This paper examines the impact of using the Internet and social networks as sources of information on individuals' understanding of democracy. The analysis draws on data from the sixth round of the Afrobarometer survey, conducted in 2014, across a sample of African countries, some of which are...

Ishiba Shigeru became prime minister of Japan in October 2024, after unexpectedly winning the leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). His long-desired success came with a bitter aftertaste, however. After a poor showing for the LDP in the lower house elections at the end of...

This study explores the complex relationship between information pollution, polarisation, and democracy in Brazil, a country that has recently experienced both democratic erosion and a pivotal democratic “U-turn”. Information pollution – the dissemination of false, misleading or harmful...

Previous research has established a link between democratic governance and sustainable economic growth. Yet, over the past decade, we have witnessed a global decline of democratic institutions across a wide range of political contexts. How has this erosion of democracy affected countries'...

Recent years have seen a wave of far-right populism gaining momentum in many countries. In this Statement, the EGE analyses how this puts democracy at risk. It formulates a substantive understanding of democracy that does not limit it to elections, but makes real the values and rights it is...

This is a summary of the EGE Statement "Defending democracy in Europe: Addressing the threat of authoritarian populism and reinforcing democratic practice". Recent years have seen a wave of far-right populism gaining momentum in many countries. The EGE analyses how this puts democracy at risk....

We examine the relationship between oil price windfalls and labor market regulation empirically through panel regressions in a sample of 83 countries spanning 1970-2014. We find that oil price windfall gains lead to a deregulation of the labor market in autocracies but have no effects in...

This study evaluates the influence of natural resource rents and foreign aid on democracy using panel data from 45 SSA countries from 1980 to 2021. Using five different democracy indices, six different foreign aid variables and six different natural resource rent variables, our...

The tourism literature has largely neglected another important factor that may influence the tourism and income inequality relationships. This factor reflects democractic institutions of the destination country. To contribute to the tourism literature, this studyattemmps to fill a gap in the...

Nepal's democratic transition led to the promulgation of its Constitution in 2015 that guarantees transformative rights across economic, social, cultural, environmental and developmental spheres. The Constitution signifies a shift in the societal contract by introducing an array of fundamental...

Blair et al. (2023) examine the effect of UN peacekeeping on democratization in conflict-affected countries. They use fixed effects and instrumental variable estimators and find evidence that "UN missions with democracy promotion mandates are strongly positively correlated with the quality of...

Die Plattformökonomie ist in der Krise. Das ist bekannt. Weniger bekannt ist, welche Strategien europäische Plattformen erproben, um es besser zu machen. Nachhaltige Wertschöpfung kann dann gelingen, wenn Plattformen aus Brüssel gute Regeln bekommen. Noch besser aber: Sie adaptieren erprobte...

Whether trade can achieve societal change is a contested topic and difficult to investigate. This round-up aims at summarizing recent empirical research on this topic while focusing on democracy and democratization as an important part of societal change. No robust results for change arising...

Spätestens mit der erneuten Machtübernahme der Taliban im August 2021 gilt der fast 20 Jahre dauernde Einsatz in Afghanistan weithin als gescheitert. Der Literaturbericht präsentiert und kommentiert die zahlreichen Beiträge zur Ursachenforschung. Die Taliban konnten lange den afghanischen...

This paper shows that franchise extension is not enough for commitment to redistribution and that in the absence of de facto empowerment, the threat of revolution is intact. In particular, the paper studies the relationship between a democratic reform that extends the political rights of a...

In this paper we examine the legacies on civil society of routine repressive activities carried out by authoritarian regimes, such as the targeting of opposition organizations. We focus on participation in voluntary associations in post-authoritarian Spain. We hypothesize that while repression...

We propose six axioms concerning when one candidate should defeat another in a democratic election involving two or more candidates. Five of the axioms are widely satisfied by known voting procedures. The sixth axiom is a weakening of Kenneth Arrow’s famous condition of the Independence of...

An orthodox rationale for the independence of central banking is the possession, by central banks, of a technocratic mandate. Even critics of central banking take that presumption at face value. This paper questions whether central banks possess any distinctive technical competence at all

Anti-democratic tendencies, the hegemony of the executive, and the dominance of the elites are elements of inverted totalitarianism and the dual state. The result is the subjugation of democracy to market fundamentalism. Digital sovereignty erodes democracy into an infocracy (Han)....

Following democratization, how do elected politicians change the allocation of public resources in response to new voters? This paper studies this political responsiveness following Indonesia’s transition to democracy, exploiting the staggered introduction of elected district heads for...

Social sciences and humanities scholars can influence political discourse through their research, teaching young minds, and engaging the public to demand reforms that are not necessarily aligned with the interests of political leaders. Therefore, autocratic regimes often attempt to control...

European official development assistance to Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) countries increased sharply after 2011, ostensibly in support of the social, economic, and above all political changes demanded by the Arab uprisings. The subsequent turn to development policies driven by...

How do political crises affect the interaction between economic and political outcomes? In this paper, we study one of the consequences of political turmoil by empirically examining whether the Arab Spring influenced the relationship between corruption and income inequality. Using panel data...

Democratic backsliding is a growing concern globally. This paper contributes to the discussion by documenting irregular patterns in 2019 general election in India and identifying whether they are due to electoral manipulation or precise control, i.e., incumbent party’s ability to precisely...

In what sequence do democratic institutions develop during episodes of liberalization in autocracies? Existing research has theorized about the processes and causes of institutional change that make up regime transitions. However, there has been limited research to evaluate the institutional...