A large and fruitful literature has focused on the impact of colonial legacies on long-term development. Yet the role of political transmission mechanisms in this process remains ambiguous. This paper analyzes one such transmission mechanism, namely malapportionment of the representation in the legislatures of the original thirteen British North-American colonies. Their joint independence created a unique juncture in which postcolonial elites simultaneously chose the legislative and electoral institutions under which they would operate.

In the final session of the Global Thinkers of the International Discussion Series, Oxford, join Judith Brown to discuss the international thought of India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The significance of Edward Snowden’s revelations has been viewed primarily through the prism of threats to citizen privacy. Richard Aldrich and Christopher Moran argue instead that the most dramatic change has been a decline of government secrecy, especially around national security. While the ethical aspects of state secrets and “whistle-blowing” have received recent attention, few have attempted to explain the dynamics of this growing climate of exposure.

The four imperfect constitutions of Republic VIII are the topic of this lecture, in which the role of officeholders or magistrates is argued to be central to the ways in which these imperfect constitutions come about, operate, and change into one another. Studying these episodes of change reveals aspects of the normative dimension of political office both within their flawed operation and in contrast with it.