we investigate, non-partisan lists obtained mandates in more than 93 percent of the municipalities where they stood for election. Our study gives little support to the assertion that there is a new generation of non-partisan lists consisting mainly of single-issue lists. However, there are signs of a shift away from the traditional local lists. Finally we have analysed the relationship between turnout and the presence of non-partisan lists. In contrast to the 1960s and to some extent the 1970s, turnout is currently highest in municipalities with non-partisan alternatives, irrespective of municipal size. Although it is clearly an overstatement to talk of a non-partisan renaissance, it seems as if the non-partisan lists have a stronger mobilising potential nowadays than they did in the past.     

Economic Threats or Societal Turmoil? Understanding Preferences for Authoritarian Political Systems

Why do some individuals prefer to be governed in an authoritarian political system? One intuitive answer is that citizens prefer authoritarian rule when the economy and society are in turmoil. These are common explanations for democratic backsliding, and the emergence and success of authoritarian leaders in the twentieth century. Which of these explanations better explains preferences for authoritarian rule? Both types of threat coincide in small samples and high-profile cases, creating inferential problems. I address this by using three waves of World Values Survey data to look at individual-level preferences for different forms of authoritarian government. Using multiple macroeconomic and societal indicators, I find that economic threats, especially increasing income inequality, better explain preferences for authoritarian government. I conclude with implications for understanding the emergence of support for authoritarianism in fledgling democracies.     

Robert Tollison and operationalizing public choice

In this tribute to Robert Tollison, I will outline his contributions to the development of public choice. I focus on Tollison’s work on rent-seeking, the political economy of reform, and the rules level of analysis in sports economics. Throughout his career, Tollison brilliantly figured out ways to take insights from price theory and public choice theory and operationalize them using multiple methods of empirical analysis, including historical interpretation and statistical testing.     

A Different Carbon Tax: The Sustainable Green Tariff

Two heated current political arguments focus on carbon taxes and tariffs. This essay will develop an argument for linking carbon emissions with tariffs, through a tax on goods entering a country based on the method of transport and distance traveled, rather than based on the country of origin or category of the product. The result would be to encourage more sustainable local production, to reduce currently externalized costs of carbon emissions, to generate new tax revenues to fund reductions in regressive social insurance taxes, and to provide benefits for those adversely affected by carbon emissions.     

Appeal rate and caseload: evidence from civil litigation in Korea

Courts of modern democratic societies have generally implemented appeal procedures to correct potential errors in ruling. However, considering the time and effort that both litigants spend, availability of an appeal cannot be better than reaching the correct judgment in the original case. This difficulty raises the policy issue of how to reduce the rate of appeals and improve welfare of litigants. In this paper, we assert that lower caseloads allow judges to expend more time and effort on each case, contributing to lower appeal rates. Analysis of court-level data from Korea corroborates our inference.