Hello, Sometimes we make some mistakes when posting to Broadstreet with WordPress. The post on the Broadstreet blog is correct today -- it shows Tommaso Pavone as the author of the post Law and Political Development: Insights from the European Union. But when the post is delivered directly into people's email boxes, it shows the … Continue reading Mistake: Tommaso Pavone is the author of the Law and Political Development post
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Law and Political Development: Insights from the European Union
Law and Political Development Students of political development often privilege the study of power over the study of law. As Charles Tilly reminds us, “the central, tragic fact is simple: coercion works,” for, as Francis Fukuyama adds, predation “arise[s] naturally out of people’s basic predatory instincts.” Yet raw power has its limits. As “state-in-society” theorists … Continue reading Law and Political Development: Insights from the European Union
The Foundations for Democracy in Scandinavia
In times of perceived crisis in Western democracies, the Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden stand out as remarkably stable: Polarization and populism are weaker than elsewhere, and civic unrest is very limited. Recent research shows that this extraordinary stability characterized Scandinavia even in the 19th and early 20th centuries when democracy replaced autocracy … Continue reading The Foundations for Democracy in Scandinavia
Mistake: Tommaso Pavone is the author of the Law and Political Development post
Hello, Sometimes we make some mistakes when posting to Broadstreet with WordPress. The post on the Broadstreet blog is correct today -- it shows Tommaso Pavone as the author of the post Law and Political Development: Insights from the European Union. But when the post is delivered directly into people's email boxes, it shows the … Continue reading Mistake: Tommaso Pavone is the author of the Law and Political Development post
Medieval Institutions: How The Analysis of Origins Inverts Some Key Causal Models
Why should a scholar of HPE be interested in the medieval period? Many contributions on this site have made powerful cases about the importance of the period. The key benefit, I would argue, is that it addresses many problems of endogeneity that have long affected the analysis of institutions. For instance, perhaps the leading paradigm … Continue reading Medieval Institutions: How The Analysis of Origins Inverts Some Key Causal Models
Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies
By Magnus B. Rasmussen and Carl Henrik Knutsen Some historical events turn out to have outsized legacies, with consequences reaching across the world and lasting for decades, even centuries. Well-known examples from modern history are the French Revolution, the 1885 Berlin Conference, and the Allied victory in WWII. These events shaped conflicts, political systems, and policy-making in … Continue reading Bolshevik Origins of Social Policies
Scarce states are not always weak states
Political scientists often measure state weakness as state absence: where we count fewer bureaucrats, where we see fewer roads that enable state penetration, or where citizens have fewer state-issued documents like IDs or birth certificates, it seems reasonable to assume states have more limited power to influence society. Zones of state absence become the “brown … Continue reading Scarce states are not always weak states
The New Social Science of the Holocaust
by Jeffrey Kopstein and Jelena Subotić We live in a culture profoundly influenced by the legacy of the Holocaust. More than seven decades after the fact, the Nazi extermination effort against the world’s Jews continues to provide the moral lens through which we judge political action. Debates about humanitarian intervention and foreign policy, democracy and … Continue reading The New Social Science of the Holocaust
Back to the Future, Day 3
By Jeffery A. Jenkins and Charles Stewart III We now have six speakership ballots, over two days, in the books. And we’re no closer to electing a Speaker of the House for the 118th Congress. This is our third post (the other two being here and here) on the subject, based on our analysis of contentious … Continue reading Back to the Future, Day 3
Back to the Future, Day 2
By Jeffery A. Jenkins and Charles Stewart III Yesterday, we provided some thoughts before the speakership balloting to the 118th Congress took place. It turned out to go more than one ballot — three ballots, in fact — something we’ve not seen in a century. Here are some thoughts about what has occurred and what is likely to … Continue reading Back to the Future, Day 2