Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding Using 61 indicators of democratic performance from 2000 to 2018, we develop a measure of subnational democratic performance, the State Democracy Index. We use this measure to test theories of democratic expansion and backsliding based in party competition, polarization, demographic change, and the group interests of Read more…
Fiscal Legibility and State Development: Theory and Evidence from Colonial Mexico We examine how fiscal legibility, the ability of a central government to observe local economic conditions for the purposes of taxation, shapes political centralization. When a ruler is unable to observe economic conditions, it can be preferable to grant Read more…
Tilly goes to Church: the Medieval and Religious Roots of European State Formation Medieval religious rivalry fundamentally shaped European state formation. The single most powerful challenger to kings and emperors in the Middle Ages was the Catholic Church. To protect its interests and ensure its autonomy, the papacy deliberately fragmented Read more…
"Restoration” and Representation: Legislative Consequences of Black Disfranchisement in the American South, 1879-1916 The restriction of African Americans' voting rights in the U.S. South in the decades following Reconstruction is the most significant instance of democratic backsliding in American history. Despite this, it remains unclear whether and to what extent Read more…
PIPE Workshop: Bocar Ba, Duke University
Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime
We develop an empirical model of the mechanism used to assign police officers to Chicago districts and examine the efficiency and equity of alternative allocations.
Bar Talk: Informal Social Interactions, Alcohol Prohibition, and Invention
Empires – or political units made up of several territories and peoples, typically created by conquest and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries – have existed across recorded time, both ancient and modern. The political economy of empire as a scholarly enterprise can take several forms, including studying Read more…
The Know-Nothing Party swept to power in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 1854, running on a staunchly anti-Catholic and anti-Irish platform. In this paper, we examine the contribution of various factors that have been hypothesized to contribute to the party’s success.