The current report is part of the evaluation of the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights (EIDHR) 2014-2020, which itself is part of a series of evaluations of the European Union’s (EU) External Financing Instruments (EFIs) designed to feed into the Mid-Term Review of the EFIs...

Nachdem 2013 die umfangreiche digitale Dauerüberwachung durch staatliche Sicherheitsbehörden ins Zentrum der öffentlichen Aufmerksamkeit geriet, entwickelte sich im europäischen Raum unter dem Schlagwort "digitale Souveränität" eine breite Debatte über Chancen und Risiken sowie...

Staatliche Zahlungsausfälle haben nicht selten politische Ursachen. Während ökonomische Rahmenbedingungen wie etwa Wirtschaftswachstum, Finanzstabilität oder globale Investorenstimmungen die Zahlungsfähigkeit eines Staates beeinflussen, wird die tatsächliche Rückzahlung von Staatsschulden...

Doppelrezension zu Stephan Lessenich ("Neben uns die Sintflut") und Wolfgang Streeck ("How will capitalism end?"). Wolfgang Streecks "How will Capitalism end?" und Stephan Lessenichs "Neben uns die Sintflut" sind zwei weitgehend komplementaere Werke, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven...

Am 24. September 2017 haben die Deutschen einen neuen Bundestag gewählt. Im Wahlkampf wurde häufig kritisiert, dass die inhaltliche Abgrenzung der Parteien untereinander immer undeutlicher wird und sich insbesondere die Positionen und Politiken der beiden großen Volksparteien CDU/CSU und SPD...

This paper analyzes the utilization of repression and democratic institutions by a non-democratic government striving for political power and private rents. We find that economic development has different impacts on policy choices, depending on whether it appears in the form of rises in income...

We study the effect on coordination in a minimum-effort game of a leader's gender depending on whether the leader is democratically elected or is randomly-selected. Leaders use non-binding messages to try to convince followers to coordinate on the Pareto-efficient equilibrium. We find that teams...

This paper critically examines the potential movement from accounting of war to accounting of peace. The 20th century capitalist economy developed in the war, and also stimulated the war. In contradiction with the current state of facts, some economists such as Vandana Shiva promote the idea of...

Staatliche Zahlungsausfälle haben nicht selten politische Ursachen. Während ökonomische Rahmenbedingungen wie etwa Wirtschaftswachstum, Finanzstabilität oder globale Investorenstimmungen die Zahlungsfähigkeit eines Staates beeinflussen, wird die tatsächliche Rückzahlung von Staatsschulden...

The revelations in 2013 of widespread digital surveillance by government security agencies and the resulting increased public awareness led to an intense debate in Europe. Under the umbrella term "digital sovereignty," the opportunities and risks of this development as well as possible...

This study investigates the relationship between economic growth and democracy by estimating a nation's production function specified as static and dynamic models using panel data. In estimating the production function, it applies a single time trend, multiple time trends and the general index...

Doppelrezension zu Stephan Lessenich ("Neben uns die Sintflut") und Wolfgang Streeck ("How will capitalism end?"). Wolfgang Streecks "How will Capitalism end?" und Stephan Lessenichs "Neben uns die Sintflut" sind zwei weitgehend komplementaere Werke, die sich aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven...

Der Environmental Performance Index (EPI) betrachtet die ökologische Gesamtleistung eines Landes, der Environmental Democracy Index (EDI) bildet die demokratischen Beteiligungsmöglichkeiten im Umweltbereich ab. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass, entgegen der allgemeinen Vermutung, nur ein geringer...

We study the feasibility and efficiency of policy reforms in polarized democracies. We develop a simple election model where (i) reforms are costly for voters and politicians and these costs increase with the extent of policy change, and (ii) politicians differ in their ability to carry out...

We outline a new voting procedure for representative democracies. This procedure should be used for important decisions only and consists of two voting rounds: a randomly-selected subset of the citizens is awarded a one-time voting right. The parliament also votes, and the two decisions are...

European integration has come to constrain the capacity for democratic political action in EU member states through the judicial constitutionalization of "economic liberties," whereas the capacity for effective political action at the European level is narrowly constrained by the multiple-veto...

Eight years after the onset of the "Great Recession," the eurozone is deeply split between "Northern" EMU economies that seem to be doing reasonably well and "Southern" countries that continue to struggle with socioeconomic catastrophe. This paper argues that the continuing malaise is a...

This thesis comprises four empirical research papers in the area of political economics. While the first two chapters deal with questions related to direct democracy, chapters three and four are about topics linked to representative democracy.

We test the theory of expressive voting in relation to political ideology in a laboratory experiment. After deriving our hypotheses from a decision theoretic model, we examine voting decisions in an experiment in which we use the size of the electorate as the treatment variable. Using a Heckman...

The city of Dubai emerges as a leading partner in not only technology innovation but also designed infrastructure and strategic security. There is a strategy, which will globally add the city and leadership to the leading smart cities of the world. Considering current and future challenges, the...

In 2014, a new paradigm shift occurred in Nigeria which defiled the expectation of many social and political analysts. This paradigm was later titled ‘Stomach Infrastructure’ – a concept of inducing potential voters to support a particular candidate in an election, creating thus a new...

European integration has come to constrain the capacity for democratic political action in EU member states through the judicial constitutionalization of "economic liberties," whereas the capacity for effective political action at the European level is narrowly constrained by the multiple-veto...

Africa's quest to achieving improved health status and meeting the Millennium Development Goals targets cannot be effectively achieved without examining the quality of leadership, transitions and regimes and how they impact on the decisions and the policy effectiveness that bring about improved...