Political-institutional Conditions Research Articles

A spatial econometric investigation into road traffic accessibility and economic growth: insights from the Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle

A prevailing question in contemporary transport research queries the contribution of transport infrastructure investment to regional and local economic growth. Notably, the benefits under consideration extend beyond travel-time savings to possible additional developmental benefits. Centering on the Chengdu-Chongqing twin-city economic circle, this study sheds light on this issue. It presents a comprehensive approach involving economic, investment, and political-institutional conditions, and underscores their synergistic operation in eliciting measurable economic benefits. We delve into the effects of road traffic accessibility on economic growth in 2019, using accessibility indicators integrated into a spatial econometric model. Our research relied on robust indicators of road traffic accessibility, transportation investments, and economic outputs from the Chengdu-Chongqing region. The study demonstrates that the road traffic network’s development level is higher in the central area compared to the peripheral regions. Further, it reveals an uneven economic development distribution within the circle. Moreover, the spatial effect of road traffic on economic growth surfaces as an error term spatial interaction effect, highlighting accessibility’s pivotal role. Factors like industrial infrastructure, labor force, and new economic geography also significantly affect growth. To wrap up, we discuss the broader implications of our findings. We suggest a stronger connection between road transportation and economic growth and stress the need to enhance the supporting economic environment. Our findings have broader implications, guiding policy and planning in other urban economic circles.

Institutions and venture capital market development in sub‐Saharan Africa

AbstractWe investigate the critical interplay between economic institutions and political institutions and assess their influence on venture capital market development in sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA). To address endogeneity concern in our model specification, the two‐step system generalised method of moments was employed on a sample of 34 SSA countries from 2007 to 2018. The findings reveal that strengthening disaggregated measures of economic institutions, comprising legal system and property rights, size of government, sound money, regulations, and freedom to trade internationally spur venture capital market development in SSA. Finally, the evidence indicates that political institutions condition the influence of economic institutions on venture capital market development. The implications for policy are further discussed.

INSTITUTIONAL EFFICIENCY AS AN IMPERATIVE OF THE POST-WAR INNOVATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF TERRITORIAL AND ECONOMIC SYSTEMS IN UKRAINE

Topicality. Despite numerous measures to stimulate scientific, technical and innovative development, declared by programs, legislative and departmental normative documents of Ukraine, the actual effectiveness of their implementation remains low, and priority focus on the innovative path of development did not become an integral part of it. Formal institutions should provide better legal, economic, and political institutional conditions, such as establishing strict and fair laws to protect stakeholders, reducing investment restrictions and increasing freedom for business, finance, and capital controls, as well as addressing corruption, bureaucracy, and autocracy. Such a policy is a prerequisite for creating a better investment environment and increasing the efficiency of resource allocation for the innovative development of territorial and economic systems in the context of post-war recovery of Ukraine.Aim and tasks. The aim of the article is to examine the theoretical-methodological and legal basis of the entrepreneurial environment in the aspect of institutional support for the development of innovative activity within territorial&economic systems. The tusk of the study is to propose measures for its improvement in the post-war period in order to recover the Ukraine’s economy on innovative bases.Materials and Methods. The research is based on results of comparative, semantic analysis and theoretical generalization of the previous studies, contemporary scientific views and empirical observations regarding the impact of institutional efficiency on investment, economic growth rates and total factor productivity (TFP) from a macroeconomic perspective. The contextual analysis results were applied to was applied to identify contradictions in the existing organizational and legal basis of the existing institutional framework for the development of territorial communities and business entities in the aspect of their innovative activity of territorial&economic systems and the overall economy of Ukraine in the post-war recovery context.Research results. The conducted research have led to a set of results, including: (1) improvement of categorical apparatus of the theory of regional management by defining the category of the "territorial&economic system", (2) determination of the main formal institutions and institutions that regulate the development of innovative activities in an entrepreneurial sector of the country and the development of territorial communities, (3) the contextual analysis of the existing institutional support conducted within the study allows for drawing conclusions that , overall, the country has developed a complex institutional environment, which is shaped by the existence of various institutions and regulations governing innovative activities.Conclusion. The Institutional support for innovative development in Ukraine has significant deficiencies, manifested in contradictions, insufficient identification of subjects and objects of the innovation process, and inadequate resource allocation. The problem significantly inhibits the innovative development of territorial economic systems, and at some point makes it impossible. Strategies and management of the national innovation system remain fragmented, relatively ineffective and insufficiently coordinated. There is no clear division of roles and responsibilities, including financial ones, among different government bodies. More than half of the adopted innovative programs did not receive funding due to the lack of corresponding allocations in the state budget. Priority is given to the Annual Budget Law compared to the previous financial commitments defined in program documents.

ALMANYA'DA POPÜLİST ALTERNATİF: DIE LINKE ÖRNEĞİ

2007 – 2008 finansallaşmış kapitalist krizin patlak vermesinin ardından Avrupa’da ulusal hükümetlerin kemer sıkmaya yönelmesi, ağır sosyal sonuçlara yol açmıştır. Bu durum, birçok ülkede siyasi memnuniyetsizliği tetikleyerek güçlü radikal partilerin ortaya çıkmasına zemin hazırlamıştır. Ne var ki kemer sıkma çağında radikal aktörlerin eş zamanlı yükselişine rağmen siyasal partiler çalışmalarında radikal sol partilerin atılımı büyük oranda göz ardı edilmektedir. Bu boşluğun doldurulması için makalede, Almanya’da Die Linke örneklemi üzerinden radikal solun evrimi, yapısal politik ekonomik ve politik kurumsal koşullar, toplumsal protesto dinamikleri ve toplumsal hareketlilik açısından analiz edilmektedir. Die Linke’nin yükselişinde ülkede sosyal adalet talebinin temel temsilcisi haline gelerek parti sisteminde SPD’nin geleneksel olarak işgal ettiği yere kaymasının kritik bir rol oynadığı savunulmaktadır. Bununla birlikte 2013 sonrasında radikal sağ AfD’nin kamusal söylemi ve parti rekabetini belirleyen konuları tayin etmesiyle birlikte radikal solun atılım dönemi sona ermiştir

Globalization, Democratic Institutions and The Fairness of the Elections

A central normative argument of liberal democracy is that elections as instruments of democracy need to be free, fair and neutral to reflect peoples’ opinions. In many parts of the world, particularly democracies in developing countries of South Asia and Africa, governments are formed by elections that are sometimes considered 'flawed' by the people and international observers. This raises a critical question with far-reaching implications for democracy: What affects the fairness of the elections? Is there any significant direct effect of globalization on elections? If not, under what circumstances does globalization influence the quality of elections? Do effective political institutions condition the effect of globalization on the fairness of the elections? I empirically assess these questions from 2006 to 2010 for 100 countries in a time-series cross-sectional statistical model using the 2015 Quality of Government (QoG) dataset. The results suggest that greater levels of globalization significantly increase the fairness of the elections in countries where effective political institutions exist. The results furthermore demonstrate that in the absence of viable democratic institutions, an increased level of globalization may not always correspond to free, fair and neutral elections.

What Drives Progressive Policy? Institutional Politics, Political Mediation, Policy Feedbacks, and Early U.S. Old‐Age Policy

What drives progressive public policy? Because progressive policy challenges the interests of powerful people and interests that dominate policy making, it is puzzling that progressive policy ever happens. This article addresses this question by modeling and appraising institutional political, political mediation, and policy feedback theories and models of progressive policy making. Institutional political theory focuses on political institutional conditions, bureaucratic development, election results, and public opinion. Political mediation theory holds that social movements can have influence over progressive policy under favorable political conditions. Policy feedback theory holds that programs will be self‐reinforcing under certain conditions. The article goes beyond previous research by including and analyzing public opinion in institutional political and political mediation models and addressing positive policy feedbacks. We appraise five models derived from these three theories through fuzzy set qualitative comparative analyses of the generosity of early old‐age policy across U.S. states at two key moments. We find some support for each theory, and the results suggest that they are complementary. Left regimes or social movements can initiate progressive policy, which can be reinforced for the long term through positive policy feedback mechanisms. We discuss the implications for current U.S. politics and for progressive policy elsewhere.

Nothing will be as before: Shifting political opportunity structures in protests against gold mining in Burkina Faso

This article seeks to explore what enables mining-related protests in the affected localities to become manifest. In an empirical analysis of three local conflicts over gold mining in Burkina Faso it is demonstrated how shifting political-institutional conditions on the national scale have fostered the eruption of protests at various mining localities within the country. Theoretically, the analysis is based on a contentious politics perspective, notably the concept of political opportunity structures. It is demonstrated that and through which mechanisms the overthrow of the long-standing president Blaise Compaoré at the end of October 2014 enabled the protests on the local scale. Three mechanisms are revealed. The analysis is built on primary data gathered in field research conducted between 2015 and 2017, including 70 semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, observations and document analysis.

National culture and financial systems: The conditioning role of political context

Building on research that addresses why some financial systems are based on banks and others on markets, this study stresses that culturally-based social preferences regarding uncertainty avoidance help explain cross-national differences in financial system configuration. We propose a theory in which political institutions condition this relationship. National culture is a good predictor of financial systems as long as governments are constrained and therefore able to credibly commit to not interfering in the functioning of banks and markets. We adopt a strict definition of culture that focuses only on inherited dimensions, while postulating uncertainty avoidance as a proxy for the societal attitudes that channel those cultural priors. We find that in a political context with unconstrained government, national culture fails to explain financial system variation. In contrast, when political institutions limit governmental action, culturally-driven preferences for uncertainty avoidance affect significantly financial configuration.

Conquering versus democratizing the state: political Islamists and fourth wave democratization in Turkey and Tunisia

ABSTRACTWhat do we learn from Turkey and Tunisia regarding the relationship between political Islamism and democratization? Variables identified by current research such as autonomy, “moderation”, and cooperation with secular actors can cut both ways depending on various political-institutional conditions and prerogatives. Particularly, the article argues that preoccupation with “conquering the state from within as opposed to democratizing it” has been a key priority and intervening variable undermining the democratizing potential of the main Turkish and Tunisian political Islamic actors – primarily the AKP and Ennahda. These actors have prioritized acceptance by and ownership of their respective nation states over other goals and strategies, such as revolutionary takeover or Islamization of the state and confrontations with state elites. This has led to a relative neglect of designing and building institutions, whether for Islamic or democratic transformation. Hence, while contributing to democratization at various stages, these actors have a predisposition to adopt and regenerate, reframe and at times augment the authoritarian properties of their states. Research should ask how secular and religious actors can agree on institutions of vertical and horizontal state accountability that would help to address the past and present sources of the interest of political Islamists in conquering rather than democratizing the state.

Does democracy dampen the effect of finance on economic growth?

Although a large empirical literature seeks to explain the effect of financial development in promoting economic growth, there is surprisingly little evidence for the impact of political institutions on the growth–finance relationship. This paper finds that political institutions condition the effect of financial development on economic growth. Using a dynamic panel estimator and a sample of 78 developing and emerging economies for the years 1982–2011, the paper investigates the impact of democracy on the relationship between financial development and economic growth. The paper finds that democracy does not enhance the effect of financial development on economic growth. This finding is consistent with a view that democracy can be captured by political elites or other special interests in developing and emerging economies, where institutions are relatively weak.

POLITINĖS INSTITUCINĖS SĄLYGOS IR KOLEKTYVINIS SMURTAS

Straipsnyje nagrinėjamas politinių institucinių sąlygų ir kolektyvinio smurto santykis, ieškant atsakymo į klausimą, kokie režimo bruožai yra palankūs (nepalankūs) kolektyviniam smurtui pasireikšti didesniu mastu. Remiantis Charleso Tilly teorija, išskiriami du problemos kontekste svarbiausi režimo bruožai (politinės institucinės sąlygos): demokratijos lygis ir režimo pajėgumai; iškeliamos trys empirinėje dalyje testuojamos hipotezės. Taikant kiekybinės grafinės analizės metodą atskleidžiama, kad demokratijos lygio ir kolektyvinio smurto pasireiškimo / laipsnio ryšio nėra. Tačiau galima rasti kolektyvinio smurto ir režimo pajėgumų sąsajų: mažėjant režimo pajėgumams, išauga tikimybė didesniam kolektyvinio smurto laipsniui. Empirinė analizė taip pat parodo, kad geriausiai kolektyvinio smurto pasireiškimą slopina (neleidžia pakilti į aukštą lygį) didelių pajėgumų nedemokratiniai, o didžiausiu jo laipsniu pasižymi mažų pajėgumų nedemokratiniai režimai.

Impartiality, friendship-networks and voting behavior: Evidence from voting patterns in the Eurovision Song Contest

What is the extent to which a country's political institutions impact aggregate voting behavior in a comparative perspective? More specifically, are citizens in some countries more inclined vote on the basis of ‘quality’ or ‘merit’ over ‘friendship’ or ‘loyalty’, and if so, why? This paper seeks to address how the extent to which a country's political institutions are impartial (treats all citizens equally, free from corruption, strong rule of law) impact aggregate citizen behavior. When political institutions are more (less) impartial, success in society is more often on the basis of merit (patrimonial ties). This test cases is voting in the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) from 1975 to 2012 among pairs and blocs of ‘voting friends’. The theory elucidates that given that certain pairs or blocs exhibit systematic voting bias for one another over time, the bias will be considerably less among impartial states than those with highly partial institutions. Using several measures of ‘friendship’, I find strong empirical evidence for this claim, even when controlling for myriad alternative factors and taking into account various voting regimes. The analysis gives us new insights on how political institutions condition aggregate citizen behavior in general and that although there is much bias in ESC voting, not all bias is equal among friend-countries.

Clarity of Responsibility Beyond the Pocketbook: How Political Institutions Condition EU Issue Voting

One of the most influential findings of the voting behavior literature of the past two decades was the realization that the clarity of the domestic institutional context influences the relationship between economic perceptions and incumbent vote. This article extends this “clarity of responsibility” argument beyond economics to another policy field—European integration. To what extent do national political institutions mediate the extent to which voters reward or punish government for their policies relating to the European Union (EU) or European integration, that is, EU issue voting? Using data from the 2004 European Election Study, the authors provide evidence that clarity of responsibility affects the strength of EU issue voting. Specifically, EU issue voting is accentuated when the domestic institutional environment provides clear lines of responsibility. This finding suggests that the “Europeanization” of national electoral politics depends in part on the domestic institutional context within each member state.

Political Institutional Conditions for the Advancement of Korean Democracy: The Importance of Institutional Complementarity

Political Institutional Conditions for the Advancement of Korean Democracy: The Importance of Institutional Complementarity

Latin America’s New Crisis of Democracy

Why have some countries in Latin America experienced democratic crises while others enjoyed stability? Recent scholarship suggests a number of explanations for Latin America’s ongoing instability, including economic decline, lack of development, poverty, inequality, social fragmentation, a crisis of political representation, and weaknesses in the rule of law. To assess these competing hypotheses, I conduct a qualitative comparative analysis of democratic crises in Latin America from 1990-2007. My research lends support to the argument that political-institutional conditions, specifically the nature of the political party system and the rule of law, have a determinate impact in explaining regime stability in contemporary Latin America. To promote democratic stability, the international community should therefore develop effective strategies to strengthen countries’ legislative and judicial institutions.

By Collaboration or Capitulation? Alternative Models for How Labor Movements Gained Their Rights

Our theoretical understanding of how governments responded to trade union demands for legal recognition comes mainly from the American Political Development (APD) literature on the New Deal-era Wagner Act. The APD explanations emphasize, alternatively, the role of the working class, the state, and progressive reformers as the key actors in bringing about labor rights. This paper reassesses and moves beyond these explanations by comparing the U.S. with a similar system -- Canada -- over time. While all three explanations find some support in the U.S. case, working class mobilization is responsible for labor rights in Canada. However, workers’ mobilization does not always lead to reform because states may not be willing or able to respond to workers’ demands and the level of worker mobilization necessary to achieve reform increases as the state’s level of resistance to labor rises. And contrary to the mobilization model, electoral insurgency is more important than mass protest in bringing about reform. Next, the paper transcends the separate APD explanations by developing two causal pathways to reform -- “Collaboration” and “Capitulation” -- that incorporate elements of each APD explanation into new syntheses that specify alternative conjunctions and sequences of crises, policy choices, and political-institutional conditions that hasten (or delay) labor rights. I argue that the U.S. followed the Collaboration Model, which made the struggle easier, shorter and more consensual; Canada followed the Capitulation Model which made it longer, harder and more discordant.

Political Trust and the Local Business Climate: Evidence from Sweden

A re‐analysis of three Swedish studies of political trust at local level shows that the extent to which citizens trust the system of democracy in municipalities correlates strongly with how the employers in that area assess the state of the local business climate. This article deals with the question of how this can be understood. Three sets of underlying explanations are tested: social capital theory, a theory of local well‐being and political‐institutional conditions. The empirical analysis shows that only the theory of local well‐being can explain consistently why political trust and a flourishing local business climate occur in concert. The study emphasises the need to expand research on political trust to also take into account the role played by the business climate. This has been completely ignored in previous research on political trust. Such knowledge would be highly relevant to local policy making. In order to capture the specific mechanisms at work, qualitative case studies of municipalities are suggested as the next step of research.

The Transformation of the Nordic Models

With reference to an extensive comparative study of the Nordic economic political models, this article discusses some perspectives for the 1990s. Five economic political models developed as the Nordic area was integrated into the postwar world economy. They emerged as the Nordic countries — on the basis of their specific geo-economic and political-institutional conditions — emulated the Fordist growth model, which originated in the US. The downturn of the Western world economy was a crisis for the Fordist mass consumption/mass production model. We trace the consequences of this crisis for the Nordic models. Policy makers first tried to maintain the established routines of the 1960s, but failed, fumbled and finally turned to more austere, neo liberal economic policies. As a result, there seems to be a certain convergence between the five models, a specific Nordic version of neo-liberalism. Despite this, we doubt that continued neoliberal policies will prove able to cope with the challenges that the Nordic countries face as the world heads into the 1990s. Neoliberal policies aim to promote flexibility by reducing the impact of the state, by liberalizing labour markets and by relying on full integration within the world economy. Alternatively, we argue in our last section that policies should aim to promote flexible specialization by making the welfare state a comparative advantage in connection with industrial policies, by extending efforts at democratization of decisions concerning labour process organ ization and work environment, and by stimulating Nordic integration.

The Transformation of the Nordic Models

With reference to an extensive comparative study of the Nordic economic political models, this article discusses some perspectives for the 1990s. Five economic political models developed as the Nordic area was integrated into the postwar world economy. They emerged as the Nordic countries — on the basis of their specific geo-economic and political-institutional conditions — emulated the Fordist growth model, which originated in the US. The downturn of the Western world economy was a crisis for the Fordist mass consumption/mass production model. We trace the consequences of this crisis for the Nordic models. Policy makers first tried to maintain the established routines of the 1960s, but failed, fumbled and finally turned to more austere, neo liberal economic policies. As a result, there seems to be a certain convergence between the five models, a specific Nordic version of neo-liberalism. Despite this, we doubt that continued neoliberal policies will prove able to cope with the challenges that the Nordic countries face as the world heads into the 1990s. Neoliberal policies aim to promote flexibility by reducing the impact of the state, by liberalizing labour markets and by relying on full integration within the world economy. Alternatively, we argue in our last section that policies should aim to promote flexible specialization by making the welfare state a comparative advantage in connection with industrial policies, by extending efforts at democratization of decisions concerning labour process organ ization and work environment, and by stimulating Nordic integration.

INNOVATION POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES: AN OVERVIEW OF THE ISSUES*

This article introduces the symposium on innovation policy. It identifies a number of relatively unexplored issues concerning the relationships among government policies and industrial innovation in the United States. While the effects of specitic government policies on innovation have been researched, relatively little is known about the ways U.S. policymaking processes and political institutions condition efforts to improve innovation policies. Methods of evaluating innovation programs that would yield results persuasive to innovation policymakers have proven elusive.