Regionalism and constitutional reform, 1819-1826

Constitutional Reform in the English - Speaking Caribbean : Challenges and Prospects

INTRODUCTION Constitutional laws of countries in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC) have changed very little, at least in relative terms, since the independence of these countries. Nevertheless, the institutional and political environment of the ESC presents some unique challenges to constitutional reform in the contemporary era. This paper examines the constitutional trajectory of these coun...

Assessing how far Charter 88 and the constitutional reform coalition influenced voting system reform in Britain

Lead in large part by Charter 88 and the Scottish Constitutional Convention, the activities of the constitutional reform movement since the early 1990s have clearly helped to introduce new proportional voting systems into UK politics. Yet, at the same time, the Labour governments after 1997decisively rejected voting reform for the House of Commons and dragged out Lords reform to prevent any dir...

PACIFIC CURRENTS The Quest for Constitutional Reform in Tonga

Tonga’s constitution was originally a liberal, 19th century document that economically combined popular representation and aristocratic direction in a unicameral vehicle instead of the conventional bicameral legislature. Subsequent amendments strengthened the executive, and the greatest of all, in 1914, significantly reduced representation of both nobles and people. The configuration of power s...

Regionalism and Growth

Small Countries and Regionalism

The number of regional trade agreements has nearly doubled in the last four years. Interestingly, relatively small countries have put enormous effort into joining regional agreements with larger countries during this period. In this paper, we address the following question: why are small countries so eager to be a part of these agreements? We construct a general equilibrium model of a natural t...