Suchergebnisse

In our search for Political Business Cycles in Albania, we found clear evidence of the attempts made by the incumbent to manipulate the economy. There is a statistically significant increase of public expenditures before elections aiming at reducing unemployment and increasing output, in order to please the voters. Regarding the macroeconomic outputs, we have found, evidence of PBC in GDP and unemployment but not in inflation. The fiscal expansionary policy before elections, leads to higher GDP and lower unemployment before/during elections. However, the inflation does not significantly increase as expected. That might be attributed to the mature monetary policy conducted by the Central Bank which enjoys a relatively high level of independence.

Brief introduction to an interview with Pierre Rosanvallon, conducted by Javier Fernández Sebastián, in Madrid, September 28, 2006.

The social contract tradition of political legitimacy has a long and complex history. John Rawls believed himself to be working in this tradition of Locke, Rousseau and Kant, but not that of Hobbes whose Leviathan, he remarks, "raises special problems." Rawls never specifies what these problems are but there are indeed very serious problems with Hobbes' political theory. I argue that Hobbes' theory is an ideology fashioned in a chaotic social environment where self-preservation was precarious at best. His theory is based on his belief that there were only two alternatives for political order given the human condition as he saw it at the time, chaos or absolute power. This false dichotomy was one that Rawls and most other theorists did not accept. Hobbes' theory conflicts with Rawls' conception of rights, the purpose of government, and the nature of the person. Hobbes' theory is a form of ethical foundationalism and is what Rawls calls a comprehensive doctrine unacceptable in Rawls' political liberalism.