Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries write by Bumba Mukherjee. This book was released on 2016-06-17. Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Since the 1970s, two major trends have emerged among developing countries: the rise of new democracies and the rush to free trade. For some, the confluence of these events suggests that a free-market economy complements a fledgling democracy. Others argue that the two are inherently incompatible and that exposure to economic globalization actually jeopardizes new democracies. Which view is correct? Bumba Mukherjee argues that the reality of how democracy and trade policy unravel in developing countries is more nuanced than either account. Mukherjee offers the first comprehensive cross-national framework for identifying the specific economic conditions that influence trade policy in developing countries. Laying out the causes of variation in trade policy in four developing or recently developed countries—Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa—he argues persuasively that changing political interactions among parties, party leaders, and the labor market are often key to trade policy outcome. For instance, if workers are in a position to benefit from opening up to trade, party leaders in turn support trade reforms by decreasing tariffs and other trade barriers. At a time when discussions about the stability of new democracies are at the forefront, Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries provides invaluable insight into the conditions needed for a democracy to survive in the developing world in the context of globalization.
Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries
Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries write by Helen V. Milner. This book was released on 2013. Democracy and Trade Policy in Developing Countries available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. What explains the variation in trade policy among democracies in developing countries? Why have some liberalized trade more than others? We analyze the impact of political particularism - defined as the degree of party discipline and the incentives for politicians to cultivate a personal vote - on trade protection. We present theoretical results from a model of particularism and its effects on tariffs; we present quantitative evidence to test the model; and then we develop a case study of India to illuminate it. Our model analyzes how an increase in particularism (that is, a shift from a party-centered to a more candidate-centered system) interacts with the degree of inter-industry occupational mobility of labor and the asset-specificity of industries to influence trade policies in developing democracies. Our model suggests that an increase in particularism induces leaders from the ruling and opposition parties to shift trade policy in equilibrium to the median voter's optimal preference, who in a developing society is a worker; and this means a reduction in trade barriers when labor mobility is high. Our data strongly support this conclusion. Our case study of India shows how the dynamics of a party-centered system operate to maintain higher trade barriers.
Democracy and the Skill-Bias in Trade Policy in Developing Countries
Democracy and the Skill-Bias in Trade Policy in Developing Countries - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Democracy and the Skill-Bias in Trade Policy in Developing Countries write by Helen V. Milner. This book was released on 2013. Democracy and the Skill-Bias in Trade Policy in Developing Countries available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. A growing body of research suggests that democracy promotes trade liberalization in developing countries. We argue that democracy in developing countries generates a "skill bias" in trade policy where democratic incumbents have incentives to increase tariffs on high skilled goods but reduce trade barriers on low skilled goods. Our model analyzes how electoral competition and interest group politics in the Heckscher-Ohlin economy of a democratic developing country affects trade protection on low and high skilled goods. It predicts that electoral competition induces the government to reduce trade barriers for low skilled goods to maximize the utility of the abundant factor, namely the low skilled median voter, who optimally prefers a reduction in tariffs for low skilled goods. At the same time, electoral politics also engenders lobbying pressure and campaign contributions from the scarce factor in the polity - the owners of skill-intensive industries (the interest group) - who prefers more trade protection for high skilled goods. The government rationally responds to contributions and electoral dividends generated by protecting skill-intensive industries from import competition by increasing tariffs on high skilled goods. Empirical tests conducted on a novel disaggregated industry-level dataset of trade protection for 92 developing countries from 1978-2004 provides robust statistical support for our theoretical predictions.
Democracy and International Trade
Democracy and International Trade - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Democracy and International Trade write by Daniel Verdier. This book was released on 1995-07-23. Democracy and International Trade available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. In this ambitious exploration of how foreign trade policy is made in democratic regimes, Daniel Verdier casts doubt on theories that neglect voters. Bringing the voters back in, Verdier shows that special interests, party ideologues, and state officials and diplomats act as agents of the voters. Constructing a general theory in which existing theories (rent seeking, median voting, state autonomy) function as partial explanations, he shows that trade institutions are not fixed entities but products of political competition. Verdier then offers a thorough analysis of how foreign trade policy was made in France, Britain, and the United States during the period from 1860 through 1990. He discloses a reality startlingly different from previous understandings of American and French trade policies. Challenging the conventional view that special interests have dominated American trade policy, he argues that sectoral economic weight has not been a good predictor of political power in the United States since 1888. Conversely, against the prevailing belief that French industry is controlled by an autonomous state, he reveals the existence of a privileged, collusive relationship between French industry and state officials from the 1892 Meline Tariff through the Socialist victory of 1981. The standard opinion is confirmed only in the case of Britain, where an arm's-length relationship has historically been maintained between industry and government. The book's findings make it essential reading for political scientists, political economists, and historians alike.
Saving Globalization
Saving Globalization - read free eBook in online reader or directly download on the web page. Select files or add your book in reader. Download and read online ebook Saving Globalization write by Mike Moore. This book was released on 2011-11-09. Saving Globalization available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Globalization is not new, nor is it a policy, it’s a process that has existed as long as man looked over the horizon, travelled and traded. It can’t be stopped but it can be slowed. It came to a grinding halt in August 1914 and the Marxist detour cost millions of lives and lost three generations their opportunity and hope in many countries. More wealth has been created in the past 60 years than in all of history. After the most successful decade of sustained economic growth in history, this progress is threatened. Extreme inequality, corruption and environmental degradation threaten the stability and legitimacy of many developing countries’ regimes. Anti-globalization and anti-capitalist campaigners’ confidence has been emboldened due to the present economic crisis. Protectionist rhetoric is growing as are the arguments to control and regulate markets. Leaders are meeting to discuss how to face these problems and create a new international architecture. How did we get to this position? What should we do? What is it that determines why some contemporary states are successful while others have failed? Saving Globalization departs from its analysis of the globalised economy in the twenty-first century to answer these question by tracing the development of what Moore considers to be ‘the big ideas of history’: democracy, independent courts, the separation of church and state, property rights, independent courts, a professional civil service, and civil society. Democratic capitalism has worked for most people. Why? It is a remarkable story, from the Greeks to the Geeks, encompassing technological progress and the corrections and contradictions between liberty and equality, technology, growth and the environment. In defence of the many virtues and opportunities that globalisation offers, Mike Moore makes the case for a fresh and new approach to our international Institutions and for domestic policies that promote equity and fairness. The book controversially attacks the new enemies of reason and evidence. The threats now come from all sides, especially workers in developed countries who fear for their jobs. Mike Moore is a political practitioner turned theoretician.
