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Abstract Taxation and the Formation of the Late Roman Social ContractBy Patrick E. ClarkDoctor of Philosophy in HistoryUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor Carlos Noreña, Chair"Taxation and the Formation of the Late Roman Social Contract" offers a novel interpretation of the function of taxation in late Roman society. I argue that the tax policies introduced by Diocletian at the end of the 3rd century facilitated the negotiation of a social contract between the rulers and the ruled that stipulated that all Roman citizens had rights under and responsibilities to the Roman Empire. The late Roman social contract contrasted with the social contract of the Principate, which sought to reduce the responsibilities on the emperor's political coalition while also enabling this group to enjoy more rights under the empire. Taxation was, on the one hand, one of the citizens' responsibilities, whose specific provisions, rates, and institutions were subject to intense negotiation between the ruler and the ruled. On the other hand, taxation functioned as a forum where state actors and taxpayers interacted, engaged in performances of the "public transcript", and negotiated with each other, and as a medium for communication that enabled the emperor to give real world realization to his values, ideals, and normative conceptions of citizenship. Thus instead of interpreting late Roman sources for taxation individually as accurate statements of the nature of late Roman taxation, I situate them in a larger discursive context that led to a broad consensus on the social contract and the nature of citizenship.The first chapter builds on recent work by Walter Scheidel, Gilles Bransbourg, Andrew Monson, and Carlos Noreña and demonstrates that tax policies under the Principate worked to reinforce and make visible the social and legal hierarchy that underpinned the social contract of the Principate. Tax expenditures by the state on senators, soldiers, the local elite, and the city of Rome created financial incentives for these groups to support the Roman monarchy. Chapter 1 also serves as a point of contrast for chapters 2 and 3. In chapter 2 I reconstruct Diocletian's vision for state-society relations from his imperial constitutions, arguing in particular that Diocletian continued a 3rd century development in which all Roman citizens were expected to be concerned with the survival of the emperor and empire. In addition to requiring his subjects to demonstrate their commitment to the empire through empire-wide displays of traditional religious devotion, as 3rd century emperors had, Diocletian proliferated obligations on certain occupations, decurions, tenant farmers, and, most importantly, taxpayers. At the same time, Diocletian insisted that his policies would be fair, rational, useful, and legal. Chapter 3 examines Diocletian's tax policies in greater detail and concludes that by and large they reflected the vision for state-society relations outlined in chapter 2. Taxation under Diocletian would be fair, rational, useful, and legal, and, most importantly, it would locate individual taxpayers in a universal hierarchy of fiscal responsibility that defined each taxpayer as owing a discrete portion of the state's budgetary requirements. Chapter 4 then explores the impact that these tax policies, as a powerful medium for communicating imperial ideology, had on taxpayers' conception of the empire and their place in it. My close reading of 477 Egyptian papyri, including many valuable petitions, demonstrates that petitioners asserted their acceptance of the legitimacy of their fiscal burdens, only if those burdens corresponded to the petitioners' census documents. This acceptance had two main consequences. First, it confirmed the legitimacy of the imperial ideology, outlined in chapters 2 and 3, that in part structured fiscalité under Diocletian. Second, petitioners' payment of their taxes enabled them to argue that they were enthusiastic members of the imperial community who deserved the state's legal protection. This second claim transformed the label "taxpayer" into a positive moral quality of an ideal citizen. In this way, petitioners tried to use their payment of taxes to secure for themselves legal rights in the social contract.If the observations from chapter 4 represent a constructive engagement with and acceptance of Diocletian's ideology and policies, chapter 5 is an example of the polemic criticism the emperor's policies could provoke. In his Divine Institutes and On the Deaths of the Persecutors Lactantius argues that the Tetrarch's persecution of Christian, which deprived them of the state's legal protection, revealed the ideology and institutional basis of the Tetrarchy to be unjust. On closer examination, other Tetrarchic policies appear unjust as well. Tapping into a deeper Graeco-Roman philosophical tradition, Lactantius demonstrates that Tetrarchic tax policies had a deleterious effect on social relations in the Roman Empire. Contrary to justice, taxation introduced inequality, war, violence, and discord. It would be more just, Lactantius maintained, for Romans to give charity instead, because charity would reduce inequalities and strengthen the bonds of Roman society. Rather than being the outpourings of righteous indignation, however, Lactantius' polemics should be read, like the petitions from chapter 4, as a contribution to the negotiation of the late Roman social contract.My observation that the communicative nature of 4th century tax policies facilitated the negotiation of a social contract represents an advancement in scholarly thinking about taxation in the later Roman Empire because it reveals the ideological and ethical pronouncements that tax policies and statements about taxation could make. Taxation enabled the emperor and his subjects to communicate their conception of state-society relations and to critique what they saw as flaws in others' conceptions. This observation also has analytical value outside the narrow temporal bounds of dissertation. For example, when viewed through the lens of my dissertation, the emperor Julian's reduction of the Gallic provinces' tax rate should be seen as his attempt to communicate his commitment to a just social contract in advance of his planned revolt against Constantius II. Julian's tax policies signaled to the whole empire that he intended to be a prototypical good emperor. Herein lies the main take-away from this dissertation: when emperors, intellectuals, and petitioners mentioned taxation, they were talking about much more than taxation; they were making normative claims about how best to organize their society.

Venezuela has historically been one of the world's largest oil producers and has the largest crude reserves. However, the country has experienced a dramatic political and economic crisis over the past decade that has decimated its oil industry. Venezuela's production shrunk sharply in the past six years, oil exports have declined and the country is now a marginal producer in global markets. This crisis has taken place amid a process of autocratic political consolidation and the establishment of a predatory political economy. This article focuses on this crisis and interrogates to what extent it can pave the way to a sustainable move away from oil dependence in dialogue with recent debates on sustainable transition processes. Building on the intersections of Global Political Economy and environmental politics, we highlight the importance of interconnecting links across state, society and international actors in viable sustainability transitions, such as proposals for Green New Deal(s) in different national contexts. Our analysis of the Venezuelan case subsequently highlights the absence of these capacities. We argue that contemporary Venezuela underscores the risks and costs of post-oil energy transitions in rentier states. Contemporary Venezuela is thus a cautionary tale for resource-dependent economies that may also undergo post-oil transitions in the future due to shifting global conditions but likewise lack the necessary state capacity to respond and adapt.

After Rafael Correa's 2006 presidential election in Ecuador the governing party of Correa's Citizens' Revolution, Alianza PAIS, consolidated political power by undertaking an unprecedented process of state building in the country's chronically fragmented polity. An analysis of the political and economic strategies it employed emphasizes their mutually reinforcing dynamic. The Alianza PAIS was a "big-tent" party with a vanguard of figures from the traditional political left that relied on brokerage with traditional political bosses at the regional and local levels to achieve political party nationalization. The Correa government was able to consolidate political power because it upheld its initial electoral commitment to abandon orthodox neoliberalism, rebuild the state, and advance social citizenship. The division between Correa and Lenín Moreno after the April 2017 elections and the subsequent implosion of Alianza PAIS put the legacy of the Citizens' Revolution at risk.Después de la elección de Rafael Correa como presidente de Ecuador en 2006, Alianza PAIS, el partido gobernante de su Revolución Ciudadana, consolidó el poder político emprendiendo un proceso sin precedentes de construcción del estado en el sistema político crónicamente fragmentado. Un análisis de las estrategias políticas y económicas que empleó enfatiza su dinámica de refuerzo mutuo. La Alianza PAIS era un partido de "gran carpa" con una vanguardia de figuras de la izquierda política tradicional que dependía de la intermediación con jefes políticos tradicionales a nivel regional y local para lograr la nacionalización del partido político. El gobierno de Correa pudo consolidar el poder político porque cumplió su compromiso electoral inicial de abandonar el neoliberalismo ortodoxo, reconstruir el estado y avanzar en la ciudadanía social. La división entre Correa y Lenín Moreno después de las elecciones de abril de 2017 y la posterior implosión de Alianza PAIS ponen en tela de juicio el legado de la Revolución Ciudadana.

This study examined two methods for detecting differential item functioning (DIF): Raju, van der Linden, and Fleer's 1995 differential functioning of items and tests (DFIT) procedure and Thissen, Steinberg, and Wainer's 1988 likelihood ratio test (LRT). The major research questions concerned which test provides the best balance of Type I errors and power and if the tests differ in terms of detecting different types of DIF. Monte Carlo simulations were conducted to address these questions. Equal and unequal sample size conditions were fully crossed with test lengths of 10 and 20 items. In addition, α and β parameters were manipulated in order to simulate DIF. Findings indicate that DFIT and LRT both had acceptable Type I error rates when sample sizes were equal but that DFIT produced too many Type I errors when sample sizes were unequal. Overall, the LRT exhibited greater power to detect both α and β parameter DIF than did DFIT. However, DFIT was more powerful than LRT when the last two β parameters had DIF as opposed to when the extreme β parameters had DIF.

Este artículo constituye un aporte empírico sobre la correlación entre la informalidad económica y la pandemia de la covid-19 en Perú. Con base en entrevistas a comerciantes del sector informal de la ciudad de Huancayo, se analizan los impactos pandémicos en relación con sus ingresos y medios de vida y se sostiene que el empleo informal tuvo una gran repercusión en los trágicos indicadores de salud pública en el país. La flexibilidad intrínseca de este tipo de actividades, puntualmente para el comercio ambulatorio, y la falta de acceso a sistemas y esquemas de protección social fueron las principales razones por las que las personas emprendían en este sector para reemplazar los ingresos que perdieron debido al confinamiento. Así, se introduce la noción "recambio de ingresos" en la economía durante la pandemia. La heterogeneidad entre quienes realizan labores informales, específicamente en el acceso a diferentes tipos de recursos, permitió tales emprendimientos y facilitó que algunas personas controlen su posible exposición al virus. Se concluye que en el enfoque de la formalización económica de las últimas décadas de liberalización financiera no se consideran las ventajas que las actividades informales ofrecen frente a la formalización. De hecho, la informalidad sigue brindando la mejor oportunidad de ingresos inmediatos y opciones altamente flexibles, en particular para adaptarse a situaciones de crisis como la pandemia.

The current study examined the Type I error rates and power of several item response theory (IRT) item fit indices used in conjunction with the graded response model (GRM). Specifically, S — χ2, χ2*, and adjusted χ 2 degrees of freedom ratios (χ2/dfs) were examined. Model misfit was introduced by manipulating item parameters and by using a different IRT model to generate item data. Results indicated lower than expected Type I error rates for S — χ2 and χ 2*. Adjusted χ2/dfs resulted in large Type I error rates when used with cross validation and very low Type I error rates when used without cross validation. χ2* and adjusted χ 2/dfs without cross validation were the most powerful overall.

El desarrollo territorial en el Ecuador : elementos conceptuales y coyunturales para el análisis de las miradas locales en épocas de globalización / Diego Martínez Godoy, Patrick Clark -- Tungurahua : un caso ejemplar del desarrollo económico territorial en Ecuador / Fernando Naranjo Lalama -- La descentralización : un camino al desarrollo territorial / María Caridad Vázquez -- Crecimiento urbano, agricultura familar y perspectivas de desarrollo territorial rural en los Andes del Ecuador / Nasser Rebaï -- Diálogo y participación para el desarrollo territorial : visión desde el cantón Cayambe / Humberto Cholango -- El nivel intermedio de gobierno territorial : una necesidad o el falso igualitarismo entre los Gobiernos Autónomos Descentralizados? / Edwin Miño -- Memorias del taller de desarrollo territorial en el GAD de Tungurahua / Marisol Lira Villarejo -- Consorcio de Gobiernos Autónomos Provinciales del Ecuador (CONGOPE)

One challenge in using multilevel models is determining how to report the amount of explained variance. In multilevel models, explained variance can be reported for each level or for the total model. Existing measures have been based primarily on the reduction of variance components across models. However, these measures have not been reported consistently because they have some undesirable properties. The present study is one of the first to evaluate the accuracy of these measures using Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, a measure based on the full partitioning of variance in multilevel models was examined. With the exception of the Level 2 explained variance measure, all other measures performed well across our simulated conditions.