The present study addresses the question, “How serious is bribery?” In order to arrive at an answer, it was necessary to compare the seriousness of bribery to that of other selected acts. World Values Survey data for Poland were used to compare bribery to 12 other moral issues. Respondents...

The present study addresses the question, “How serious is bribery?” In order to arrive at an answer, it was necessary to compare the seriousness of bribery to that of other selected acts. World Values Survey data for Romania were used to compare bribery to 18 other moral issues. Respondents...

The present study addresses the question, “How serious is bribery?” In order to arrive at an answer, it was necessary to compare the seriousness of bribery to that of other selected moral acts. World Values Survey data for the Philippines were used to compare bribery to 18 other moral...

The article proposes an enabling mechanism for the creation, adjustment and dissolution of governmental units, giving autonomy to each individual as in a direct democracy. The mechanism is designed such that Pareto optimality is possible, in contrast to earlier models which make various...

The article proposes an enabling mechanism for the creation, adjustment and dissolution of governmental units, giving autonomy to each individual as in a direct democracy. The mechanism is designed such that Pareto optimality is possible, in contrast to earlier models which make various...

Time and again, discussions on “just” or “fair” constitutional rules are structured around the veil of ignorance (Rawls) or uncertainty (Buchanan). But how useful has this tool really been for identifying a set of rules large groups could agree to unanimously? Are thicker veils really...

What is self-governance, and under what sets of institutions is it possible? We explore this question from the perspective of informal (de facto) constitutionalism. The dominant approach, grounded in formal constitutionalism, overlooks crucial institutional features that determine whether...

Classical liberals favor an institutional environment of economic freedom. A society's institutional environment emerges as a set of political outcomes that take shape within a higher- order framework or constitution. While many scholars have explored the relationship between institutional...

Constitutional states, as a separate category of social structures, are progressively losing their economic power, as measured with their capacity to appropriate the available capital stock. Fiscal policies, and the corresponding institutions of public finance, play a significant role in the...

What determines the kinds of questions economists ask and the answers they find convincing? More generally, why are the institutions that constitute scholarly economics the way they are? I answer both of these questions by positing that within the modern economics profession, it is plausible...