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AbstractOnitsha, located along the route that connects south‐western and south‐eastern Nigeria, has a very financially dynamic local government. Over one‐quarter of the total revenues of this local government come from its market and motor parks. This is an unusual source for a local government that has perhaps the largest per capita revenue in Nigeria—almost N40, compared with the national average of N4.9. The procedure for collecting this revenue is regarded as highly successful since there is greater reliance on the citizens than tax officials. The volume of revenues collected has allowed the council maintain a large surplus revenue over a long period of time, which enables it to carry out important programmes of primary and adult education. It is also beginning to develop its property revenue collection system in collaboration with the Anambra State government.

The Great Depression, and the interwar period more generally, were characterized by macroeconomic mismanagement. Fiscal policy, in particular, was essentially not used to fight the slump. Despite this, I find that a higher degree of fiscal capacity helped countries reduce the cyclical volatility of their governments' financing and, thus, to run stabilizing - or, at least, less destabilizing - fiscal policies. This smoothing effect worked principally by facilitating countries' access to borrowing. Thus, interwar governments were constrained in their policy choices by past investments in their fiscal systems, and not just Gold Standard membership and ideology, as commonly held in the literature.

Editada en la Fundación Empresa Pública ; Se intentan medir los beneficios y costes fiscales de la relación entre las colonias americanas y España en el período de 1760 a 1814 a partir de una serie de nuevas estimaciones de los montos anuales de las remesas fiscales americanas. Se discuten los varios componentes de los beneficios fiscales que recibía la tesorería metropolitana, incluyendo las transferencias en metálico y en especie (tabaco de Cuba). Se argumenta que la contribución americana a los ingresos ordinarios metropolitanos aumentó en términos absolutos y relativos entre 1790 y 1810. ; The essay measures the fiscal costs and benefits of colonialism both for the Spanish American colonies and for Spain in the períod 1760-1814 using new estimates of the annual transfers from the colonies to the metropolitan treasury. The various components of the fiscal benefits for the metropolis are analyzed, including not only the transfer of silver but also large shipments of tobáceo leaf from Cuba. It is argued that the American contribution to the ordinary income of the Spanish government increased in absolute and relative terms in the period 1790-1810. ; Publicado

This contribution studies the influence of poor politico-economic factors, unfavorable demographic conditions, state failure, modernization, secularization, globalization and the perceived dependency of the Islamic world from the West on the onset of armed Islamist activity for 155 countries between 1968 and 2007. Its empirical findings show that the onset of militant Islamism is robustly associated with the discrimination of Islamic minorities, state weakness, the presence of large (secular and possibly predatory) governments, military dependence from the U.S., external cultural influences and the availability of a large pool of potential recruits (as indicated by a large, Muslim population). Poor economic conditions, modernization and authoritarianism share no association with the onset of Islamist militancy. The latter findings imply that democratic reforms and economic development while often advocated countering Islamist violence appear to be rather ineffective tools of conflict prevention.

Switzerland is often viewed as a federalist curiosity and a unique form of direct democracy. But this view does not provide a proper understanding of the country. A theory of Switzerland is necessary. A consideration of the initial, exogenous geographical situation of Swiss territory provides a better understanding of the country's development. It was out of the frac-tured geography that the institutions of federalism and direct democracy as they are known today developed and established themselves. Although there was a trend to internal centralisation in the 20th century, the regional authorities have maintained their autonomy considerably better in Switzerland than in other states. An important factor is that the federal government, cantons and municipalities are each responsible for their own finances and debts. This stabilises not only the budget of regional and local authorities but also prevents interference on the part of the central government.

Confederate Treasury notes were convertible into government bonds at par. This provided an imbedded option value for the currency. Confederate interest-rate policy encouraged, and ultimately coerced, holders of Treasury notes to exchange these notes for bonds by imposing deadlines on their convertibility. In this paper we identify a long-run equilibrium relationship between the gold value of the bonds and the gold value of Confederate currency. We also show that the three funding acts aimed at precipitating the conversion of currency into bonds were effective in temporarily dampening inflationary pressures.

Agricultural development can contribute significantly to peace by raising incomes and employment, thereby reducing the social frustrations that give rise to violence. Agricultural growth also generates revenues for governments, allowing them to redress the grievances of disadvantaged populations. In this way, growth can be made more equitable, an effect that is enhanced if inequalities in access to natural capital, especially to land, are addressed as well. Agriculture is critical for countries rebuilding from war, especially in making recovery work for the poor. And by raising per capita incomes, agricultural development underpins new democracies. Agricultural development thereby supports political strategies for peace-building and democratization. – agriculture ; conflict ; peace ; international trade

The origins of fiscal capacity have traditionally been linked to warfare and democratization. However, non-democratic states also invest in fiscal capacity, even in times of peace. In fact, the majority of income taxes-a cornerstone of government finance-were introduced by non-democratic states in peacetime. This paper is concerned with how autocratic politics shape fiscal capacity. Political institutions in non-democratic states help overcome a commitment problem related to investments in taxation. In order not to risk being deposed by his or her elite supporters, a ruler needs to guarantee that new fiscal tools will not be used opportunistically (e.g. for expropriation of the elite). If the elite supporters can effectively monitor the government, any transgressions will be detected and punishable. Institutions such as legislatures solve commitment problems related to investments in fiscal capacity when they allow oversight and monitoring over the executive branch. The empirical implications are straightforward: in places with strong institutional oversight, which allows the elite to monitor the executive, we should observe higher fiscal capacity. I find support for this notion by analysing newly available historical datasets over tax revenues, tax introduction dates, and political institutions.

Legal provisions that protect politicians from arrest and prosecution exist throughout much of the modern democratic world. Why, and with what effects, do societies choose to place their politicians above the law? We examine the institution of immunity both theoretically and empirically. Our theoretical model demonstrates that immunity is a double-edged sword; while statutory immunity provisions protect honest politicians from politically-motivated charges, they may also incentivize corrupt behavior. Which effect dominates depends on the quality of the judicial system. In order to empirically analyze the effects of immunity provisions, we quantify the strength of immunity protection enjoyed by heads of government, ministers, and legislators in 73 democracies. We find empirical evidence that though stronger immunity protection is associated with greater corruption where the judicial system is independent, this relationship has more ambiguous effects where the legal system is weak and susceptible to politicization. These effects remain after controlling for standard determinants of corruption.

El artículo reconstruye la política de Estados Unidos respecto a la reforma agraria adoptada en Italia por el Gobierno de De Gasperi a partir de 1950. El Gobierno estadounidense siguió atentamente las discusiones relativas a la reforma agraria y financió con el Plan Marshall, lanzado en 1947, muchos proyectos de colonización relativos a la transformación de la agricultura italiana. En el artículo se presentan en primer lugar algunas figuras de la administración Truman vinculadas al Plan Marshall; se analizan después la política exterior americana hacia Italia en el sector primario y la posición de los Estados Unidos frente a la reforma agraria y las luchas campesinas, sobre todo en Calabria; finalmente, se presentan los resultados de algunos estudios realizados por analistas estadounidenses sobre los efectos políticos de la reforma en las elecciones de 1952 y 1953. ; This article reconstructs the American policy regarding the Italian Agrarian Reform, launched by the De Gasperi government from 1950 onwards. The USA government carefully followed the political and technical discussions related to the agrarian reform and financed through the Marshall Plan, after 1947, many land reclamation projects related to the transformation of the Italian agriculture. In the article's first part, some protagonists of the Truman administration involved in Marshall Plan are introduced. In the second place, the American foreign policy towards Italy in the primary sector and the position of USA regarding the agrarian reform and the peasant struggles, especially in Calabria, are analyzed. Finally, the article describes the results of some studies, written by American officers, on the political effects of the reform in the elections of 1952 and the 1953.

This paper puts the original Reinhart-Rogoff dataset, made public by Herndon et al. (2013), to a formal econometric test to pin down debt threshold endogenously. We show that the nonlinear relation from debt to growth is not very robust. Taken with a pinch of salt, our results suggest, however, that there may be a tipping point at around 20% of GDP, beyond which central government debt has a negative influence on growth. Further (and greater) thresholds may exist but their magnitude is highly uncertain. For general government debt (1960-2009), the threshold beyond which negative growth effects kick in is considerably higher at about 50%. Finally, individual country estimates reveal a large amount of cross-country heterogeneity. For some countries including the United States, a nonlinear negative link can be detected at about 30% of GDP. For others, the thresholds are surrounded by a great amount of uncertainty or no nonlinearities can be established. This instability may be a result of threshold effects changing over time within countries and depending on economic conditions, not captured in our estimations. Overall, our results can be seen as a formal econometric confirmation that the 90% public debt threshold is not in the Reinhart-Rogoff data. But our results also seem to suggest that public debt might have a negative effect on economic performance kicking in at already fairly moderate public debt levels. Furthermore, the absence of threshold effects or low estimated thresholds may not preclude the emergence of further threshold effects, especially as public debt levels are rising to unprecedentedly high levels.

Propuesta de una reforma política, aboliendo completamente el régimen central y adoptando el federalismo en Colombia. Argumenta las diferencias regionales, las costumbres de la población, los problemas de comunicación, el tamaño de las provincias y hace una historia cronológica de la administración pública desde 1834 hasta 1855.

En 1810 en Cartagena se constituyó una Junta de Gobierno, siguiendo el modelo de la Constitución de Cádiz, en 1812 se sancionó la constitución, pero la guerra con Santa Marta seguía. En septiembre de 1814, llegaron unos venezolanos guiados por Simón Bolívar, lo cual creó reacciones encontradas en Cartagena y la Nueva Granada, a raíz de esto se creó una crisis política y conflictos de gobierno lo cual propició la caída de Cartagena el 6 de diciembre de 1815. ; *Este capítulo se encuentra incluido en la III parte del libro Cartagena de Indias en la independencia, titulada "Relaciones con otras provincias y audiencias"

Hace una descripción detallada de la expedición de Pablo Murillo, las unidades militares, el equipo, la cantidad de militares que traía, los costos que generó y las batallas que llevó a cabo, sin embargo en el documento se analiza el fracaso de Murillo, lo cual le dio vía libre a Simón Bolívar para continuar con el sueño independentista. ; *Este capítulo se encuentra incluido en la IV parte del libro Cartagena de Indias en la independencia, titulada "Consecuencias de la independencia sobre la ciudad"

Analiza las operaciones del Ejercito Expedicionario de Pablo Murillo en la toma de Cartagena, en la reconquista española el 6 de diciembre de 1815, la cantidad de militares y la distribución que tenían en la expedición, presenta los rasgos militares, sociales y psicológicos de Murillo. ; *Este capítulo se encuentra incluido en la IV parte del libro Cartagena de Indias en la independencia, titulada "Consecuencias de la independencia sobre la ciudad"