Notwithstanding the essentially proportional nature of the German electoral system, the two-tier system of districts, and the complex counting procedure that it entails have rendered it liable to some of the consequences of a well-known form of "electoral abuse", malapportionment. Moreover, the...

It is one of the few unquestioned axioms in sociology that the two founding fathers of the discipline as we know it are Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. The aim of this paper is to shift this issue at the center of interest by claiming that seen from the right angle it addresses the status and...

This paper deals with some elements of Machiavelli's theory of political action and its relation with tragedy and choice. 1) I will sketch 3 different interpretations of his work. 2) I will analyse how political action often involves tragic choices between common good and justice, and how this...

Although the Treaty of Rome did not initially contain any legal basis for European environmental policy, the past 10 or 15 years have witnessed an impressive sidening and deepening of European policy competences in this field. This article aims to explain this process of policy development and...

European regulatory policy - making unfolds in the context of the diverse regulatory interests and traditions of member states. The latter meet in the European arena, have to be balanced and brought to a compromise. As aresult European regulation often gains features of a "policy patchwork" in...

During the 1960s Italy reformed its educational system in several important respects. The reform was expected to reduce class inequality in university attendence by raising the odds that working class youth would do so. We find that the liberalization of access to the maturita failed to increase...

The first part of this paper briefly examines the merits of neo-classical arguments regarding the causes of the recent upsurge in Greek unemployment. It shows that the view according to which high unemployment in Greece is caused by high waged rests on a weak empirical foundation. Moreover, by...

Alexander Gerschenkron explained variations in banking structures in 19th century Europe -- the fact that some countries like Germany and italy had universal banks, whereas others, like Britain, France, or the United States, has specialized banks -- by the timing of industrialization. I argue,...

Presidentialism has been long defined as a regime type based on the principle of separation of power. I will start by adopting a restricted definition of presidentialism and advancing a typology of democratic regimes, just to thereafter apply it to the two largest South American countries:...

Putnam's civil society is the idea that good government performance aas well as economic development is a product of 'civic community', i.e. the networks of trust, reciprocity, and habits of co-operation that arise in the associational micro-spheres of civil society such as the soccer club, the...