The accumulating scientific evidence – across many disciplines – regarding human evolution and the complexities and dualities of human nature indicates that the core ideological assumptions of both capitalism and socialism are simplistic and ultimately irreconcilable. A biological approach...

A recent study has shown that the democratic peace—the observation that democratic nations rarely, if ever, fight each other—may be spurious: a capitalist contract-intensive economy appears to account for both democracy and the democratic peace (Mousseau 2009). Since then several defenses of...

Were rebel movements that adopted a Marxist ideological agenda different from those that did not? We find that a Marxist profile made a difference, both in civil wars featuring Marxist rebels (compared to those with non-Marxist ones), but also (and maybe more surprisingly) for nationalist or...

Recent research treats foreign aid and oil revenue as similar non-tax resources that hurt the prospects of democratization. Building on theories of state finance and democratization, this paper examines one avenue through which these resources affect democratization: government spending during...

The paper argues that democratic institutions become more effective as conflict reducing mechanisms in the presence of elements of socio-economic development. An empirical analysis confirms that there is a strong interactive effect between development and democracy. Low-income democracies are at...

This paper develops a model of electoral targeting in multi-party systems. Seat-share maximizing parties can use policy transfers to win votes by 1) converting undecided voters, 2) mobilizing loyal supporters, or 3) lowering the turn-out of voters loyal to other parties. The model allows for the...

The Bundestag elections of 2009 meant a crushing defeat for the German social democrats. Never before had a party faced losses at such a high percentage in post-war Germany. The paper argues that these losses were not incurred at the margin but at the core of the social democrats' traditional...

The number of democracies in the international system nearly doubled in 1919 in the wake of the victory of the liberal great powers in the Great War. Nearly all of those new post-war democratic regimes had collapsed by the end of the 1930s. This paper seeks to understand the international...

This essay discusses the issue known as “dirty hands,” briefly reviewing the major positions that have been taken on the topic. It focuses first on Machiavelli, as the best-known and clearest advocate of the view that princes “must learn how not to be good.” Next, it deals with Max...