Nach einem kurzen Rückblick auf das Downs-Modell diskutieren wir anhand empirischer Daten aus Deutschland dessen heutige Relevanz unter Berücksichtigung der aus der Fairness-Literatur bekannten Ungleichheitsaversion (UA). Dabei wird der Begriff der sozialen Präferenzen um das neue Konzept der...

This is the first study that assesses the economic effects of direct democratic institutions on a cross country basis. Most of the results of the former intra-country studies could be confirmed. On the basis of some 30 countries, a higher degree of direct democracy leads to lower total...

I analyze the link between partisan alignment of local politicians and the incidence of political corruption, using novel hand-collected data on local political corruption in Ghana. In line with political ambition theory, I hypothesize that local politicians aligned with the national government...

While past studies have put forward many reasons why partisanship in young African democracies should be considered weak and meaningless, this paper casts doubt on this notion by presenting evidence that suggests the presence of strong and stable patterns of partisanship in ordinary citizens....