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Hayek (1960) distinguishes the institutions of English freedom, which guarantee the independence of judges from political interference in the administration of justice, from those of American freedom, which allow judges to restrain law-making powers of the sovereign through constitutional...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012469956
The monetary powers embedded in the U.S. Constitution were revolutionary and led to a watershed transformation in the …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012466888
In this essay I review the new book by Torsten Persson and Guido Tabellini, The Economic Effects of Constitutions, which investigates the policy and economic consequences of different forms of government and electoral rules. I also take advantage of this opportunity to discuss the advantages and...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012467450
During the 1840s, twelve American states adopted new constitutions. Eleven of the twelve states adopted new procedures for issuing government debt and for chartering corporations through general incorporation acts. These institutional innovations were American inventions, and today hard budget...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012468242
electoral rules and forms of government for fiscal policy and rent extraction, even when non-random constitution selection is …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012468524
A self-enforcing constitution creates a political process that provides an alternative to civil conflict for resolving … possible to design such a self-enforcing constitution. The paper is also concerned with discovering generic features of a self …-enforcing constitution. The analysis yields the following theoretical propositions: If and only if (1) none of the parties to a dispute …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012469982
We propose a framework to explain why some societies may end up with different constitutional solutions to the problem of maintaining order in the face of self-interested behavior. Though the salient intellectual tradition since Hobbes has focused on how institutional design is used to eradicate...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10014322888
We study budget formation in a model featuring separation of powers. In our model, the legislature designs a budget bill that can include a cap on total spending and earmarked allocations to designated public projects. Each project provides random benefits to one of many interest groups. The...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012466333
In this paper we present historical evidence and a theoretical analysis of the origins of political stability and instability in Colombia for the period 1850-1950, and their relationship to political, particularly electoral, institutions. We show that the driving force behind institutional...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012466569
This paper links the theory of interest groups influence over the legislature with that of congressional control over the judiciary. The resulting framework reconciles the theoretical literature of lobbying with the negative available evidence on the impact of lobbying over legislative outcomes,...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012467366