Economic Growth and Social Capital

Recent interdisciplinary theoretical work has suggested that social capital, or the interpersonal trust of citizens, plays an important role in explaining both the efficiency of political institutions, and in the economic performance of contemporary societies. This paper examines the relationship between social capital and economic growth in a sample of thirty-four countries over the period 1970 to 1992, within the framework of a modified neo-classical model of economic growth. The findings suggest that social capital has an impact on growth which is at least as strong as that of human capital or education, which has been the focus of much of the recent work on endogenous growth theory. It appears to have about the same impact on growth as catch-up or the ability of poorer nations to adopt technological innovations pioneered by their richer counterparts.     

L'affaire Groupaction: un cas de politisation de la Fonction publique fédérale?

Sommaire: l affaire Groupaction met en relief deux formes de politisation de la Fonction publique fédérale: l'une partisane, l'autre structurelle. La politisation de type partisan et I'intégration de personnel politique au sein de la Fonction publique via l'article 39 de laLoi sur la Fonction publique sont devenues des phénoménes plus répandus au cours des demiéres années. La notion de politisation structurelle sou‐ligne comment la Fonction publique canadienne n'est pas politiquement neutre face à ceux et celles qui veulent dé‐faire l'ordre fédéral. Même si elle ne constitue pas une excuse justifiant le type de comportement observé dans l'affaire Groupaction, la politisation structurelle founit le contexte pour comprendre pourquoi certains fonc‐tionnaires ont pené qu'il pouvait être légitime de contourner les régles pour préServer I'unité nationale. Abstract: The Groupadion affair draws attention to two forms of politicization in the federal public service, one partisan and the other structural. Partisan politicization and the integration of political staff within the public service through Sedion 39 ofThe Public Service Employment Act have become more common in recent years. The concept of structural politicization underlines how the Canadian public service is not politically neutral in the face of those wishing to undo the federal order. While it does not constitute an excuse that could justify the type of behaviour observed in the Groupaction affair, structural politicization provides a context for understanding why some public servants thought it could be legitimate to circumvent the rules in order to preserve national unity. L'auteur remercie son assistant de recherche, Michael Dumoulin, pour son efficacité et son esprit de détective.Il remercie également Leslie A. Pal, Herman Bakvis et André J. Béanger pour leurs commentaires sur la premiére version de ce texte présenté au congrés annuel de I'Association canadienne de science politique à Halifax en mai 2003. Il remercie enfin Madame Jocelyne Bourgon et les évaluateurs anonymes de la Revue. L'auteur se dit seul responsable de I'interprétation donnée aux événements entourant cette affaire, qui faisait toujours I'objet d'enquêtes policiéres au moment de la révision finale de cet article. … les hauts fonctionnaires chargéS de la gestion des contrats ont manifesté un mépris flagrant à I'égard de la Loi…ils ont contourné b peu prés toutes les règles. Sheila Fraser, Vérificatrice généraie du Canada     

Can Democratic Governments Save? Experiences of Countries with Budget Surpluses

It has long been held that it is difficult for advanced democracies to achieve and sustain continued fiscal restraint. The benefits of such restraint are diffuse, and as a result restraint will generally lose out to spending increases and/or tax cuts that are supported by organized political agents. However, our study of other nations that have achieved budget surpluses makes the case that it is possible for an advanced democracy to achieve consensus on the need for continued fiscal restraint during a period of surplus. To some extent, the design of budget processes in these nations has played a critical role in encouraging fiscal discipline. But even more importantly, these nations demonstrate that ideas matter and that the ability to sustain fiscal discipline is related to the ability of decision makers to reframe the budget debate in terms of broader national goals. However, it is unclear how long this new consensus will last, and many competing policy ideas wait in the wings to spring forth when economic and political circumstances shift.     

Conceptual Foundations of Citizen Competence

This article considers some of the challenges that attend efforts to assess citizen performance. We begin by demonstrating the often- unarticulated complexity of evaluating performance in any domain. To do this, we identify four distinct conceptual elements that comprise an evaluation—identification of task, selection of criterion, choice of empirical indicator, and explication of standard—and illustrate with an example that is relatively free of ambiguity: performance in basketball. Using this framework, we then review research in three general areas of study: mass belief systems and issue consistency, political knowledge, and the use of political heuristics. We find that no study articulates all four elements (or adequate substitutes associated with an alternative framework). As a result, problems arise. Most significantly, any particular study is likely to use criteria that are unsatisfactory in important respects or to employ empirical indicators that do not validly measure the criteria. Across studies, conclusions often vary as a function of unarticulated differences in assumptions, definitions, and measures. We conclude by drawing a few lessons for future research, while also recognizing the impressive progress that the study of public opinion and citizen competence has made over the last 40 years.     

The dynamic political economy of support for Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential election campaign

In recent years, students of voting behavior have become increasingly interested in valence politics models of electoral choice. These models share the core assumption that key issues in electoral politicds typically are ones upon which there is a widespread public consensus on the goals of public policy. The present paper uses latent curve modeling procedures and data from a six-wave national panel survey of the American electorate to investigate the dynamic effects of voters’ concerns with the worsening economy—a valence issue par excellence—in the skein of causal forces at work in the 2008 presidential election campaign. As the campaign developed, the economy became the dominant issue. Although the massively negative public reaction to increasingly perilous economic conditions was not the only factor at work in 2008, dynamic multivariate analyses show that mounting worries about the economy played an important role in fueling Barack Obama’s successful run for the presidency.     

International Patent Strategies of Small and Large Firms: An Empirical Study of Nanotechnology

The aim of this article is to investigate to what extent small‐firm foreign patents differ from those of their larger counterparts. The research setting consists of the population of U.S.‐owned small and large businesses with patent applications at the World International Patent Organization during 1996–2006 in the emerging field of nanotechnology. Findings reveal a significant and growing contribution of small firms to the globalization of patents. The analysis also suggests that small‐firm patents tend to be more novel and embedded in domestic innovation networks than large‐firm patents. Policy implications are multiple, including putting international patenting on the policy agenda and helping highly innovative small companies to explore foreign commercial opportunities in new markets of capital and technology.