Recent debates over the relative importance of democracy and state capacity for human development have led to the prevailing view that a strong state must be built before the introduction of democracy. Our research challenges this ``sequencing approach'' in international development. Using a...

Assumptions about the democracy promoting qualities of transitional justice measures abound. However the relatively few cross-national impact assessments thus far have yielded mixed results. This paper takes up this empirical question with respect to post-communist transitions. I construct an...

Zahlreiche Staaten haben am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts den Wechsel von Sozialismus und Zentralverwaltungswirtschaft zu Demokratie und Marktwirtschaften vollzogen. Das unterlegene Wirtschaftssystem wurde durch ein leistungsfähigeres ersetzt und damit die Grundlage für eine bessere...

Africa's interior-to-coast roads are well suited to export natural resources, but not to support regional trade. Are they the optimal response to geography and comparative advantage, or the result of suboptimal political distortions? We investigate the political determinants of road paving in...