In this paper we argue that spatial voting games and power index models are not necessarily exclusive ways to analyse EU decision-making. We find that the two main criticisms pointed out by scholars of spatial voting games, namely that power indices do not take into account preferences or the...

Riker's `size principle' predicts that only minimal winning coalitions (MWCs) will form in n-person zero-sum games that satisfy certain conditions. After summarizing the logic of this principle, a model is proposed in which n players can be ordered from most to least weighty. Two different kinds...

I address the role of social mobility in political transitions. I develop a political economy model of regime transitions that incorporates social mobility as a key feature of the economy capturing the political attitudes toward redistribution. I show that social mobility facilitates...

Judicial review of agency decisions clearly affects policy outcomes, both because the courts can overrule an agency's decision and because the threat of judicial review can affect the agency's choice of policy. At the same time, however, judicial review does not simply `exist', but rather is a...

In this paper we focus on the way in which courts affect public policy. We present a model of judicial behavior that combines insights from theories emphasizing the importance of policy preferences with those suggesting that courts are only motivated by formal-legal criteria. By embedding our...

The article emphasizes the importance of theory construction for comparative policy research. Attempts to identify the impact of institutional arrangements on policy choices are complicated by interaction effects between institutionalized boundary and decision rules on the one hand, and...

While Canada is lauded as a prosperous, democratic state, it continues to fail at constitutional reform. Rather than attempting to explain Canadian constitutional development from Confederation onward, this study focuses on the two most recent rounds: the Meech Lake and Charlottetown Accords....

This essay constructs a theoretically rigorous explanation of the 1914 European war that involved Austria—Hungary, Germany, Russia, and France. It also serves to confirm Trachtenberg's contention that `one does not have to take a particularly dark view of German intentions' to explain the...