The United States today, according to most studies, is among the least corrupt nations in the world. But America's past was checkered with political scandal and widespread corruption that would not seem unusual compared with the most corrupt developing nation today. We construct a "corruption...

In 1841 and 1842, eight states and the Territory of Florida defaulted on their sovereign debts. Traditional histories of the default crisis have stressed the causal role of the depression that began with the Panic of 1837, unexpected revenue shortfalls from canal and bank investments as a result...

Relatively liberal economic and political institutions emerged earlier in America than appreciated by most social scientists. They did not emerge in one great leap forward, but through a gradual process of experimentation, yardstick competition, and constitutional bargaining during the...

The article presents a simple non-mathematical model that helps to explain how states emerged in medieval and early modern Central Europe. Classical feudalism is modelled as an essentially state-less political system, that is, as a market for military security characterized by intensive...

Food systems primary goal is to nourish human beings. And yet, the current industrial food system, with its profit-maximising ethos, is not achieving that goal despite producing food in excess. On the contrary, this system is the main driver of Earth transformation. Actually, the way we produce,...

Confidence in the federal government of the United States has been very low in recent years. The reasons for the low regard with which American politicians and institutions are held is apparent from reading the front page of every major newspaper in America. The constant lies by politicians, the...

Confidence in the federal government of the United States has been very low in recent years. The reasons for the low regard with which American politicians and institutions are held is apparent from reading the front page of every major newspaper in America. The constant lies by politicians, the...

Confidence in the federal government of the United States has been very low in recent years. The reasons for the low regard with which American politicians and institutions are held is apparent from reading the front page of every major newspaper in America. The constant lies by politicians, the...

In representative democracies, citizens delegate powers. Not surprisingly, citizens react angrily when the delegated powers are misused (i.e., used so as to decrease social welfare). Perhaps more puzzlingly, citizens sometimes repeatedly delegate the same power (e.g., surveillance of citizens,...

Spanish Abstract: En esta ponencia se presenta el concepto de gobierno abierto poniendo especial énfasis en las diferencias que existen entre el mismo y el concepto de gobierno electrónico. Se analizan asimismo los compromisos adquiridos en el Open Government Partnership por los países de...