Emerging Democracies | Reseach

Taking Institutions Seriously

Rethinking the Political Economy of Development in the Philippines
Published in
Asian Development Review
John Nye | Jun 21, 2011
This essay uses the Philippines as a case study to suggest what is wrong with leading development prescriptions.

Land Reform as Social Justice: The Case of South Africa

Published in
Economic Affairs
Karol Boudreaux | Mar 08, 2010
As a result of a very long history of discriminatory legislation, black South Africans suffered substantial harms at the hands of past governments. Following the political transition in 1994, the new…

Investing in Institutions

Ryan A. Compton, Daniel Giedeman, Noel D. Johnson | Oct 2009
Robust institutional change is difficult to achieve.  However, the growth paths of some countries are more likely to be affected by contemporaneous political turmoil than others.  This paper supports…

The Democratic Domino Theory

Published in
American Journal of Political Science
Peter Leeson, Andrea Dean | Jul 15, 2009
According to the democratic domino theory, increases or decreases in democracy in one country spread and “infect” neighboring countries, increasing or decreasing their democracy in turn. Using spatial econometrics and panel data that covers over 130 countries between 1850 and 2000, this paper empirically investigates the democratic domino theory.

The Role of Entrepreneurship in Conflict Reduction in the Post-Genocide Rwandan Coffee Industry

Jutta Tobias, Karol Boudreaux | Jun 2009
Entrepreneurship is widely acknowledged as a catalyst for poverty reduction and economic development. This paper presents evidence from a field survey conducted during the summer of 2008 among a…

Revolution

Published in
The Sage Handbook of Comparative Politics
Jack Goldstone | Jun 16, 2009
Theories of revolutions are moving away from a predominantly structural view, in favor of a more process oriented view. In this approach, revolutionary situations emerge from a combination of structural background factors that present challenges to states or that increase conflicts among states, elites, and popular groups.

South Africa: Increasing Opportunities for the Poor

Johan van der Walt, Karol Boudreaux | Apr 01, 2009
In this Country Brief, Enterprise Africa! lead researcher Karol Boudreaux and program associate Johan van der Walt focus on three domestic policy issues that they believe are important to expanding…

South Africa Election: Policy Recommendations for a New Government

Johan van der Walt, Karol Boudreaux | Mar 2009
As South Africa faces a new round of parliamentary elections in April 2009, the country confronts a host of difficult political challenges. This Mercatus on Policy provides recommendations for any…

Rethinking Revolutions

Integrating Origins, P