Biblioteca Digital

Recent attempts at replicating highly-cited peer-reviewed studies demonstrate that the “reproducibility crisis” is indeed upon us. However, punitive measures against individuals committing research misconduct are neither sufficient nor useful because this is a systemic issue stemming from a lack of positive incentive. As an alternative approach, here we propose a system of checks and balances for the publishing process that involves 1) technical review of methodology by publishers, and 2) incentivizing direct replication of key experimental results. Together, these actions will help restore the self-correcting nature of scientific discovery.

In the Anglo‐American constitutional tradition, judicial checks and balances are often seen as crucial guarantees of freedom. Hayek distinguishes two ways in which the judiciary provides such checks and balances: judicial independence and constitutional review. We create a new database of constitutional rules in 71 countries that reflect these provisions. We find strong support for the proposition that both judicial independence and constitutional review are associated with greater freedom. Consistent with theory, judicial independence accounts for some of the positive effect of common‐law legal origin on measures of economic freedom. The results point to significant benefits of the Anglo‐American system of government for freedom.; Economics

This paper discusses decentralization (administrative, fiscal and political) of government in public service provision. It aims to facilitate understanding among practitioners, policy makers, and scholars about what decentralization entails in practice compared to theory. A review of the empirical literature and experience of decentralization is presented. The paper highlights issues that policy makers in developing and transitional countries should be aware of when reforming government, considering their unique political and economic environment. The author argues that decentralization produces efficiency gains stemming from inter-jurisdictional competition, enhanced checks and balances over the government through voting at the subnational level, and informational advantages due to proximity to citizens. By contrast, arguments against decentralization include the risk of an increased level of corruption, coordination problems stemming from multiple layers of government, low capacity of subnational government...

The existing literature emphasizes and contrasts the role of political checks and balances and legal origin in determining the pace of financial sector development. This paper expands substantially on one aspect of this debate: the fact that government actions that promote financial sector development, whether prudent financial regulation or secure property and contract rights, are public goods and sensitive to political incentives to provide public goods. Tests of hypotheses emanating from this argument yield four new conclusions. First, two key determinants of those incentives-the credibility of pre-electoral political promises and citizen information about politician decisions-systematically promote financial sector development. Second, these political factors, along with political checks and balances, operate in part through their influence on the security of property rights, an argument asserted but not previously tested. Third, contrary to findings elsewhere in the literature, the political determinants of financial sector development are significant even in the presence of controls for legal origin. Finally...

This note focuses on the rural sector. It takes as its starting point the premise that the Upazila and the Union Parishads can jointly form the backbone of a system of rural local governments in Bangladesh. The key interventions required are to strengthen the Upazila as an independent tier of government - especially relative to national parliament - and to clarify the relationship between the Upazilas and Union Parishads so that the two can jointly work as one system of local government. In this context, holding elections at Upazila level will be an important step to take, but this action alone will not result in a sustainable or effective system of local governance. Upazilas require clarity on their functions and their relations to Union Parishads, adequate untied resources for which they can be held accountable and appropriate checks and balances on their powers. There is a broad social consensus for strengthening local governance in Bangladesh. This is largely expressed as support for strengthening the role of Upazila and Union Parishads...

The authors develop and test several new hypotheses about the anti-inflationary effect of central bank independence and exchange rate pegs in the context of different institutions and different degrees of citizen information about government policies. Theory provides strong reason to believe that while central bank independence will prove more effective as a commitment mechanism in countries where multiple players in government have veto power (checks and balances), the number of veto players will have no effect on the credibility of exchange rate pegs. Conversely, the authors argue that central bank independence does not solve the problems of commitment that arise when citizens are imperfectly informed about the contribution of government policy to inflation. Exchange rate pegs, however, mitigate these problems. The authors present extensive evidence from cross-country tests using newly developed data that provide strong support for their propositions.

Financial consumer protection and financial education policies, in conjunction with the regulation of financial institutions and markets, need to ensure safe access to financial services and support financial stability and financial inclusion objectives. Consumer protection and financial literacy can contribute to improved efficiency, transparency, competition, and access to retail financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and power imbalances among providers and users of financial services. Rapid progress toward widespread financial inclusion must be appropriately complemented with checks and balances that ensure a responsible provision of financial services and products. A number of international efforts are in place to improve dialogue and identify best practices in financial consumer protection. To contribute to the international dialogue on financial consumer protection the World Bank in conjunction with Fin-CoNet, an international cooperation platform for supervisory agencies in the area of financial consumer protection...

Financial consumer protection and financial education policies, in conjunction with the regulation of financial institutions and markets, need to ensure safe access to financial services and support financial stability and financial inclusion objectives. Consumer protection and financial literacy can contribute to improved efficiency, transparency, competition, and access to retail financial markets by reducing information asymmetries and power imbalances among providers and users of financial services. Rapid progress toward widespread financial inclusion must be appropriately complemented with checks and balances that ensure a responsible provision of financial services and products. A number of international efforts are in place to improve dialogue and identify best practices in financial consumer protection. To contribute to the international dialogue on financial consumer protection the World Bank in conjunction with Fin-CoNet, an international cooperation platform for supervisory agencies in the area of financial consumer protection...

The concept of secrecy as a mechanism for not providing government information, on the one hand, and the commitment to openness of government, on the other, reflect certain historical understandings of the relationship between a government, citizens, officials and information. Within democratic systems of government secrecy has been an essential ingredient irrespective of the existence or otherwise of a written Constitution (eg. US and the UK). The transparency ‘explosion’ of recent decades both in rhetoric and in law has been matched by a parallel growth in secrecy regulation and practice at all levels of government, including, in Europe, supranational government (the EU). Leaking has always had a symbiotic relationship with secrecy. What has changed in the information age is that (leaked) information can be shared right across the globe through the Internet in an unstoppable fashion (Wikileaks). This lecture focuses on the understudied phenomenon of government secrecy, its nature, structure, categories and its multiple layers. These are explored from the perspective of (representative) democracy and of constitutional law. The basic argument is that secrets can be protected more effectively and more legitimately if government secrecy is reduced overall. This will mean more ‘shallow’ (less deep) secrets...

The author investigates the political determinants of government decisions that benefit special interest groups - especially government decisions to deal with banking crises. He finds that the better informed the voters, the more proximate elections, and the larger the number of political veto players ( conditional on the costs to voters of relevant policy decision), the smaller the government's fiscal transfer are to the financial sector and the less likely the government is to exercise forbearance in dealing with insolvent financial institutions. The results suggest that policies that might be appropriate for mitigating banking crises in the United States might be less effective in settings where voters are less informed, where elections are less competitive, and where there are fewer veto players, because in these settings checks and balances are missing. These policies include: a) Disseminating information about the costs of inefficient government decisions. b) Improving the structure of legislative regulatory oversight. c) Intervening early in insolvent banks. The author concludes that the more veto players there are, the less likely policies are to favor special interest groups (contrary to previous views). Moreover, the closer the elections...

Esta tese volta-se à análise crítica da garantia institucional de independência do Ministério Público brasileiro sob dois aspectos: de um lado, a sua independência em relação às esferas organizacionais dos poderes clássicos do Estado; e, de outro, os limites da independência funcional que visa a assegurar, para os seus membros, o livre desenvolvimento das funções institucionais. Sob o influxo do processo de reconhecimento universal dos direitos humanos a partir da Declaração de 1948, o valor da dignidade da pessoa humana representa o fundamento central do Estado Democrático de Direito da Constituição Federal de 1988, constituindo a fonte jurídica do vasto conjunto de direitos fundamentais dela constante. A proteção dos direitos fundamentais da pessoa humana é indissociável de um regime político democrático, que não pode prescindir de um sistema eficaz de controle do exercício do poder político para a persecução de tal desiderato. Daí a importância da efetividade dos mecanismos de controle recíproco entre os órgãos estatais, no comando do princípio fundamental projetado por Montesquieu que, atualmente, não mais se reduz à formula tríplice de distribuição das funções legislativa, executiva e judicial. É nesse contexto que se pretende introduzir a análise da garantia institucional de independência do Ministério Público...

To consider the Constitutional Court as a participant of the political process requires, first of all, the study of the separation of powers doctrine. Montesquieu developed the “recipe of the political art”, without ever intending a scientific classification of the State’s functions. Even with the provision of the veto, he did not lost, however, the mark of an apologist of the exclusive separation of powers. Certainly it is a consequence of the insertion of this principle as a “constitutional formula” in a large amount of constitutions published in revolutionary ages. A remark about the rigidity of this system is necessary. If, in a first moment, the rigidity is an absolute character, on can easily note that this principle concerns the preferential and main activity of this power. This character is highlighted because state powers perform functions that, in principle, were not their attributions, evidenced by the checks and balances doctrine. Some specific developments in the performance of power spheres in the other performance of power spheres were made. In this real interrelation of functions, a series of facts happened, specially the judicialization of politics, and politization of justice. Focusing the analysis in the first one...

Recent research has demonstrated a negative link between macroeconomic and political uncertainty and levels of private investment across countries. This raises the question whether certain types of government institutions might help reduce this uncertainty. North and Weingast (1989) propose that political institutions characterized by checks and balances can have beneficial effects on investment by allowing governments to credibly commit not to engage in ex post opportunism with respect to investors. In this paper I develop and test a modified version of their hypothesis, suggesting that checks and balances, on average, improve possibilities for commitment, but that they are not a necessary condition for doing so. Results of heteroskedastic regression and quantile regression estimates strongly support this proposition.

For decades, scholars, investors and policymakers treated sovereign default risk as a defining feature of emerging market economies. Recently, sovereign risk has re‐emerged as an empirical issue for advanced economies, raising new questions for academic research. This thesis investigates the link between political economy factors and financial market perceptions of sovereign risk during the Euro area debt crisis, representing one of the timeliest academic analyses of this episode. It combines an innovative international political economy framework applicable to developed democracies with in‐depth analysis of government bond market fluctuations during the Greek and Irish sovereign debt crises. The thesis argues that political factors influence sovereign risk premia in developed democracies, particularly in crisis periods. This is in contrast to the dominant claim that politics has no or little direct impact on government bond yields in advanced economies. Specifically, it highlights the importance of the domestic political system, finding a role for socio‐political contestation and its interaction with institutional checks and balances. Moreover, it expands the analysis to the international sphere, integrating the so far mostly separate analyses of the domestic and international sources of sovereign credibility. Specifically...

The International Monetary Fund has often been accused of adopting a one-size-fits-all approach to the resolution of financial crises. However, its programs present substantial differences in terms of their relative size and conditionality among other characteristics. This dissertation examines the causes and consequences of this variation through the lenses of two cases in which the contrast between the Fund´s interventions was particularly marked: Argentina and Uruguay during the period that surrounds the financial crash of 2001-02. The first part of this study analyses the determinants of these multilateral interventions through an adaptation of Robert Puntam´s two level games, exploring the way in which national politics interacted with international priorities to produce distinct outcomes in Argentina and Uruguay. The two experiences confirm that domestic ratification processes impose significant constraints on the negotiation of IMF programs, potentially conferring localized bargaining advantages to borrowing governments. Beyond a certain point, however, an intensification of these ratification constraints can result in a suspension of the Fund´s support, after which borrowers´ bargaining position weakens dramatically. That this point of rupture was reached in Argentina but not in Uruguay was due primarily to the different propensity to cooperate exhibited by political actors in these two countries...

The international relations literature on internationalism in foreign policy has not taken account of the internationalist methods and motives of countries of the developing world. This thesis aims to correct this absence through an analysis of Southern internationalism, as evidenced by the foreign policy approaches of South Africa and Brazil in the first decade of the 21st century. By utilising a neoclassical realist approach to the study of the emergence of new powers, the use of internationalism as a foreign policy tool is interrogated as a response both to domestic imperatives, such as perception and identity, and systemic constraints and opportunities. Central to the analysis is an examination of the role of governing parties in foreign policymaking, both as key actors in determining policy, and as the sources of ideational constructs, in this case ‘internationalism’, that have a bearing on foreign policy. Foreign policymakers are limited in their perceptions and responses to external threats and opportunities by the domestic institutional structure, as well as by external threats and opportunities. In South Africa, responses are often limited to rhetoric, owing to limited resource extraction capacity...

This article aims to present and discuss the main empirical research on Constitutionalism and Checks and Balances. The article is divided as follows: the first part will focus on the trajectory of the concept of constitutionalism, beginning with a brief historical explanation, using some classical authors in order to better situate the main concepts that are addressed in this article. The second part treats the constitution as an institution built to last, addressing the various factors that impact on the longevity of the Constitution. The third part refers to strengthening the judiciary and its implications for the democratic quality, as this works as a mechanism for strengthening and balance of powers. Finally some conclusions of the article; Este artigo tem por objetivo apresentar e discutir as principais pesquisas empíricas sobre Constitucionalismo e Checks and Balances. O artigo está dividido da seguinte forma: a primeira parte versará sobre a trajetória do conceito de constitucionalismo, partindo de uma breve explanação histórica, recorrendo a alguns autores clássicos, a fim de melhor situar os principais conceitos que serão abordados neste artigo. A segunda parte tratará da constituição como instituição feita para durar...

The freedom in the modern state is backed by law, the fulfillment of what isprovided by law is that it provides direct security to citizens and gives confidence to the States. The institution of the national constitution is central in this discussion,given that this is the law made ​​to last, functioning as a mechanism of checks and balances. This article addresses this issue through a theoretical and empiricalflyby, bringing to discuss issues and concepts fundamental to the understanding of contemporary democratic theory.; La libertad en el Estado moderno está respaldado por la ley, el cumplimiento de lo dispuesto por la ley es que proporciona una seguridad directa a los ciudadanos yda confianza a los Estados. La institución de la constitución nacional es central en esta discusión, dado que esta es la ley hecha para durar, que funciona como un mecanismo de frenos y contrapesos. En este artículo se aborda esta cuestión a través de un sobrevuelo teórico y empírico...

La separación de poderes y el checks and balances son considerados como elementos esenciales del Estado de derecho moderno, presupuesto sin el cual no podemos siquiera considerar la existencia de una Constitución. Pero en la actualidad no solo le exigimos al Estado una abstención en su actuar, sino que con frecuencia resulta necesaria una realización positiva del establecimiento público, en virtud de la cual se dé la consecución efectiva de los derechos. En el presente artículo se pretende buscar la armonía entre el Estado social de derecho y la figura de la separación de poderes y el checks and balances, procurando un entendimiento compatible entre la forma, razón y significado -en constante evolución-, que debe dársele a las figuras que limitan el poder; de tal manera que estos sean compatibles con la necesidad de un actuar positivo por parte del Estado. Concluye este artículo con la idea de que el valor de la separación de poderes y del checks and balances es un Deus ex machina, ya que la importancia de la figura no surge de un diseño abstracto, sino de la estructuración funcional de los elementos que integran la organización estatal en virtud de la cual se construye una maquinaria constitucional efectiva, reflejándose en una organización eficiente para la realización del Estado social de derecho.

The received wisdom on Latin America in the 1980s and 1990s was that countries where presidents enjoyed strong constitutional powers and where multiparty coalitions prevailed would be doomed to instability and institutional crises, while countries boasting weak presidents and strong parties were expected to consolidate democratic rule. After almost two decades, it is now widely acknowledged that this prediction failed. Recent re-conceptualizations of presidentialism have partly corrected the flaws in the established diagnosis but left unexplained the role of checks and balances and of the rule of law in containing presidential abuse and guaranteeing governability. The paper argues that the key to solving the paradox of strong presidents and robust democracies is that democratic stability in Latin American countries is a function of an extended system of checks and balances. These are ultimately generated by power fragmentation at the time of the constitutional choices over their institutional design and political competition sustaining their effective functioning.