In a world of Downsian convergence, economic policy and economic outcomes are unaffected by the identity of the governing political party. We do not live in this world. Advanced Western democracies exhibit marked divergence between parties, and consequently, policies and outcomes oscillate with...

Das Gebot innerparteilicher Demokratie will die Grundlage für einen freien und gleichen Wettbewerb in den politischen Parteien schaffen. Mithilfe rechtsökonomischer Methoden und einer eigenen empirischen Studie untersucht Jacob Ulrich, ob das Parteienrecht und die Satzungen der Parteien den...

Democratic representation is constrained by the alternatives available to voters. In this paper, we develop a methodology to gauge the extent to which the "supply side" of politics hinders voter welfare. Using rich data on thousands of candidates in three Brazilian legislative elections, we...

In most national elections, voters face a key choice between continuity and change. Electoral turnovers occur when the incumbent candidate or party fails to win reelection. To understand how turnovers affect national outcomes, we study the universe of presidential and parliamentary elections...

How important are political parties in motivating and disciplining elected officials? Using a difference-in-discontinuity design, we study how shocks to incumbents're-election probabilities affect legislative behavior in a setting where parties fully control candidate selection. We find that...

The role of citizens' initiatives figures prominently in contemporary debates on constitutional change. A basic question is why are initiatives necessary in a representative democracy where candidates must already compete for the right to control policy? This paper offers one answer to this...

Wirtschaftspolitik in einer sozialen Marktwirtschaft möchte Wohlstand schaffen und verteilen. Dies zeigt sich in den Wahl- und Regierungsprogrammen auf Bundesebene seit 2002, allerdings mit sehr unterschiedlichen Akzenten. Zur Analyse wird deshalb die relative Häufigkeit der Begriffe...