Search results for " International Relations"
showing 10 items of 626 documents
Contests with size effects
2006
In this paper we analyze the structure of contest equilibria with a variable number of individuals. First we analyze a situation where the total prize depends on the number of agents and where every single agent faces opportunity costs of investing in the contest. Second we analyze a situation where the agents face a trade-off between productive and appropriative investments. Here, the number of agents may also influence the productivity of productive investments. It turns out that both types of contests may lead to opposing results concerning the optimal number of individuals depending on the strength of size effects. Whereas in the former case individual utility is u-shaped when the numbe…
Coalition building in the UN Security Council
2014
Political coalitions in the international system are still understudied in International Relations theory. This article claims that the formation of and variations in coalitions in the international system are affected by changes in their bargaining power and bargaining environment related to the global leadership cycle and by long-term organisational changes of the international political system. Identifying the Security Council as the institution in which states are more likely to keep their systemic preferences at the institutional level, the article studies the presence, formation and change of coalitions in the international system by testing variations in the behaviour of the Securit…
Differences in Immaterial Details: Dimensional Conversion and Its Implications for Protecting Digital Designs Under EU Design Law
2021
AbstractThe paper considers three main questions: the legal status of digital designs from the perspective of EU design law, whether the protection is tied to the reproduction of physical products, and whether the scope of protection covers dimensional conversion such as using a 3D design in 2D form or vice versa. There are two sets of views regarding dimensional conversion: the “abstract” and the “concrete” view. These two different attitudes towards the scope of protection influence the manner in which the protectability of digital designs is assessed. In the “abstract” protection, it would not matter whether a product only exists as a digital image and not as a physical shape. In the “co…
Impact of the Agent’s Environment on Discretion in the Field of EU Conflict Resolution
2017
Employing an agent–principal perspective on EU conflict resolution and focusing on the politics of discretion, we argue that the context in which the agent acts affects the principal–agent relation. Our conceptualization draws on the agent’s actions as a source of discretion, which can be either an unintentional product of the characteristics of the external environment in which the agent performs (structure-induced discretion) or a product of intentionally pursued agent action (interest-induced discretion). Focusing particularly on the European External Action Service, we find that the agent can exploit urgency and third party interplay as characteristics of EU conflict resolution in order…
La reforma del artículo 135 de la Constitución Española : ¿pueden los mercados quebrar el consenso constitucional?
2012
Este trabajo analiza la reciente reforma del artículo 135 de la Constitución española, a la luz de los principios y de la doctrina constitucional; centrándose, fundamentalmente, en el estudio crítico del procedimiento de reforma seguido, que cuestiona el consenso constitucional.This work analyzes the reform of article 135 of the Spanish Constitution which was introduced in September 2011, from the perspective of the constitutional principles as well as the decisions taken by the Constitutional Court. The focus is mainly on the analysis of the procedure followed to conduct the reform, which –it was said—severely breaks the constitutional consensus.
Elections ordinaires et aménagements constitutionnels
2001
It is widely held that voting in the course of ordinary elections has no significant influence on the constitutional regime or order of a country. At least three powerful arguments are provided in support of that view. First, to claim that, at the same time as they play, players can change the rules is, to say the least, logically puzzling. A second argument refers to the motivations and possibilities of voters : voters, this argument says, are not really interested in constitutional issues and, even if they were, are particularly ill-equiped to understand their implications. The third argument rests on the observation of what obtains in practice : as a matter of fact, constitutional issues…
Government size, composition, volatility and economic growth
2008
This paper analyses the effects in terms of size and volatility of government revenue and spending on growth in OECD and EU countries. The results of the paper suggest that both variables are detrimental to growth. In particular, looking more closely at the effect of each component of government revenue and spending, the results point out that i) indirect taxes (size and volatility); ii) social contributions (size and volatility); iii) government consumption (size and volatility); iv) subsidies (size); and v) government investment (volatility) have a sizeable, negative and statistically significant effect on growth. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
Europeanisation as a driver of dependent financialisation in East-Central Europe: insights from the Baltic states
2021
The aim of this paper is to contribute to advancing the academic debate on dependent financialisation through a focus on East-Central Europe. In doing so, the paper identifies the role of Europeanisation as a driver of dependent financialisation using the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as case studies. The paper makes two main contributions to the literature on dependent financialisation. First, it argues that, through the establishment of 'financial chains', dependent financialisation creates asymmetric co-dependencies and bilateral risks between the 'dependent' economies in the (semi-)periphery and the financial actors in core countries. While the (semi-)peripheral economi…
One House for €1: Case Studies on the Governance of Abandoned Properties in Small Villages
2021
Abstract This proposal aims at analyzing the Italian initiative “Case a 1 €” launched in 2009 for the preservation of abandoned goods, in Gangi, a small village near Palermo. The Municipality has put for sale the ruined houses for the symbolic prize of 1 €. As this initiative has been imitated by other municipalities in Italy and thus become a model, my intention is to explore how it works based on two different levels of investigation, in terms of: 1) contractual schemes (parties and respective rights and obligations) and 2) policy choices, comparing proposed and achieved goals by the administrations and the parties. Some relevant issues arise after 12 years: is the initiative an appropria…
How “African” Is the African Peace and Security Architecture? Conceptual and Practical Constraints of Regional Security Cooperation in Africa
2012
ABSTRACT With the creation of the African Peace and Security Architecture in 2004, African states were aiming to assume the primary responsibility for peace and security on the continent and establish a structure to assemble the necessary financial and military means. However, despite the constant evocation of “African ownership,” it is non-African actors that call the tune and can define and drive African security. Based on a detailed juxtaposition of rhetoric and empirical evidence, this paper argues that significant conceptual and practical problems constrain the “Africanization” of African security and that it appears increasingly unlikely that the continent's states will be able to ach…