Suchergebnisse

The relative importance of federal and local government was reversed between 1932 and 1940. This changing composition of government expenditures by level of government accounts for the rise of "big" government during the Depression. State governments expanded their fiscal activity, maintaining their share of total government expenditures. Utilizing data on federal grants and state and local expenditures, I find that the relative decline of local governments and sustained growth of state governments can be explained by the financial and administrative provisions of the federal New Deal programs.

In the 1830s the British and American economies were hit by a series of shared macroeconomic shocks. This paper investigates the role of markets for America's State bonds in Britain and the USA during and between the crises in 1837, 1839, and 1842.There is strong evidence that the crises in 1839 and 1842 originated in the USA and spread to Britain. There is also strong evidence that credit markets for American state bonds were tighter in the USA than in London between 1839 and 1842. The idea that the depression that began in 1839 in the USA was triggered by credit conditions in Britain and transmitted via the market for state credit, finds no support here.

Intro -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction / Naomi R. Lamoreaux and John Joseph Wallis -- 1. The East Indian Monopoly and the Transition from Limited Access in England, 1600-1813 / Dan Bogart -- 2. Adam Smith's Theory of Violence and the Political Economics of Development / Barry R. Weingast -- 3. Pluralism without Privilege? Corps Intermédiaires, Civil Society, and the Art of Association / Jacob T. Levy -- 4. Banks, Politics, and Political Parties: From Partisan Banking to Open Access in Early Massachusetts / Qian Lu and John Joseph Wallis -- 5. Corporation Law and the Shift toward Open Access in the Antebellum United States / Eric Hilt -- 6. Organizational Poisedness and the Transformation of Civic Order in Nineteenth- Century New York City / Victoria Johnson and Walter W. Powell -- 7. Voluntary Associations, Corporate Rights, and the State: Legal Constraints on the Development of American Civil Society, 1750-1900 / Ruth H. Bloch and Naomi R. Lamoreaux -- 8. The Right to Associate and the Rights of Associations: Civil-Society Organizations in Prussia, 1794-1908 / Richard Brooks and Timothy W. Guinnane -- 9. Opening Access, Ending the Violence Trap: Labor, Business, Government, and the National Labor Relations Act / Margaret Levi, Tania Melo, Barry R. Weingast, and Frances Zlotnick -- Contributors -- Author Index -- Subject Index.

Modern developed nations are rich and politically stable in part because their citizens are free to form organizations and have access to the relevant legal resources. Yet in spite of the advantages of open access to civil organizations, it is estimated that eighty percent of people live in countries that do not allow unfettered access. Why have some countries disallow the formation of organizations as part of their economic and political system? The contributions to Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development seek to answer this question through an exploration of how developing nations throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, including the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany, made the transition to allowing their citizens the right to form organizations. The transition, contributors show, was not an easy one. Neither political changes brought about by revolution nor subsequent economic growth led directly to open access. In fact, initial patterns of change were in the opposite direction, as political coalitions restricted access to specific organizations for the purpose of maintaining political control. Ultimately, however, it became clear that these restrictions threatened the foundation of social and political order. Tracing the path of these modern civil societies, Organizations, Civil Society, and the Roots of Development is an invaluable contribution to all interested in today's developing countries and the challenges they face in developing this organizational capacity.--