Product Description: Elites have a disproportionate impact on development outcomes. While a country's endowments constitute the deep determinates of growth, the trajectory they follow is shaped by the actions of elites. But what factors affect whether elites use their influence for individual gain or national welfare? To what extent do they see poverty as a problem? And are their actions today constrained by institutions and norms established in the past? This volume looks at case studies from South Africa to China to seek a better understanding of the dynamics behind how elites decide to engage with economic development...read more

Product Description: ¿Qué determina que un país sea rico o pobre? ¿Cómo se explica que, en condiciones similares, en algunos países haya hambrunas y en otros no? ¿Qué papel tiene la política en estas cuestiones? Que algunas naciones sean más prósperas que otras, ¿se debe a cuestiones culturales?, ¿a los efectos de la climatología?, ¿a su ubicación geográfica? No, en absoluto...read more

Product Description: Some central questions in the natural and social sciences can't be answered by controlled laboratory experiments, often considered to be the hallmark of the scientific method. This impossibility holds for any science concerned with the past...read more

Product Description: What forces lead to democracy's creation? Why does it sometimes consolidate only to collapse at other times? Written by two of the foremost authorities on this subject in the world, this volume develops a framework for analyzing the creation and consolidation of democracy...read more

Recent years have witnessed an unprecedented interest on the part of both scholars and the media in Taiwan's politics in general and its political development more specifically. John Copper's new book, Taiwan's 1991 and 1992 Non-Supplemental Elections: Reaching a Higher State of Democracy, examines Taiwan's departure from holding only supplemental elections-a practice that allowed many delegates to remain in office for years and thus called into question the competitive nature of Taiwan's electoral system-marks a new phase in Taiwan's democratization. Copper points out, though, that these elections need to be related to other factors of political development. He discusses how economic and cultural factors such as Taiwan's rapid economic growth in the '60s and '70s and the resulting urbanization of the country contributed to a political atmosphere that would allow the departure from supplemental elections.