The rise of life expectancy in Europe has been a very uneven process, both in time and space. This paper aims to identify instances in which major political conditions are likely to have influenced the rise of life expectancy, focusing on formation and dissolution of states and supranational blocs and on differences between political regimes (democratic vs. authoritarian non-communist and commu...

We contribute to research on the democratic role of middle classes. Our paper distinguishes between classes emerging autonomously during gradual capitalist development and those fabricated rapidly as part state-led modernization. To make case for a conceptual distinction these groups within one national setting, we employ author-assembled historical district data, survey, archival materials pre...

In China, successive political upheavals have impacted directly on the attitudes and identities of citizens. This paper explores how residents a small agricultural community in prosperous eastern province Zhejiang constructed discussed their own narratives history—in relation to actions power Chinese state—over course twentieth century. For three generations concerned—grandparents, parents adul...

Abstract There is growing research on the political budget cycles in transition economies whose institutions, and societies differ significantly from those of developed countries. New democracies are more vulnerable to (fiscal) cycles. Most studies focus policy instruments (e.g. fiscal policies) rather than macroeconomic outcomes. In this paper, we analyse budget/fiscal cycle Albania, a post-co...

The communist norm requires that scientists widely share the results of their work. Where did this norm come from, and how does it persist? Michael Strevens provides a partial answer to these questions by showing that scientists should be willing to sign a social contract that mandates sharing. However, he also argues that it is not in an individual credit-maximizing scientist’s interest to fol...

Very little information is available regarding psychiatry in North Korea, which is based on the legacy of Soviet psychiatry. This paper reviews the characteristics of psychiatry in former socialist countries and discusses its implications for North Korean psychiatry. Under socialism, psychiatric disorders were attributed primarily to neurophysiologic or neurobiological origins. Psychosocial or ...

After several decades of stagnation, mortality in most Central European countries started to decrease after 1989. The Czech Republic and Poland were the first former Communist countries in this region to experience a rapid and sustained increase in life expectancy. This study focuses on the trends in cause-of-death mortality that have contributed to the recent progress in these two countries. T...

Why do some interest group systems provide members with more elaborate voice opportunities than other systems? We argue that evaluating membership is important for understanding the representative potential of systems. An adequate “voice” forms basis “context”-embedded assessments benchmarks such as bias, representational distortion, and group-driven policy overload. examine two competing hypot...