Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: A new generation of fine grained measures of welfare policy – income replacement rates (IRRs), recipience figures, scales of de-commodification-- is emerging that allows for a far more precise analysis than earlier measures of programs spending per capita or as a share of GDP. For example, IRRs allow one to analyze benefit retrenchment in bad times when the sheer increases in entitlement demands on spending may boost social appending as a share of GDP. Although IRRs have been evident in the literature since the early 1990s work of Esping-Andersen and Walter Korpi and collaborators, they have only really available made it into the public domain with the recent work of Allan and Scruggs. Yet Allan and Scruggs have not analyzed income replacement for public pension. Moreover, their landmark work has examined changes in social insurance policy without attention to changes in, as well as levels of, explanatory factors. We extend the analysis of IRRs to minimum and standard public pensions in 18 affluent democracies, 1975-2000. We find that partisan cabinet, economic globalization and aspects of socio-demographic need and fiscal performance are crucial, more emphatically and subtly so when error correction models are used.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Security—and insecurity—traditionally is defined by the state as national security. Borders, citizens, and national interests must be protected with policies at home and abroad. In recent years, some have argued that we need to look at human security instead, focusing on the individual. We argue here instead for the need to pay attention to the security of organizations. We start with the observation that many non-state actors now operate abroad in weakly governed territories, where they confront a number of legal, political and physical security challenges. How do they define and prioritize the threats they face? How do they respond? This paper explores a number of preliminary hypotheses about security from the standpoint of corporations and humanitarian, conservation and development NGOs, both of which engage in security planning. We know little about exactly what they see as the threat and how they deploy their resources to respond. We seek to bridge the divide between studies of industry within the international business studies and international political economy tradition, and new research on NGOs within international relations and sociology. In addition, we seek to bring security studies into a broader research agenda.We derive hypotheses about how the mission, structure, and resources of an organization shape the definition of threat, and the response of non-state actors to threats. We speculate that non-state actors likely to define threats in narrow terms related directly to their physical situation. They are also likely to respond to insecurity by trying to re-shape the socio-political environment through engagement with all actors in a conflict, instead of taking sides. They may, however, suffer a disconnect between the security situation as defined by headquarters versus leaders on the ground. They seek to preserve their mission, be it the delivery of conservation, development, or humanitarian aid or the pursuit of economic ends. Ultimately, they must adopt some combination of protection of their personnel, facilities, and mission from direct threat; withdrawal from an unmanageable and unstable situation; or reconstruction of the environment in ways that reduce the threat. How they respond may affect the local political environment (as we have seen for some time with Shell and various groups in Nigeria and in recent revelations concerning Chiquita Brands and other companies and their payments to paramilitaries in Colombia), as well as have implications for the foreign policy goals of their home states.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: We consider the incentives for strategic voting in sequential elections, and test the propositions of this model on an original dataset covering all EU parliamentary elections and related national elections.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Over the last decade, the quest for good governance in Africa has gained momentum among ordinary citizens. Democracy’s “third wave” (Huntington, 1991) has engendered an encouraging mass participation in the equally significant number and frequency of multi-party democratic elections in recent years. Unfortunately however, elections often result in atrocious violence. Rather than enjoy peace and stability, civilians either contend with life-threatening post-electoral skirmishes between politicians or resort to a perpetual flight from the resulting turmoil. Where a government is formed, access to it is in most cases determined by party affiliation, which is largely ethnically-driven. This study examines the correlation between the institutionalization of competitive multi-party democracy and human rights in Africa and the implications for the process of democratization, the sustenance of good governance and socio-economic development within the continent. The discussion is premised on an assessment of the electioneering processes and post-electoral political state in a sample of African countries. The results indicate that due primarily to strong ethnic inclinations and other socio-economic factors, an ambitious institutionalization of competitive electoral democracy in Africa is not only problematic but also poses extensive human rights challenges.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed