Political office holders are chiefly entrusted with the formulation and implementation of government policies and programmes designed to enhance sustainable development. Their activities can therefore make or unmake a nation, geo-political region initiative. The mental health and emotional intelligence of political office holders had been linked with their personal growth initiative and a...

There seems to be a debate on the validity of democratic peace theory. Whilst, some scholars and schools of thought have argued that democracy engenders peace, others have argued exactly the opposite. In the Nigerian context, democracy appears to have been characterized by violence, this paper examines democracy and violent conflicts and in origins and its implications for development with a pa...

This paper uses household panel data from rural Vietnam to explore the effects of having a relative in a position of political or bureaucratic power on farmers’ agricultural investment decisions. Our main result is that households significantly increase their investment in land improvement as a result of relatives moving into public office. Connections to office holders appear to be important f...

This paper examines the equilibrium relationship between politics and the economy. I consider a repeated-election model with policy and office motivated politicians. The incumbent politician chooses a tax rate and oversees the activities of the private and public sectors. Politicians differ in their ability to increase the productivity of the private sector, and in their ability to transform ta...

Are politicians motivated by policy outcomes or by the perks of office? The answer to this question is central to understanding the behavior of office holders and the policies they produce. Despite the question’s importance, however, the existing literature is not well suited to provide an answer. To shed light on the issue of political motivations I exploit a basic fact: to hold office, one mu...

The concepts of clientelism and patronage have been widely used in the analysis of political and social relations. In contemporary political science literature, both concepts have increasingly come to denote a particular strategy of gaining political support by individuals or parties through the distribution of individual or collective goods to prospective voters. 1 Although there is some degre...

The significance of yardstick competition among governments is now confirmed with regard to fiscal variables. This is an important result but the significance of the mechanism must also be sought in a context broader than that of fiscal federalism and without limitation to relations and processes fully observable. Three points are made. Even in the case of governments trying to mimic each other...

The significance of yardstick competition among governments is now confirmed with regard to fiscal variables. This is an important result but the significance of the mechanism must also be sought in a context broader than that of fiscal federalism and without limitation to relations and processes fully observable. Three points are made. Even in the case of governments trying to mimic each other...