Can tax evasion tame Leviathan governments?

This paper asks to what extent institutional features that facilitate tax evasion may keep Leviathan governments at bay. The specific feature we look at is banking secrecy abroad. The analysis draws on a 16-generation OLG model in which tax rates are determined in a repeated game between voters and a rent-seeking Leviathan government. Key insights are: (1) Effects on any generation alive when change takes place may differ substantially from steady-state effects that accrue for generations yet to be born. (2) There is considerable intergenerational diversity in these effects that is not monotonic as we move from young to old. Combined, these results suggest that the political economy of pertinent institutional change may be quite complex.     

Do fiscal rules cause budgetary outcomes?

This paper focuses on the observed empirical relationship between fiscal rules and budget deficits, and examines whether this correlation is driven by an omitted variable, namely voter preferences. We make use of two different estimation methods to capture voter preferences in a panel of Swiss sub-federal jurisdictions. First, we include a recently constructed measure of fiscal preferences. Second, we capture preferences through fixed effects with a structural break as women are enfranchised. We find that fiscal rules continue to have a significant impact on real budget balances.     

Der Einfluss von Koalitionsaussagen,programmatischen Standpunkten und der Bundespolitik auf die Regierungsbildung in den deutschen Ländern

Party politics at the German state level plays a decisive role for patterns of party competition and for legislative decision-making at the federal level. This article analyses the impact of party politics at the state and the federal level on the formation of coalition governments in the German Laender. The empirical analysis is based on a unique dataset that covers information on the state parties’ programmatic positions, their pre-electoral alliances, and the structure of party competition on the federal level in the time period between 1990 and 2007. The results reveal that the programmatic positions of state parties have a decisive impact on government formation. Other relevant factors are the parties’ relative strength, their coalition preferences and the partisan composition of government and opposition on the federal level.     

Die Nationalisierung politischer Parteien und Parteiensysteme in asiatischen Neo-Demokratien

This article analyzes the nationalization of political parties and party systems in seven young Asian democracies in national, regional and interregional comparison. The article shows that the degree of territorial homogenization differs among these nations, but is predominantly low compared to other non-Asian party systems. Building on these findings, the article discusses potential explanations for the characteristics of the party systems described here. The empirical evidence suggests that the variance of nationalization among Asian party systems predominantly reflects the importance of territorial and non-territorial cleavage structures as well as of institutional and agency-related factors.     

When Do Displaced Persons Return? Postwar Migration among Christians in Mount Lebanon

Under what conditions will forcibly displaced persons return to their original homes after wars end? We draw on theories of labor migration to show that even displaced persons who have positive feelings toward their original location may nevertheless choose to return as regular visitors rather than permanent residents unless the location offers attractive economic opportunities. Furthermore, we argue that violence can create negative emotions not only toward geographic locations of bloodshed but also against its perpetrators. After ethnic wars, the displaced may be unwilling to return to intermixed locations, exacerbating ethnic separation. We study postwar migration among Lebanese Christians displaced during the 1980s and identify economic conditions using exogenous price shocks for olive oil, a major local export. Among policy implications for economic reconstruction and transitional justice, our most important insight is that sometimes we should help the displaced in their new location rather than induce permanent return to their old homes.     

Intergenerational Transmission of Party Affiliation Within Political Families

Political Behavior - We investigate the intergenerational transmission of political-party affiliation within families with at least two politicians. We use Swedish registry data that covers all...     

New alliances in global environmental governance: how intergovernmental treaty secretariats interact with non-state actors to address transboundary environmental problems

International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics - The past few years have witnessed a growing interest among scholars and policy-makers in the interplay of international...     

The normative threat of subtle subversion: the return of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an ontological insecurity trope

Abstract

A combination of undemocratic developments in Hungary and Poland as well as Eastern Europe’s reluctance to engage in solidary burden-sharing at the height of the refugee crisis in Europe has brought back familiar allusions of Eastern Europeans as troublemakers for European unity and peace. This article offers a discursive dissection of ‘Eastern Europe’ as a subtly subversive challenge to Europe’s security of ‘self’, entailing a fear of being overrun by an ‘other’ perceived as endangering one’s normative and cultural order. Proceeding from Ingrid Creppell’s (2011 Creppell, Ingrid (2011) ‘The concept of normative threat’, International Theory, 3:3, 450–487[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) notion of normative threat, this article argues that the reappearance of ‘Eastern Europe’ as an ontological insecurity trope is indicative of deeper anxieties within Europe, some of which are systemic (such as doubts about the efficacy of integration and the legitimacy of the European Union) and some of which are contingent (such as concerns about defending the European political order from populist upsurges amidst ‘resurgent nationalism’).     

Reading level and the prevalence of a dyslexic profile among patients in a forensic psychiatric clinic

This study aims to investigate Swedish language reading ability of forensic patients and the number of them that present a dyslexia profile. Another aim is to compare the reading level in different subtypes of psychiatric diagnoses. Assessments were made of 185 patients by a battery of reading tests. They were also interviewed about their schooling and their self-estimated reading and writing ability. The results show that the patients’ reading level is below average for grade six children in Swedish compulsory school, and that 16 per cent show a dyslexic profile. Male patients with an immigrant background and a diagnosis of psychosis and anxiety disorders perform the lowest when measuring literacy skills. This proportionately low reading ability can cause difficulties in understanding texts as presented in broadsheet newspapers, civic information and patient records, and might even jeopardize the understanding of adult spoken language.