Pre-industrial Europe saw a relatively rapid evolution of systems of government. Feudalism gave way to medieval constitutional government and this gave way in turn either to the imperial state or to associational government. This rapid evolution was driven by two interrelated processes—one of economic growth and development, the other of struggle and conflict among governments. Our purpose here...

This paper presents empirical evidence that links private investment to rate of return differential, risk aversion, and several types of political and economic risk. Estimating private investment equation for a panel of 25 developing countries over 21 years yields the following results: (i) socio-political instability characterized by nonviolent protests promotes private investment while violen...

2.

This article critically examines the project of transformative constitutionalism implemented by Movement for Socialism (MAS) government which aims to decolonize Bolivian society through constructing a ‘plurinational’ state. Based on ethnography political institutions rural indigenous community and their interaction with this new state, it argues that programs constitutional reform are limited i...

BY THE END OF OCTOBER 2009, 26 OF 27 EU COUNTRIES HAD RATIFIED the Treaty of Lisbon. Supporters and opponents of the treaty closely observed the ratification process in the Czech Republic and in particular the behaviour of two actors. On 3 November the Constitutional Court ruled that the treaty accorded with national constitutional demands, leading the EU-sceptic head of state, Vaclav Klaus, to...

Due process protections and other constitutional restrictions normally ensure that citizens cannot be tried and punished for political dissent, but these same restrictions interfere with criminal convictions of terrorists and others who pose a nonimmediate but real threat to public safety. To counter these threats, governments may use various subterfuges to avoid constitutional protections—ofte...

Constitution. UNDERSTANDING RLUIPA CLAIMS: THE LEGAL, POLITICAL, AND SOCIAL LANDSCAPE Local government officials need to understand that the “landscape” they will have to navigate when seeking to avoid a RLUIPA claim has legal, political, and social dimensions. Legally, RLUIPA claims occupy a middle ground between challenges to land use regulations in which government is presumed to have acted ...

Seemingly few people today understand the context in which American citizens influence the United States government. Among the many consequences of this widespread lack of understanding is a distorted public perception of the role of advocacy in the government. “Self-interest is the engine of government,” said James Madison. The framers of the Constitution realized that those who hold legislati...