Most party systems have seen a considerable rise in polarization during the past decades. We show that fiscal policies have contributed to this development. Our macro-level analysis of 166 elections since 1980 finds that austerity increases both electoral abstention and votes for non-mainstream...

Food safety plays an increasingly important role in today's interdependent trading relations. The existing multilateral rules embodied in the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures are increasingly being supplemented through a series of...

We are experiencing a tumultuous period in global politics, with international economic governance facing a period of great uncertainty. Meanwhile, since the de facto collapse of the WTO's Doha Round, a plethora of preferential agreements has begun to supplant the WTO's rule-making function and...

The process of globalization and the growth of interdependence in economic, social and environmental activities by corporate entities requires greater international cooperation between countries. At the same time, the amount of economic and white-collar-crime has grown substantially. One of the...

The Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreement) is a complex agreement under the umbrella of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and concerns the interplay between governmental measures concerning risk for human, animal and plant life or health, the necessary scientific...

Governments have great difficulties to design politically sustainable responses to rising public debt. These difficulties are grounded in a limited understanding of the popular constraints during times of fiscal pressure. For instance, an influential view claims that fiscal austerity does not...

Does voting have downstream consequences for turnout and political preferences? While research initially showed strong support for the notion that the experience of voting fosters civic habits and political engagement, recent work has cast doubt on how universal these patterns are. We contribute...

Does voting have downstream consequences for turnout and political preferences? While research initially showed strong support for the notion that the experience of voting fosters civic habits and political engagement, recent work has cast doubt on how universal these patterns are. We contribute...