Securing Constitutional Government: The Perpetual Challenge

Constitutional government is an ideal and like all ideals can only be achieved as an approximation. Even those countries that appear to be near the ideal are revealed on examination to be not so near. Constitutional government, to the extent it is achieved reflects a state of affairs. It remains under constant threat from power seekers, ideological opponents, ill-informed social engineers and manipulative special interests. It is also being eroded through the serious depletion of social capital in the post-industrial era that weakens the institutional foundations of constitutional government (Fukuyama, 1999). In other countries, economic circumstances, cultural constraints and entrenched ruling classes create seemingly intractable obstacles to the attainment of acceptable levels of constitutional government. It is a predicament that seriously harms not just the unfortunate peoples of these countries but, as I argue presently, also the industrialised democracies of the world. Hence deepening our understanding of the conditions that make constitutional government possible remains an intellectual task of the highest priority.constitutional government; rule of law; institutions

Selection and Comparative Advantage in Technology Adoption

This paper investigates an empirical puzzle in technology adoption for developing countries: the low adoption rates of technologies like hybrid maize that increase average farm profits dramatically. I offer a simple explanation for this: benefits and costs of technologies are heterogeneous, so that farmers with low net returns do not adopt the technology. I examine this hypothesis by estimating a correlated random coefficient model of yields and the corresponding distribution of returns to hybrid maize. This distribution indicates that the group of farmers with the highest estimated gross returns does not use hybrid, but their returns are correlated with high costs of acquiring the technology (due to poor infrastructure). Another group of farmers has lower returns and adopts, while the marginal farmers have zero returns and switch in and out of use over the sample period. Overall, adoption decisions appear to be rational and well explained by (observed and unobserved) variation in heterogeneous net benefits to the technology.

Developing Diplomats: Comparing Form and Culture Across Diplomatic Services, PRP 194

This study is a detailed and focused effort to broaden how we understand and conceptualize the recruitment, training, and development of professional diplomats in the twenty-first century. The goal is not to criticize processes in different countries, but to create a common foundation for comparing, learning, and even integrating training and career development models across nations.Public Affair

Diffuse Reflection Diameter in Simple Polygons

We prove a conjecture of Aanjaneya, Bishnu, and Pal that the minimum number of diffuse reflections sufficient to illuminate the interior of any simple polygon with $n$ walls from any interior point light source is $\lfloor n/2 \rfloor - 1$. Light reflecting diffusely leaves a surface in all directions, rather than at an identical angle as with specular reflections.Comment: To appear in Discrete Applied Mathematic