DECEMBER DEBATES ON GIFTS: SOME CLASSICAL WARNINGS | SENTENTIAE ANTIQUAE

Epigonoi Fr. 4 (From Clement of Alexandria) 
 “Many evils come to men from gifts” 
 ἐκ γὰρ δώρων πολλὰ κάκ’ ἀνθρώποισι πέλονται.

plus more!

Combating Inequality: Rethinking Policies to Reduce Inequality

EVENT SUMMARY READ A SUMMARY AND REFLECTIONS OF THE CONFERENCE BY ITS ORGANIZERS, OLIVIER BLANCHARD AND DANI RODRIK.

Plato and Diogenes warn us about hubris

Summary: Here is a fun short story, historical fiction about one of the clashes between two of the larger-than-life people of the ancient world. It provides an important warning in our era of giant social engineering experiments. Unlike classical Athens, today we have people who want to impose their philosophical theories on the rest of us. We need a Diogenes to pop their bubbles.

Moral grandstanding ... | Vox

the philosophers Brandon Warmke and Justin Tosi. They basically laid out the case that moral grandstanding is the use of moral talk to seek status or to promote oneself. It’s the use of important conversation — moral topics, or politics — with more of an end of boosting your own brand than it is advancing a dialogue.

Cited: Moral grandstanding: there’s a lot of it about, all of it bad

Moral grandstanding in public discourse: Status-seeking motives ...

The anatomy of illiberal states | Brookings

This Brookings report examines the emergence and diffusion of the illiberal toolkit from Turkey to Central Europe.

Also The Democracy Playbook: Preventing and Reversing Democratic Backsliding 

Political Economy, Blind Spots, and a Challenge to Academics | Anat Admati

There is absolutely no way to understand events before, during, and since the financial crisis of 2007-2009 while ignoring the powerful political forces that have shaped them. Yet, ...

Also, The Parade of the Bankers’ New Clothes Continues: 34 Flawed Claims Debunked 

How Unequal Is Europe? Evidence from Distributional National Accounts, 1980-2017

This paper estimates the evolution of income inequality in 38 European countries from 1980 to 2017 by combining surveys, tax data and national accounts. We develop a harmonized methodology, using machine learning, nonlinear survey calibration and extreme value theory, in order to produce homogeneous p

What, if anything, is neoliberalism? John Quiggin

the much-argued question of whether the term “neoliberalism” has any useful content, or whether it is simply an all-purpose pejorative to be applied to anything rightwing

Calling Bullshit | a course run by Carl T. Bergstrom and Jevin West

Our aim in this course is to teach you how to think critically about the data and models that constitute evidence in the social and natural sciences.

I intend to do some reading over the winter. Any fellow travellers?
There are three posts already on BS in this blog.

Can the World Economy Find a New Leader? | Chatham House Research Paper

https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/2019-10-07-WorldEconomyNewLeader.pdf

Modern Populism: Research Advances, Conceptual and Methodological Pitfalls, and the Minimal Definition | Takis Pappas

Populism is one of the most dynamic fields of comparative political research. Although its study began in earnest only in the late 1960s, it has since developed through four distinct waves of scholarship, each pertaining to distinct empirical phenomena and with specific methodological and theoretical priorities. Today, the field is in need of a comprehensive general theory that will be able to capture the phenomenon specifically within the context of our contemporary democracies

Via Κώστας Σοφούλης 

Divided by the Vote: Affective Polarization in the Wake of Brexit

Sara B. Hobolt Thomas J. Leeper James Tilley

A well-functioning democracy requires a degree of mutual respect and a willingness to talk across political divides. Yet numerous studies have shown that electorates, including in the United States, are polarized along partisan lines, generating animosity towards the partisan out-group. In this paper, ... (pdf)

Going to extremes: Politics after financial crises, 1870 – 2014 | Funke, M., et al.,

Manuel Funke, Moritz Schularickb,, Christoph Trebesch 
Abstract: Partisan conflict and policy uncertainty are frequently invoked as factors contributing to slow post-crisis recoveries. Recent events in Europe provide ample evidence that the political aftershocks of fi nancial crises can be severe. In this paper we study the political fall-out from systemic fi nancial crises over the past 140 years. We construct a new long- run dataset covering 20 advanced economies and more than 800 general elections. Our key fi nding is that policy uncertainty crises strongly after financial crises as government majorities shrink and polarization rises. After a crisis, voters seem to be particularly attracted to the political rhetoric of the extreme right, which often attributes blame to minorities or foreigners. On average, far-right parties increase their vote share by 30% after a financial crisis. Importantly, we do not observe similar political dynamics in normal recessions or after severe macroeconomic shocks that are not financial in nature.

via with thanks Fareed Zakaria "Global Briefing"

The True Toll of the Trade War | Raghuram G. Rajan

Behind the escalating global conflict over trade and technology is a larger breakdown of the postwar rules-based order, which was based on a belief that any country's growth benefits all. Now that China is threatening to compete directly with the United States, support for the system that made that possible has disappeared.

Turkey’s Presidential Regime Rests on Zero Rule of Law I Carnegie Europe

After almost seventeen years in power, Turkey’s president wields absolute power. It’s doubtful he would relinquish it without a fight.

The corrupting of democracy THE ECONOMIST

Cynicism is gnawing at Western democracies

The Anatomy of Illiberal States | Brookings Report

"After decades of expansion, democracy—its consolidation, promotion, and global appeal—is entering a period of retrenchment. Liberal principles—political ideas that espouse the importance of individual liberties, minority rights, and the separation of power across levers of government—and democratic institutions—processes that translate popular will into public policy through legitimate elections—are being pulled apart. " (pdf)

Populist Attitudes, Political Trust, and External Political Efficacy: Old Wine in New Bottles?

via https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/europpblog/2019/08/21/is-populism-about-more-than-discontent/

Abstract: Substantial scholarly attention has been devoted to explaining why voters support populist parties. Recently, a new concept has been introduced to gauge populism among voters and to explain voting for populist parties: populist attitudes. However, some researchers regard populist attitudes as simply another measurement of existing and established concepts such as political trust and external political efficacy. Using data from the Netherlands (2018), this article addresses the relationship between these concepts, both theoretically and empirically. This article examines whether political trust, external political efficacy, and populist attitudes tap into different latent dimensions. Using a confirmatory factor analysis, we show that populist attitudes are not old wine in new bottles and that they tap into different underlying attitudes than political trust and external political efficacy. Furthermore, we show that the three measures are not only different constructs but also relate differently to populist voting preferences.

ERDOĞAN’S ‘OTTOMANIA’ | Roos Feringa

Recep Erdoğan, the president of theTurkish Republic uses Ottoman revival architecture in, what I would say, a two-fold political strategy. Namely, he uses nostalgia to the ‘great’, ‘powerful’, ‘tolerant’Ottomans as a tool, internationally and domestically, for his plan to create a strong and important Turkey. ...

The Political Economy of Liberal Democracy | D. Rodrik & S.Mukand

This paper develops a taxonomy of political regimes that distinguishes between three sets of rights - property rights, political rights and civil rights. The truly distinctive nature of liberal democracy is ... (pdf)

Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion

Henry Farrell and Abraham L. Newman

International Security

Volume 44 | Issue 1 | Summer 2019 
p.42-79

https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/isec_a_00351

Building Good Governance in Greece , a European Missed Opportunity?

WP by Alina Mungiu-Pippidi, Hertie School of Governance

Keywords: corruption, trust in Europe, elites, austerity, Greece, Italy, mezzogiorno syndrome, Santer, euro, Clean Hands

Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης: Μακρόν αλά ελληνικά; | Liberal.gr | Γιώργος Καραμπελιάς

Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης: Μακρόν αλά ελληνικά; | Liberal.gr: Ο οριστικός ενταφιασμός της μεταπολίτευσης και της παραδοσιακής εμφυλιοπολεμικής διαίρεσης, αριστεράς-δεξιάς, ολοκληρώθηκε με τις εκλογές της 7ης Ιουλίου του 2019. Ο Κυριάκος Μητσοτάκης συγκρότησε μία κυβέρνηση που προσπαθεί να ανταποκριθεί στο αίτημα της υπέρβασης αριστεράς-δεξιάς, γεγονός που αντανακλάται τόσο στη σύνθεση της όσο και στις προγραμματικές δηλώσε...

Democracy’s Twenty-First-Century Histories | Adam Tooze* (pdf)

Abstract: This essay approaches the idea that current conceptions of history are in fact tantamount to ideas about the historical unfolding of democracy, with history and democracy having become intellectually intertwined. This observation starts with various present-day challenges and debates, but then integrates them in broader historiographic and metahistorical interpretations. A survey of some major publications on the history of democracy in Europe and the United States from the nineteenth century to the present brings together US, British, French and German perspectives on the democratic condition of our age.

Why Turkey Doesn’t Trust the United States | Nick Danforth, FP

With an economy already under severe strain, Turkey is now facing U.S. sanctions over its purchase of Russian air defense missiles and European Union sanctions over continued energy exploration off the coast of Cyprus....

via Fareed Zakaria's brief

Economics for Inclusive Prosperity

Suresh Naidu, Dani Rodrik, and Gabriel Zucman and al
We live in an age of astonishing inequality. Income and wealth disparities between the rich and the poor in the United States have risen to heights not seen since the gilded age in the early part of the 20th century, and are among the highest in the developed world. Median wages for American workers remain at 1970s levels. Fewer and fewer among newer generations can expect to do better than their parents. (pdf)

disgrace: Viktor Orbán is dismantling democracy | Timothy Garton Ash

To say that Hungary is no longer a democracy is a stark claim and I have thought, read and looked hard before making it.
The Guardian

Strengthening the Euro Area : The Role of National Structural Reforms in Building Resilience | IMF

https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/Staff-Discussion-Notes/Issues/2019/06/13/Strengthening-the-Euro-Area-The-Role-of-National-Structural-Reforms-in-Building-Resilience-46234

The Nature and Origins of Misperceptions: Understanding False and Unsupported Beliefs about Politics

D.J. Flynn, Brendan Nyhan, Jason Reifler

Political misperceptions can distort public debate and undermine people’s ability to form meaningful opinions. Why do people often hold these false or unsupported beliefs and why is it sometimes so dicult to convince them otherwise? We argue that political misperceptions are typically rooted in directionally motivated reasoning, which limits the e↵ectiveness of corrective information about controversial issues and political figures. We discuss factors known to a↵ect the prevalence of directionally motivated reasoning and assess strategies for accurately measuring misperceptions in surveys. Finally, we address the normative implications of misperceptions for democracy and suggest important topics for future research.

​Η Κεντροαριστερά της Ευθύνης | Π.Παπασαραντόπουλος : ΜΕΤΑΡΡΥΘΜΙΣΗ

"Ο Μαξ Βέμπερ είχε κάνει, για όσους αναπτύσσουν πολιτική δράση, μια θεμελιώδη διάκριση ανάμεσα στην ηθική της πεποίθησης και την ηθική της ευθύνης. ... Στα χρόνια της κρίσης, ένα, μικρό αλλά υπαρκτό, τμήμα της ελληνικής κοινωνίας βρίσκεται διαρκώς ενώπιον αυτού του διλλήματος. Ας το αποκαλέσουμε συμβατικά «έλλογη κεντροαριστερά».

Economics in an Age of Crisis: Trento Festival of Economics

Project Syndicate / The Big Picture

The Rise & Fall of the Liberal International Order

John J. Mearsheimer, University of Chicago
I. Introduction It is widely believed that the United States led the way in building a liberal international order in the aftermath of World War II, which has had remarkable staying power over time. Indeed, it grew markedly more influential after the Cold War ended in 1989 and the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. Western elites see this order as a hugely positive force for promoting peace and prosperity around the globe

Also The Democratic Distemper by Morris P. Fiorina

How to Restructure Sovereign Debt: Lessons from Four Decades | PIIE

Lee Buchheit, Guillaume Chabert, Chanda DeLong, and Jeromin Zettelmeyer        May 2019
Abstract 

This paper attempts to provide a playbook for the sovereign debt restructuring process, drawing on the experience with sovereign debt restructuring since the 1980s. It begins with a discussion of the participating actors and their interests. It then describes the considerations that must be weighed in designing, negotiating, and concluding a debt restructuring, in light of two problems: asymmetric information between the debtor and the creditors, and creditor coordination problems, which can lead to free riding (the “holdout” problem). The paper focuses on how these problems, which can lead to inefficiently negotiated outcomes, can be managed and minimized in practice.  

A constructive approach to euro area reform

Agnès Bénassy-Quéré, Markus K Brunnermeier, Henrik Enderlein, Emmanuel Farhi, Marcel Fratzscher, Clemens Fuest, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, Philippe Martin, Florence Pisani, Hélène Rey, Nicolas Véron, Beatrice Weder di Mauro, Jeromin Zettelmeyer

The euro area continues to suffer from critical weaknesses that are the result of a poorly designed fiscal and financial architecture, but its members are divided on how to address the problems. This paper proposes six reforms which, if delivered as a package, would improve the euro area?s financial stability, political cohesion, and potential for delivering prosperity to its citizens, all while addressing the priorities and concerns of participating countries.


Also 

https://voxeu.org/article/euro-area-architecture-what-reforms-are-still-needed-and-why

19-2 Public Debt: Fiscal and Welfare Costs in a Time of Low Interest Rates | Olivier Blanchard

n his presidential address to the American Economic Association in early January, Olivier Blanchard explored the costs and benefits of public debt in the current environment of low interest rates. In this Policy Brief, he first summarizes his argument; he then addresses a number of objections to his conclusions and considers the practical fiscal policy implications.

How Evolution Has Wired Us For Good | Y.Mounk & N.Christakis (podcast)

Evolutionary arguments often emphasize humans’ ability to inflict violence. Nicholas Christakis argues that our biological history has wired us for good.

Κώστας Σοφούλης: «Fake Political Agenda»

Πρόσφατα, σε ένα παιχνίδι μεταξύ ενηλίκων που δεν ήταν τόσο αθώο, υποσχέθηκα ότι θα αποδείξω στην παρέα ότι δεν ξέρουν τι πραγματικά θα ψηφίσουν σύντομα, όπως δεν ξέρουν και τι πραγματικά είχαν ψηφίσει στις προηγούμενες εκλογές. Κέρδισα το στοίχημα με ελάχιστες επιφυλάξεις

The new identity politics | F. Fukuyama , EUROZINE

Francis Fukuyama’s argument that far-right identity politics were pioneered by the left has been criticized as blame-shifting. But this is a partial reading, he counters: identity politics are inherent to the democratic ethos and rooted in modernity itself. Understanding their use by the far-right enables us to form a response.

WHAT EUROPEANS REALLY WANT: FIVE MYTHS DEBUNKED | ECFR

The big divide is not ‘open Europe’ versus ‘closed nation states’ but between status quo and change. Record numbers of people now support the EU – and even Eurosceptic parties have repositioned themselves.

Watch List 2019 | International Crisis Group

Watch List Updates complement International Crisis Group’s annual Watch List, most recently published in January 2019. These early-warning publications identify major conflict situations in which prompt action, driven or supported by the European Union and its member states, would generate stronger prospects for peace. The Watch List Updates include situations identified in the annual Watch List and/or a new focus of concern.

Is Europe Becoming Gaullist? | Zaki Laïdi at PS

Seventy-four years after the end of World War II, Europeans are still divided over competing notions of national sovereignty and regional integration. But with the rise of China and the fraying of transatlantic relations, the geostrategic vision of France’s Charles de Gaulle has inevitably returned to the fore.

The Return of Economic Nationalism in Germany | PIIE Jeromin Zettelmeyer

The recent embrace of economic nationalism by the United States, China, and many other countries reflects a global shift toward protectionism, restrictions on foreign investment, and aggressive state intervention in domestic economies. These policies are not new ... (pdf)

Europe: between dream and reality? | Chatham House

Erik Jones Anand Menon ; " European political development since the Treaty of Versailles has gone through four phases. The interwar period was a time of democratic weakness and ethnic conflict that culminated in the Second World War. What followed was a period of division and yet also integration, particularly in western Europe. Western Europeans sought to transcend the nation-state through the promotion of the rule of law. The ..."

Greenland is melting at an historically unprecedented rate | ResearchGate

Greenland was losing ice four times faster in 2012 than it was in 2003, new research has found. The study's lead author, Michael Bevis, says global warming is to blame. We spoke to Bevis, a professor of geodynamics at The Ohio State University, about his research and what it means.

Rediscovering Ancient Greek Music | Aeon.co

Music was ubiquitous in Ancient Greece. Now we can hear how it actually sounded

The strongmen strike back | Robert Kagan , WP

Of all the geopolitical transformations confronting the liberal democratic world these days, the one for which we are least prepared is the ideological and strategic resurgence of authoritarianism. We are not used to thinking of authoritarianism as a distinct worldview that offers a real alternative to liberalism. Communism was an ideology — and some thought fascism was, as well — that offered a comprehensive understanding of human nature, politics, economics and governance to shape the behavior and thought of all members of a society in every aspect of their lives.

via FT Brussels Briefing

Author Daniel Ziblatt analyzes the worldwide movement toward autocracy and concludes American democracy is safe — for now

Towards a More Inclusive Globalization: An Anti-Social Dumping Scheme | Daani Rodrik

Theory and empirics both suggest that international trade has sharp distributional implications. Furthermore, redistribution caused by trade is often viewed by the general public as more harmful or disruptive than other domestic market shocks. .. (pdf)

Via Economics for Inclusive Prosperity 

Greece: Economy Improves, Key Reforms Still Needed

Greece: Economy Improves, Key Reforms Still Needed

Referendums: who holds them, why, and are they always a dog's Brexit? | The Guardian Briefing

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/mar/11/referendums-who-holds-them-why-and-are-they-always-a-dogs-brexit

A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?

A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?: (2019). A third wave of autocratization is here: what is new about it?. Democratization. Ahead of Print.

via The Interpreter | NYT (newsletter)

check also V-DEM Annual Democracy Report 2018 

Renewing Europe | EMMANUEL MACRON

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/three-goals-to-guide-european-union-renewal-by-emmanuel-macron-2019-03?utm_source=Project+Syndicate+Newsletter&utm_campaign=cdf90203e4-Macron+Content+Mailing+March+5&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73bad5b7d8-cdf90203e4-93751817

Surveillance Report Economic and Financial Affairs ISSN 2443-8014 (online) Greece, February 2019

https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/economy-finance/ip099_en.pdf

Mapping Social Imbalances in the EU | Bertelsmann Stiftung

Getting to grips with social conditions across the EU Yet, when we start digging deeper to understand how Europeans are experiencing the social and economic progress that the headline figures suggest, the picture blurs. There are great differences in social conditions across EU countries and regions, and the global economic and financial crisis, which led to a double-dip recession in the EU between 2008 and 2013, has in many areas added to the disparities within and between European societies. These ruptures in the social fabric across Europe beco ...

Chris Dillow's "Favourite Economics Papers"

Highly recommended

"Some of you might notice conflicts between these papers. For example... This, though, merely highlights a fact about the social sciences – that what’s true in some contexts isn’t true in others, that there are very few generally true theories. As Niels Bohr said: “the opposite of a great truth is another great truth.”

Our Increasingly Fascist Public Discourse | Project Syndicate

Though “fascism” generally evokes images of jack-booted thugs and mass rallies, fascist movements first politicize language. And, judging by the arguments and vocabulary now regularly used by mainstream politicians and thinkers in the US and Europe, their strategy is bearing fruit.

Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale University 

Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level Games | Robert D. Putnam

International Organization, Vol. 42, No. 3. (Summer, 1988)

Domestic politics and international relations are often somehow entangled, but our thkories have not yet sorted out the puzzling tangle. It is fruitless to debate whether domestic politics really determine international relations, or the reverse. The answer to that question is clearly "Both, sometimes." The more interesting questions are "When?" and "How?" This article offers a theoretical approach to this issue, but I begin with a story that illustrates the puzzle.  

the new geopolitics of the middle east | Brookings

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/FP_20190107_new_geopolitics_of_mena_final.pdf

World Happiness Report 2018

Edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard and Jeffrey D. Sachs

The World Happiness Report is a landmark survey of the state of global happiness. The World Happiness Report 2018, ranks 156 countries by their happiness levels, and 117 countries by the happiness of their immigrants.