The economics of pre-crime interventions

Several observers suggest that we may have undergone a shift from a post-crime to a pre-crime society in which the principal focus has become the pursuit of security by anticipating and forestalling future harms, rather than responding retrospectively to harms that have actually happened. This paper is about the economics of pre-crime interventions. It investigates the welfare consequences of risk assessment and early interventions to prevent individuals from engaging in criminal activities. Furthermore, it deals with the question of what constitutes an optimal application of risk assessment and early intervention. Finally, it presents three rules of thumb to identify conditions where pre-crime intervention may be welfare enhancing.     

The German Courtroom Film During the Nazi Period: Ideology, Aesthetics, Historical Context

This essay examines the films of the Nazi period concerned with questions of justice and the administration of the law. It traces the ways in which law films developed prior to the Nazi era. It notes the apparent paradox of the Nazi obsession with questions of justice, law, and legality which are found in their strictly controlled film output. The use of film as a mass propaganda weapon affected legal subjects and this can be seen as a means of creating consensus. This centred on the role of the state in creating a system which allowed the individual to be integrated into the mythical folk community. Those who threatened this social cohesion were depicted as threats to the common sense of ordinary people and this stretched from propaganda films into comedies.     

A decade of electoral democracy: continuity,change and crisis in Paraguay⋆

In 1989 President Stroessner was overthrown after almost 35 years in power. This led to a process of transition over the following decade which included elections at presidential, congressional, and municipal levels, as well as a democratic constitution, which guaranteed full political and civil liberties. However, the transition has been complicated by the continued prominence of the same political and military forces that supported Stroessner, and that have proved reluctant to withdraw from power. As a result, instead of representing a complete break with an authoritarian past, the transition has combined elements of continuity and change. This has led to a conservative and faltering transition, characterised by frequent political crises and the lack of socio‐economic reform. This article analyses the major structural and institutional obstacles to the consolidation of democracy in Paraguay. It then brings the reader up to date, by examining the events of 1998/1999, a period in which Paraguay's transition came under the greatest threat, and which revealed both its greatest strengths and weaknesses.     

The Neoconservative Critiques of and Reconciliation with Capitalism

The neoconservatives have fallen out of favor among Washington policy-makers under President Obama as well as among conservatives themselves. However, neoconservatives’ impact on contemporary political discourse remains significant. This article is about the evolution of neoconservatives’ thinking about capitalism. Specifically, it is about neoconservatives’ ideological journey from right-wing critics of capitalism to one of its most ardent defenders. At the heart of their writing about capitalism are two distinct, but related cultural critiques of capitalism. In their view, capitalism creates a culture that is decadent, effeminate, and preoccupied with immediate gratification. This culture threatens the Protestant ethic and the heroic virtues of patriotic self-sacrifice. The Protestant ethic legitimizes capitalist accumulation and inequality, while the heroic virtues made the US a global superpower. Through supply-side economics and American empire the neoconservatives sought to recover both, the cultural foundations of capitalism located in the Protestant ethic and the heroic virtues of a global superpower. Neoconservative writings on capitalism are key to understanding the shift in the discourse on the economy, the welfare state, and foreign policy over the last thirty years.