Although empirical research has generally demonstrated that democracies experience more
terrorism than autocracies, research suggests that this depends upon complex institutional …

This study examines how negative oil shocks affect military expenditures and the quality of
democracy in the oil rentier states of the greater Middle East using annual data from 1990 to …

Why have social spending levels and social policy trajectories diverged so drastically across
labour-abundant Middle Eastern and North African regimes? And how can we explain the …

When do economic and political elites demand investment in public goods and services?
The prevailing view is that non-democratic governments engage in low levels of government …

In this article, the probability of opening to trade is related to a country's propensity to learn
from other countries in its region. It is argued that countries have different motivations to …

We study taxation by autocratic rulers. Using a detailed dataset on government finances in
105 autocracies from 1950 to 2004, we find that despotic autocrats, who are defined as …

Theoretical work on state formation and capacity has focused mostly on early modern
Europe and on the experience of western European states during this period. While a …

Recent research finds that legislatures in authoritarian regimes co-opt potential adversaries
(eg, Gandhi 2008; Gandhi and Przeworski 2007; Malesky and Schuler 2010) or provide …

'Churchill, Eden and Indo-China, 1951-1955'provides a greater historical awareness of the
broad international context of decolonized Indo-China, focussing on the administrations of …

Why does an autocrat financially repress his closest business allies during an economic
crisis? On the one hand, the financial extortion of wealthy businesspeople may provide a …