In this paper I will introduce a new political economy model, where there exists a competition amongst two political candidates, which aim to set a policy which enables them to win elections, max- imising the probability of winning. I will show that, if taxes neces- sary to repay the debt are...

The paper discusses opportunities to utilize the series of micro-blogs as provided by the Twitter in observation of opinion dynamics. The spontaneity of tweets is more, as the service is attached more to the mobile communications. The extraction of information in the series of tweets is...

This article examines the relationship between presence of vertical and horizontal inequalities and the emergence of social, distributive and civil conflicts in Belarus, Latvia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine. Are ethnic, religious or linguistic...

This paper extends our analysis of the identification of an "optimum relative unanimity." This is done principally through clarifying certain terms and correcting a misinterpretation of why the minimum possible value for an optimum relative unanimity is a simple majority, i.e., greater than 50%.

If imitation is the sincerest flattery, then count us among the most flattered. In a recent issue of this Journal, Professor Michael Szenberg provides a number of arguments in support of eliminating the so-called "equitable ban" on authors' submitting manuscripts simultaneously to more than one...

The existence in a geographic area of right-to-work laws prohib­iting the union shop tends to generate a labor-market environment with less union power and thus less labor-market pressure to elevate labor costs. To the extent that right-to-work legislation leads to lower labor costs and hence...

This empirical study seeks to broaden the interpretation of the “rational voter model” so as to include the potential effects of “direct democracy” on the voter participation rate. Direct democracy is assumed to take two forms: initiatives and referendums. This study tests the hypothesis...