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11. Observing or participating in regime change? Kyrgyz perspectives on the role of international election observation missions in 2005

Author:
Indra Øverland and Stina Torjesen
Publication Date:
05-2006
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
This report offers an in-dept analysis of the role of international election observation missions in during the political upheavals in Kyrgyzstan in 2005. It presents the work of three leading, young academics from Kyrgyzstan. The report forms part of the 'NUPI Network for Election Observation and Exchange'. This is project that is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The starting point for the assessments presented here is the realisation that international election observer missions played a central part in the events that eventually lead to the toppling of President Askar Akaev's administration in march 2005. Kyrgyzstan is also a case that highlights the immense challenges that face election observation missions in non consolidated democracies of the former Soviet Union. Many of these countries, Kyrgyzstan included, have developed traditions of deep-seated and sophisticated manipulation of election procedures. Given these preconditions, the three articles aim to assess from differing perspectives how election observation was conducted in the country in 2005.
Topic:
International Relations and Government
Political Geography:
Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan, and Soviet Union

12. North-South Trade and Wages with Complete Specialisation

Author:
Arne Melchior
Publication Date:
01-2005
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
From the Stolper-Samuelson Theorem, it is expected that North-South trade reduces the real wage of unskilled labour in the North. This paper questions the underlying assumption that trading countries are diversified, and examines theoretically the trade-wage link when the South is completely specialised. While it remains true that trade with the South negatively affects wages in the North, it is no longer the case that the poorer the trade partner is, the more harmful is trade for Northern wages. The negative wage impact is largest when the South has an intermediate capital-labour ratio, since it is then a more efficient producer. This also gives the largest aggregate welfare gains from trade in the North. The specialised South also gains from trade, and these gains are relatively larger, the more extreme is its factor composition. But even if the poorest countries gain from trade, capital accumulation may be more important for their welfare.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Human Welfare, and International Trade and Finance

13. Majority Rules and Incentives—International voting affects domestic policies

Author:
Bård Harstad
Publication Date:
03-2004
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
A “majority rule” defines the number of club-members that must approve a policy proposed to replace the status quo. Since the majority rule thus dictates the extent to which winners must compensate losers, it also determines the incentives to invest in order to become a winner of anticipated projects. If the required majority is large, the members invest too little because of a hold-up problem, if it is small, the members invest too much in order to become a member of the majority coalition. To balance these opposing forces, the majority rule should increase in the level of minority protection (or enforcement capacity) and the project's value but decrease in the ex post heterogeneity. Strategic delegation turns out to be sincere exclusively under this majority rule. Externalities can be internalized by adjusting the rule. With heterogeneity in size or initial conditions, votes should be appropriately weighted or double majorities required. The analysis provides recommendations for Europe's future constitution.
Topic:
Government, Human Rights, and Politics
Political Geography:
Europe

14. A Polanyi Perspective on Post-Communist Corrruption

Author:
Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:
08-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The paper seeks to explain the present high levels of corruption in the post-communist countries, i.e. the centrally planned economies where the communist party lost power as the outcome of a specific historical process where both the character of the former economic system as well as that policy shock itself played key roles. Among the possible explanatory factors the study focuses on the effects of production decline and the 'monetarisation' of the economy which started before the policy shock.
Topic:
Development, Economics, and Government

15. Transition from socialism—the corruption heritage

Author:
Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The paper explores the apparently high incidence of corruption in those former socialist countries where the Communist Party lost power. It argues that part of the explanation of the high corruption incidence is to be sought in the simultaneous production decline which gives rise to a Schumpeter effect, where former bureaucrats are becoming corruption entrepreneurs. Another important factor is the swift change in the ruling norms giving rise to a Huntington effect an overshooting of the applicability of the market mechanism. An important driver of both effects is the monetation of the centralised multi-tiered bartering system of the old socialist economies. That process is briefly compared to older forms of market expansion into decentralised non-market agricultural economies as analysed by Polanyi and Marx.
Topic:
Economics, Government, and Industrial Policy

16. Remarks on Private-to-private corruption

Author:
Jens Chr.1 Andvig
Publication Date:
02-2003
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
The OECD's Anti-Bribery Convention may be regarded as the strongest international expression of the recent recognition of corruption as a major global issue. The convention aims to contain trans-border corruption by making it illegal for citizens and enterprises located in the countries that have signed the convention to get involved in corrupt transactions with officials abroad. Working out the convention the legal regulation of transborder corruption has become harmonised across countries. Given the initial success, the question has been raised whether the convention should be extended or modified in some way. New policy instruments have been proposed; greater precision in how to deal with middlemen has been urged.
Topic:
Economics, Government, Industrial Policy, and International Trade and Finance

17. Security, integration and identity change

Author:
Pernille Rieker
Publication Date:
12-2000
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Norwegian Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
In this working paper Pernille Rieker attempts to contribute to a better understanding of both how the EU functions as a security system and what kind of impact the integration process has on national security identities. While security has always been the main reason behind the integration process, security and integration have usually been studied separately. Integration specialists have given more attention to economy than to security, and security experts have studied traditional security institutions and overlooked the EU. Rieker attempts to combine these two theoretical traditions by drawing on a combination of recent work on security communities and international socialisation. While the development in the Nordic countries will be used as brief examples in the final part of the paper, a more detailed analysis of these countries' security identities will follow in a forthcoming study.
Topic:
Security, Development, and Government