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Why did enduring traditions of economic and political liberty emerge in Western Europe and not elsewhere? Representative democracy, constitutionalism, and the rule of law are crucial for establishing a just and prosperous society, which we usually treat as the fruits of the Renaissance and Enlightenment, as Western European societies put the Dark Ages behind them.

In The Medieval Constitution of Liberty, Salter and Young point instead to the constitutional order that characterized the High Middle Ages. They provide a historical account of how this constitutional order evolved following the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This account runs from the settlements of militarized Germanic elites within the imperial frontiers, to the host of successor kingdoms in the sixth and seventh centuries, and through the short-lived Carolingian empire of the late eighth and ninth centuries and the so-called "feudal anarchy" that followed its demise. Given this unique historical backdrop, Salter and Young consider the resulting structures of political property rights. They argue that the historical reality approximated a constitutional ideal type, which they term polycentric sovereignty. Salter and Young provide a theoretical analysis of polycentric sovereignty, arguing that bargains between political property rights holders within that sort of constitutional order will lead to improvements in governance.

As a young man, Harcourt "Harky" Klinefelter became involved in the US's civil rights movement of the 1960s. He was at the right place at the right time--the Selma March of 1965--to become the soundman for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This meant that Harky was there to record King's sermons and historic speeches that Harky then prepared for re-broadcasting. After King's assassination in 1968, Harky worked as minister to the street people and in 1972 he moved to Europe, where he is working to spread King's message about meeting discrimination, poverty, and violence with nonviolent action, and to be a negotiator and trainer for peace in war-torn countries. Along with his memories of working closely with King are some of Harky's philosophical and theological insights, an account of his teaching and training career, his ministry, his peace activities, and a life lived out from the faith that overcomes. --

AbstractA growing number of studies explore the determinants of economic freedom. Very few of them consider constitutional design. We study entrenchment, that is, the extent to which constitutions are more costly to change than ordinary policies and institutions. We utilize 1970–2017 data and study episodes where countries adopted meaningfully more entrenched constitutions. Using matching methods, we construct plausible counterfactuals against which to compare their post‐treatment changes in economic freedom. We report no significant effects on overall freedom. There is some evidence that entrenchment leads to smaller government size, more regulation, and weaker property rights. However, none of these results are robust.

AbstractConstitutional scholars emphasize the importance of an enduring, stable constitutional order, which North and Weingast (1989) argue is consistent with credible commitments to sustainable fiscal policies. However, this view is controversial and has received little empirical study. We use 19th-century US state-level data to estimate relationships between constitutional design and the likelihood of a government default. Results indicate that more entrenched and less specific constitutions are associated with a lower likelihood of default.

Recent years have witnessed considerable speculation about the potential of open data to bring about wide-scale transformation. The bulk of existing evidence about the impact of open data, however, focuses on high-income countries. Much less is known about open data's role and value in low- and middle-income countries, and more generally about its possible contributions to economic and social development. Open Data for Developing Economies features in-depth case studies on how open data is having an impact across the developing world-from an agriculture initiative in Colombia to data-driven healthcare projects in Uganda and South Africa to crisis response in Nepal. The analysis built on these case studies aims to create actionable intelligence regarding: (a) the conditions under which open data is most (and least) effective in development, presented in the form of a Periodic Table of Open Data; (b) strategies to maximize the positive contributions of open data to development; and (c) the means for limiting open data's harms on developing countries. CONTENTS Acknowledgements List of Abbreviations Chapter 1 Introduction PART I: OPEN DATA FOR DEVELOPMENT Chapter 2 The Relevance of Open Data for Developing Economies Chapter 3 The Impact of Open Data on Developing Economies Chapter 4 The Impact of Open Data in Developing Economies across Sectors PART II: CASE STUDIES Open Data's Impact on Improving Government Chapter 5 Burundi's Open RBF Chapter 6 India's ESMI Chapter 7 Open Development Cambodia Chapter 8 Uganda's iParticipate Open Data's Impact on Empowering Citizens Chapter 9 GotToVote! Kenya Chapter 10 Tanzania's Open Education Dashboards Chapter 11 South Africa's Medicine Price Registry Open Data's Impact on Creating Opportunity Chapter 12 Acl.mate Colombia Chapter 13 Ghana's Esoko Chapter 14 Jamaica's Interactive Community Mapping Open Data's Impact on Solving Public Problems Chapter 15 Nepal Earthquake Recovery Chapter 16 Paraguay's Dengue Prediction PART III: CONCLUSION Chapter 17 Leveraging Open Data as a New ...