Who Commits to the Rule of Law? Constrained Government and Foreign Direct Investment in Postcommunist States

Research linking credible commitments to the rule of law in terms of property rights and contract enforcement is a hallmark of recent efforts to explain economic growth and development. However, many postcommunist states have had difficulty making such commitments and spurring growth. Many argue political polarization prevents states from reforming laws and protecting property rights in some countries whereas single-party governance renders state promises incredible in others. I analyze pooled cross-sectional time-series data for twenty-four postcommunist countries and provide evidence effective constraints among elected officials act as democratic commitment mechanisms rendering government policies credible

The optical performance of the PILOT instrument from ground end‐to‐end tests

International audienceThe Polarized Instrument for Long‐wavelength Observation of the Tenuous interstellar medium (PILOT) is a balloon‐borne astronomy experiment designed to study the linear polarization of thermal dust emission in two photometric bands centred at wavelengths 240 mu m (1.2 THz) and 550 mu m (545 GHz), with an angular resolution of a few arcminutes. Several end‐to‐end tests of the instrument were performed on the ground between 2012 and 2014, in order to prepare for the first scientific flight of the experiment that took place in September 2015 from Timmins, Ontario, Canada. This paper presents the results of those tests, focussing on an evaluation of the instrument's optical performance. We quantify image quality across the extent of the focal plane, and describe the tests that we conducted to determine the focal plane geometry, the optimal focus position, and sources of internal straylight. We present estimates of the detector response, obtained using an internal calibration source, and estimates of the background intensity and background polarization