Different paths to the modern state in Europe: the interaction between domestic political economy and interstate competition

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a number of European states monopolized domestic tax collection and achieved gains in state capacity during the early modern era, for others revenues stagnated or even declined, and these variations motivated alternative hypotheses for determinants of fiscal and state capacity. In this study we test the basic hypotheses in the existing literature making use of the large date set we have compiled for all of the leading states across the continent. We find strong empirical support for two prevailing threads in the literature, arguing respectively that interstate wars and changes in economic structure towards an urbanized economy had positive fiscal impact. Regarding the main point of contention in the theoretical literature, whether it was representative or authoritarian political regimes that facilitated the gains in fiscal capacity, we do not find conclusive evidence that one performed better than the other. Instead, the empirical evidence we have gathered lends supports to the hypothesis that when under pressure of war, the fiscal performance of representative regimes was better in the more urbanized-commercial economies and the fiscal performance of authoritarian regimes was better in rural-agrarian economie

Can Historical Institutionalism be Applied to Political Regime Development in Africa?

Historical institutionalism has been used to explain the emergence of democracy and dictatorship in various regions of the world, but not applied to political development in Africa. Based on the recently refined concepts of historical institutionalism, the aim of this study is to provide a framework for the analysis of the various regime types that have been established in Africa during the last two decades: democratic, hybrid and authoritarian. Surprisingly little effort has been dedicated to a historically grounded explanation of these regime types. Against a common claim that African politics is mainly driven by informal institutions or behaviours, we argue that an institution-based examination of African politics is justified. We then provide a proposition of how to link up concepts of historical institutionalism with empirical cases in Africa, within a comparative approach. Our proposition for tracing specific development paths will not be based on the regimes as a 'whole', but on the deconstruction of a political regime into partial regimes and subsequently into selected formal and informal institutions. This will allow for an empirical analysis of the different components of a regime over long periods of time, and thus for path-dependent analyses of regime development

Four year follow-up of a randomised controlled trial comparing open and laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication in children

The article examines why some postconflict societies defer the recovery of those who forcibly disappeared as a result of political violence, even after a fully fledged democratic regime is consolidated. The prolonged silences in Cyprus and Spain contradict the experience of other countries such as Bosnia, Guatemala, and South Africa, where truth recovery for disappeared or missing persons was a central element of the transition to peace and democracy. Exhumations of mass graves containing the victims from the two periods of violence in Cyprus (1963-1974) and the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) was delayed up until the early 2000s. Cyprus and Spain are well suited to explain both prolonged silences in transitional justice and the puzzling decision to become belated truth seekers. The article shows that in negotiated transitions, a subtle elite agreement links the noninstrumental use of the past with the imminent needs for political stability and nascent democratization. As time passes, selective silence becomes an entrenched feature of the political discourse and democratic institutions, acquiring a hegemonic status and prolonging the silencing of violence

Fractured Fairy Tale: The War on Terror and the Emperor's New Clothes

This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (February 2007) v.3 no.1The War in Iraq has become politically radioactive. It is a burden, not a boon, to any politician associated with it. Not so the War on Terror. It continues to attract the allegiance of every politician in the country, whether as a justification for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq (to win the 'central front' in the War on Terror), or as a justification for withdrawing them (to win the really crucial battles in the War on Terror at home and in Afghanistan). Both official rhetoric and practice, including wars abroad, massive surveillance activities, and colossal expenditures, have bolstered the reigning belief that America is locked in a death struggle with terrorism. Since 2001 the entire country, every nook and cranny, has been officially deemed to be exposed to at least an 'elevated' risk of terrorist attack''' 'Threat Condition Yellow''''with episodes and particular locations sometimes labeled as Orange, meaning 'severe' risk of terrorist attack. By mid-2006 the United States had spent at least $650 billion on the War on Terror, including expenditures linked to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Fractured Fairy Tale: The War on Terror and the Emperor's New Clothes

This article appeared in Homeland Security Affairs (February 2007) v.3 no.1The War in Iraq has become politically radioactive. It is a burden, not a boon, to any politician associated with it. Not so the War on Terror. It continues to attract the allegiance of every politician in the country, whether as a justification for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq (to win the 'central front' in the War on Terror), or as a justification for withdrawing them (to win the really crucial battles in the War on Terror at home and in Afghanistan). Both official rhetoric and practice, including wars abroad, massive surveillance activities, and colossal expenditures, have bolstered the reigning belief that America is locked in a death struggle with terrorism. Since 2001 the entire country, every nook and cranny, has been officially deemed to be exposed to at least an 'elevated' risk of terrorist attack''' 'Threat Condition Yellow''''with episodes and particular locations sometimes labeled as Orange, meaning 'severe' risk of terrorist attack. By mid-2006 the United States had spent at least $650 billion on the War on Terror, including expenditures linked to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Agent-Based Modelling of Collective Identity: Testing Constructivist Theory

Agent-based modeling is an alternative and complementary approach to the study of political identities, including ethnicity and nationalism. By generating many runs with different initial conditions large data sets of virtual histories can be accumulated. This paper presents the ABIR (Agent-Based Identity Repertoire) model which seeks to refine, elaborate, and test constructivist theories of identity and identity change. In this model agents with activated identities interact on a landscape. These agents have repertoires of latent identities. A simple set of micro rules, conforming to constructivist theory's standard propositions about the fluidity, multiplicity, and institutionalizability of identities, as well as their responsiveness to changing incentive structures, determines in any particular interaction what identities will be activated, deactivated, or maintained. Macro-patterns that emerge from these myriad micro-interactions can then be systematically studied. Experiments reported in this paper focus how variation in the size of agent repertoires can affect tension reduction and aggregation across the landscape. Results suggest that tipping and cascade effects are much more likely when a small number of exclusivist identities are present in a population.Agent-Based Modeling, Identity, Constructivism