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This paper investigates the delegation of economic policy implementation in non- democratic settings using the example of Kazakhstan. It draws on a newly assembled dataset of statutory and administrative regulation created between 1991 and 2011 in Kazakhstan in order to investigate political sources and economic effects of the political micromanagement of bureaucracy. The analysis examines regional and temporal vari- ation in the number and detail of economic regulations and finds that while regulatory intervention negatively affects economic performance in the private sector, detailed regulations that constrain bureaucratic discretion have a positive affect. This finding supports the notion that in the absence of societal accountability, political microman- agement of the administrative apparatus leads to better institutional performance and a more stable business climate. The paper explicates the ways in which theories of delegation apply to non-democratic political realities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I argue that central aspects of Georg Lukács' concept of reification can be used to address historically specific problems in political theory related to the changing relationship between politics and the economy in contemporary capitalism. In particular, I argue that reification-critique can be a useful tool in contemporary democratic theory provided its terms are reconstructed to account for certain crucial problems inherent to Lukács' framework. My reorientation and reconstruction of the terms of Lukács's reification-critique clarifies Lukács' theory by going back to Marx's critique of political economy on several crucial points. In this paper, I focus in particular on two fundamental issues that a suitably reconstructed critique of reification should address. 1) the issue of the standpoint of a critique of reification and its relationship to the concept of social totality, 2) the issue of whether reification critique is inherently economistic. When reoriented to address these two crucial issues, I argue that reification-critique can be useful for addressing a third issue that is of crucial importance to contemporary democratic theory, 3) the imagination of postcapitalist democratic forms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cuba is well-known for its alternative model of agriculture that focused on diversifying crops, increasing organic production, and localizing the food economy. While Cuba adopted this agricultural model out of necessity due to the massive decline of petroleum imports, their localized, organic food system was heralded world-wide as a model of sustainability. However, a less studied aspect of Cuban sustainability is how limited petroleum imports affected Cuban energy use and energy policy, and how the recent opening of the energy economy affects their organic agriculture model. Despite investments in solar, wind, and hydroelectric projects, Cuba's main source of renewable energy, sugar bagasse, declined significantly due to the economic collapse of the 1990s and subsequent crumbling of the sugar industry's infrastructure. Further, Cuba relies heavily on crude and liquid fuels for electricity generation, hardly a sustainable model. This paper argues that Cuba's economic isolation during the early 1990s led to an environmentally friendly agricultural model, yet this same isolation could cripple the realization of a sustainable energy model and reduce their agricultural sustainability. The recent economic opening of the country to foreign investment could boost Cuba's potential for increasing renewable energies, but it is also leading to increased chemical fertilizer and fossil fuel use - weakening Cuba's sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rhetoric to the contrary notwithstanding, democracy has proven unable, or unwilling, to deliver political equality in the face of seemingly inevitable economic inequality. This paper synthesizes the responses to Karl Marx by thinkers Hannah Arendt, Sheldon Wolin, and Benjamin Barber, including Arendt's notions of the political as action and cyclical revolution, Wolin's dualistic distinction between politics and the political, and Barber's call for a global confederacy of civil societies. From these ideas I build a conception of democracy that might address political inequality without attempting to solve economic inequality first. The challenge remains to find a way to motivate the necessary levels of participation by the demos, and I suggest that aligning political participation to the same interests that make global capitalism so effective might also prove helpful in motivating greater civic participation. This claim would be stronger were the connection between political and economic inequality empirically demonstrated,and this recognition leads me to call for more study in that area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I show that Latin Americans have long economic memories. I argue that, thanks to repeated hardship associated with economic crisis and reform, voters should wish to punish all parties deemed responsible for their economic woes. Even so, not all established parties have lost support. Political institutional arrangements determine whether voters will reject multiple parties, or whether they will concentrate on punishing just incumbents. Analysis of Argentine public opinion data shows that voters who suffer economic misfortune blame both current and former incumbents for their woes. Voters with better economic situations, in contrast, evaluate past and current presidents more favorably. These findings suggest that retrospective voting models as applied to developing countries thus should not be limited to analyses of just incumbent party performance and support. Rather, they should be cast in light of political institutions and extended to parties that have held power in previous years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars of post-Soviet transitions often consider corruption to be an outcome or expression of something that went wrong in the transitional process. In my paper, I argue that corruption should instead be put squarely at the center of analysis. Sovietologists were long aware that extensive networks of corruption had permeated the Soviet state and party structure. In my research that I conducted from 1998 ? 1999 in Georgia and 2003 in Armenia, I found that these informal institutions of corruption have largely survived the rapid changes of the early 1990s. Similar to Soviet times, they currently coexist with the formal political and economic institutions, emasculating the latter to a significant degree. By undermining political and economic competition, as well as accountability and thereby the rule of law, corrupt institutions contribute to massive violations of citizens? rights and strangle the economies of most Soviet successor states. The extent of damage done by corrupt institutions, however, depends to a significant degree on the amount of control that the central government exerts over the corrupt system. Control, in turn, is a function of the mode of post-Soviet transition. In sum, corruption is an important intervening variable between the form of transition and the transitional outcome. Either way, the cementation of corrupt networks makes the arrival of ?fresh? leaders extremely unlikely and/or undermines the political reach of new leaders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what degree was the shift to direct taxation in the WWI period intentional, to serve a party program and meet popular political calls for equity? To what degree was this shift strategic, to permanently increase state capacity and the power of national government to intervene in economic affairs? These are large and complex questions, and this paper is an initial effort to examine whether or not the Wilson Administration and Democratic congressional leaders sought to advance goals other than expedient war financing. Some scholars have attributed to Democratic leaders goals of wealth redistribution (or retribution) and building national capacity for economic policymaking, both fiscal and monetary. Economic historian Elliot Brownlee claims Wilson oversaw the creation of a "democratic-statist tax regime" (2000). Did the Wilson Administration seek to build state capacity while retaining democratic accountability via party government in the area of public finance, particularly taxation? An affirmative answer would require evidence of clear goals and a legislative agenda to remake taxation policy, as well as consensus on policy and state building within the Democratic Party and its leaders.Alternate explanations could include functional, evolutionary, or expediency explanations for the rise of direct income taxation as efficient, flexible and politic to raise revenues, especially in times of crisis. Political Scientist John Witte focuses on pluralist politics as the best explanation of the tax policy formulation and implementation. that "no one controls tax policy" and politicians tend to "confer as many benefits on as many groups as is politically feasible" (1985).World War I was financed in the U.S. with what Elliot Brownlee calls a "soak the rich" approach to taxation as part of "Wilson's program of party government" (1993, 2000). President Wilson and Democratic leaders in Congress did seem to share a belief in progressive income taxes as generally desirable, but this paper demonstrates that there was no policy consensus between the Administration and Leadership in the House or a Democratic Party program concerning the purposes of taxation. Revenue acts were secured through negotiations with regular Democratic leaders in Congress, enabled by strong powers of committee chairs and prerogatives of the House. These rules or customs made extraordinary finance possible but empowered the legislative over the executive.Southern Democrats in the House led by Claude Kitchin perhaps sought permanent redistribution, even taxing wealth as sectional retribution. Although at least one scholar narrows Kitchin's intention on excise profits taxation to paying for war debts after hostilities end, not indefinitely (Arnett 1937). Senate Finance Chair Simmons was a fiscal conservative sympathetic to business concerns over the 1917 revenue legislation, which triggered a confrontation between the houses of Congress. Wilson and McAdoo shared those views to some degree, but did not develop a zealous program to achieve tax justice. Tariff revision, banking reform aimed at the trusts was a greater imperative; specific tax initiatives were only developed by McAdoo directly in response to war needs. Initial war finance proposals from the Administration included regressive taxes and provisions to broaden the bases of income taxation, which appear more expedient than Democratic. Wilson and McAdoo were initially cautious and then embraced progressive taxes primarily for their efficiency in funding war, along with a broad array of other taxes that could quickly deliver revenue. Income taxation became appealing to them on equity and efficiency grounds... ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented related to the analysis of care work by government or other public institutions. The author mentions the institutions are not needed to reconsider the caring responsibilities since the market will do it with efficiency, use of setting a market value on care for showing its importance as part of human life it is and adds the purpose of the market in a capitalist economy is to produce profit.

The present Rocky Mountain West natural gas boom, enabled by historic pro-resourcedevelopment political, institutional, economic, and cultural structures, is a politically contested battle over values. Volatile political action, unconventional coalitions, and unconventional politics engulf this unconventional gas boom - especially at the state level. In this comparative case study of natural gas policy in Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico, I measure and compare these values, expressed as frames, through textual analysis of interest group public documents and state legislative bills and statutes from 1999-2008. By developing a new measure of state legislative framing, I test the relationship between interest group and state legislative framing and also provide a viable measure of policy change useful to the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF). Results show that competing interest group and state legislative framing efforts are dynamic, measurably different, and periodically correlative. Competing interest groups rarely engage each other, except as the conflict matures when status-quo-supporters break their silence and engage the challengers' frames that have gained legislative traction. Environmental and land-use counter-framing ensues, but status-quo-supporters remain vigilant in their economic framing. Economic frames retain their institutional privilege within Wyoming and New Mexico, but natural gas policy undergoes a complete environmental reframe in the Colorado state legislature. Although the historically dominant economy frame based on "Old West" values remains largely intact, the respective state legislatures partially reframe policy, within 4 years, using environment, alternative land-uses, and democracy frames based on "New West" and long-extant but previously marginalized status-quo-challenger definitions. This reframing is not a strictly partisan issue, but rather it is influenced by political context, policy diffusion, and long-term interest group advocacy and framing efforts. A policy punctuation is observed in state legislative reframing and by the passage of three status-quo-challenging statutes in Wyoming (2005), four in Colorado (2007), and one in New Mexico (2007). Policy reframing, although rare in most policy areas, is common during this natural gas policy punctuation. The politics of successful reframing is the politics of punctuation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on the role of acceleration in capitalist production as well as on political economy. He reflects on the relationship between speed and capitalism as described by German philosopher Karl Marx. He highlights several manifestations of acceleration in technological and organizational innovations that increase the velocity of central processes including transportation and communications. He cites some economic problems attributed to oligopoly and monopoly.

The article compares the rural health and health care in the U.S. and Canada, and explores how federalism affects rural health in both countries. The conceptual lenses of federalism used to examine the issues include political economy and constitutional reform. Findings showed that both countries have very similar rural health problems and public responses despite differences in their health and political systems. Key factors influencing the countries' health and health care are also cited.

Empirical analysis of the determinants of cross-border mergers and acquisitions reveals that good governance makes a significant difference in encouraging this form of foreign direct investment. This is important for our understanding of a critical element of the international political economy, as it shows the political factors shaping investment flows, whereas previous studies focus on economic and geographical determinants. The study employs a binomial model to discern the relationship between governance variables and M&A. Results indicate that governance does matter. Voice and accountability, and regulatory quality, are the governance variables with the greatest effect. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an agent-based model (ABM) of the commercial development process that incorporates the dynamic interaction of commercial developers and local cities. The model is based on a combination of economic theory and the local development process to form a representation of developer and city interactions. It will provide insight into the impact of regulatory delays on a developer's decision calculus, and the conditions under which accounting for time delay increases the development's profitability.

Presents a study which examined whether economic conditions influenced support for ballot initiatives and why voters in three U.S. states were supportive of initiatives to raise the minimum wage and voters in two states were not. Arguments for and against increasing the minimum wage; Data and methods used in the study; Findings and discussion.

Both Cuba and Vietnam are seeking to make transition from communism towards a more viable political economy. They are both relying heavily on tourism to help pave the way economically. They also seek to stay true to their socialist values and society. Can they do so? Thus the title and focus of my paper...Between rocks and hard places. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This effort builds on the economic attribution literature to examine the strategic underpinning that shape presidential candidates' decisions to address economic issues in their campaign messages and the factors that influence voters' exposure, reception, and acceptance of these messages. Hypotheses suggested by the theory are assessed with data collected from the American National Election Study and all available campaign advertisements produced by the 1992 major party presidential candidates. The results indicate that while the decisions of presidential candidates to discuss economic issues is strategically driven, exposure to candidates' economic messages did not systematically alter voters' economic perceptions in 1992. Rather, these messages tended to reinforce voters' pre-campaign economic assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The early vision of American political science, which was imported from Germany and called Staatswissenschaft, imagined an integrated political science unified by a concept of the state. During the 1880s and 1890s, the field's original foundation in idealist philosophy (Hegel) was supplanted by the idea that the evolution of the state could best be explained by its relation to "economic changes" (Roscher). This intellectual shift ignited a decades long debate in political science over "the method of economic interpretation." Importantly, these debates produced a supra-disciplinary vision of political science as a science of the state that occurs at the intersection of politics, history, and economics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecocentric writers have been less than explicit about two topics of particular concern. First, they have failed to adequately investigate the characteristics and implications of an ecocentric theory of property. Second, the relationship between ecocentrism and agriculture has been avoided or inaccurately characterized as necessarily antagonistic. In this paper, I turn to this second subject as a particularly revealing way to illustrate the first topic and work to resolve the tension by arguing that ecocentrism and agriculture can be deeply compatible in the area of property theory. At the same time, I continue the development of an ecocentric theory of property through the use of two case studies that allow me to apply key principles of ecocentric property theory to specific instances. Through the use of these two cases, I argue that an ecosystemic two-factor weighting system provides a coherent and workable framework for an ecocentric approach to agriculture and farmland ownership. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a normative economic theory based upon the aims and virtues of the practice of caring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A zip file containing the revised paper will be available immediately prior to the Midwestern Conference in April. Any questions can be directed to David Richards at drichards@ets.org Data from the Western Conference version, and information about the CIRI Human Rights Data Project can be found at: http://mysite.verizon.net/~daver68/ciri.htm [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on factors responsible for the adoption of climate policies by states in the U.S. Topics discussed include relationship between economic circumstances and environmental characteristics differentiates between policy adopter states, factors contributing to adoption of climate policies such as high pollution severity and high urbanization and an increase in state climate policy adoption due to low electricity generation from fossil fuels.

Ecological Economics is defined in contrast to the limitless economic growth arguments of the Neoclassical Paradigm in Economics. But the contrast is not complete in the sense the Ecological Economics maintains the Neoclassical belief in the separability of politics and economics. Thus, when ecological economists argue that the only sustainable future possible entails a transformation to a steady state that exists in the solar stream, they lack a corresponding political vision. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]