Globalisation, the crisis and the state: Introduction
The recent global financial crisis has challenged conventional wisdom, and our conception of globalisation has been called into question. This challenging and timely book revisits the relationship between globalisation, the crisis and the state from an interdisciplinary perspective, with law, economics and political science underpinning the analysis.
Globalisation, the global financial crisis and the reinvention of the state
This article analyses the nature of globalisation and how it has been affected by the Global Financial Crisis. It considers the relationship with imperialism and the Washington Consensus. It reflects on events since 2008, the decline of the West, the limits of global governance and the role of the state and central banks. In this changing world, there is a need for greater leadership, co-operation and an adequate voice for emerging economies in international institutions. This presents challenges for conventional wisdom and requires a broad inter-disciplinary approach.
Participation Improves Collective Decisions (When It Involves Deliberation): Experimental Evidence From Kenya
Abstract Citizen participation in decision making has been widely lauded as a method for improving societal outcomes. Deliberative discussion, in particular, is believed to be more transformative than a mere aggregation of individual preferences, leading to more socially optimal decision making and behavior. I report the results from a laboratory experiment with 570 subjects in Nairobi, directly testing the effect of participation in deliberative group decision making on collective outcomes. Participants engage in a group task to earn compensation toward a shared group fund. Randomly assigned treatments vary according to whether decision making over the task to be completed involves: (1) external assignment; (2) non-deliberative majority voting; or (3) consensus through deliberative discussion. I find that deliberation improves collective decision making. Deliberation is also associated with changes in preferences, greater agreement with decision outcomes, and greater perceived fairness. Evidence for behavior change is weaker, but there is some support for further research into the relationship between preference change and behavior change.