One of the primary responsibilities of any government is the management of the public purse: the government budget and the national debt. As developments in Europe demonstrate, bad management of government expenditures could lead to financial collapse and government default. Although the U.S. is in a much better fiscal footing then most European countries, dealing […]
February 11 marked the one year anniversary of the official fall of Hosni Mubarak from power. What started with street demonstrations and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) overthrowing the President and dissolving the Parliament, was followed by a referendum to amend the existing constitution and fresh Parliamentary election. On February 22, the […]
A recent article by Nathan Brown in the FP (Americans, put away your quills), eloquently argues against the advocacy and promotion of “American constitutional ideas” (and ideals) in Arab countries currently in transition due to the Arab Spring. Although the history of U.S. constitutional transplantation is mixed at best (failed in Latin America in the […]
Recent events in North Africa and the Middle East have brought to the forefront the fragility of government institutions and have questioned the legitimacy of authoritarian regimes in a number of developing nations. The right form of governance for the right society has never been easy to identify. A lot of times, societies have adopted […]
Last week, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called for political reform once again, while at the same time he rejected (again) any comparisons between his country and the autocracies now collapsing in North Africa and the Middle East. Premier Wen is right when he says that the current socio-economic conditions in China are nothing like the […]
Perhaps —no, undoubtedly — only the World Bank would host an event to discuss the fiscal systems different countries have to divide oil and gas revenue. The conference, held in Washington DC by the Bank’s Oil, Gas and Mining division, concludes today. While some systems are unitary (like, on balance, Indonesia), many today are federal. […]