Informal economic activity: Early thinking, conceptual shifts, continuing patterns and persistent issues – a Michigan study

In this paper we review theoretical perspectives on the informal economy that developed during the period 1958–1992. We describe shifts in thinking in two phases that we identify as ‘first wave studies’ and ‘second wave studies,’ and we identify a series of critical theoretical issues that emerged from the thinking during these periods. Then, focusing on the state of Michigan, USA, we examine empirical research that was conducted in the second wave and compare the results with a state survey that we conducted in 2005. The overall aim of this paper is to summarize the extent of theoretical and empirical studies of informal economy before the more recent postmodern informed analysis of the 1990s, and to document shifts in patterns of informal economic activity as this is revealed from the research. We conclude with a discussion of theoretical and empirical questions that have begun to be addressed in the last 15 years of what has now been 50 years of research on this topic.     

Incidental findings and ancillary-care obligations.

Recent work on incidental findings, concentrating on the difficult problems posed by the ambiguous results often generated by high-tech medicine, has proceeded largely independently from recent work on medical researchers' ancillary-care obligations, the obligations that researchers have to deal with diseases or conditions besides the one(s) under study. This paper contends that the two topics are morally linked, and specifically that a sound understanding of ancillary-care obligations will center them on incidental findings. The paper sets out and defends an understanding of ancillary-care obligations, which is based on the idea that when participants signed up for a study they may -- independently of their beliefs and expectations and of those of the researchers -- be taken to have partially entrusted certain aspects of their health into the researchers' hands. This partial entrustment model of ancillary-care obligations, in turn, has substantive implications for how to deal ethically with incidental findings; for instance, it suggests that researchers have no moral obligation to hunt for incidental findings.     

From Thaw to Deluge: Party System Collapse in Venezuela and Peru

What conditions facilitate party system collapse, the farthest‐reaching variant of party system change? How does collapse occur? Numerous studies of lesser types of party system change exist, but studies of party system collapse are rare. This study draws on the existing literature and the cases of party system collapse in Venezuela (1988–2000) and Peru (1985–95) to advance some answers to the important questions about the phenomenon. The study posits three conditions that predispose political party systems to collapse: the presence of an acute or sustained crisis that questions the ability of system‐sustaining political parties to govern; extremely low or extremely high levels of party system institutionalization; and the emergence of an anti‐establishment figure with the desire and personal authority to generate a viable alternative to the established party system. The study also posits a three‐election sequential process during which collapse takes place.