From historian of Scandinavia Mary Hilson’s The Nordic Model: Scandinavia since 1945: Why have the Scandinavian social democratic parties been so successful, at least in Norway, Denmark and Sweden? The question has been pursued with particular interest in Sweden, give the status of the SAP as perhaps the most successful political party, measured by any… Continue reading The Success of Social Democratic Parties in the Nordics
Instant Runoff Voting and Strategic Voting
Wikipedia defines the spoiler effect thusly: The spoiler effect is the effect of vote splitting between candidates … with similar ideologies. One spoiler candidate’s presence in the election draws votes from a major candidate with similar politics thereby causing a strong opponent of both or several to win. The minor candidate causing this effect is… Continue reading Instant Runoff Voting and Strategic Voting
Gentrification
I don’t write about gentrification, but I read about it often. Most of what I read about gentrification is less lucid than I’d prefer, generally because it is vague, myopic, or needlessly narrative. This has started to bug me, and so I figured I’d try my own hand at writing about the topic. As far… Continue reading Gentrification
The State Does Not Enforce Most Agreements
In my prior post, I discussed the interesting case of certain right-wingers calling deregulation that they don’t like regulation. Specifically, I point out that when the state backs out of enforcing noncompete agreements, this is not regulation; rather, it is deregulation. It reduces the scope of the government. It imposes no rules on anybody. It… Continue reading The State Does Not Enforce Most Agreements
Regulation and private laws
Adam Ozimek wrote a piece titled “Can Regulation Create Good Jobs?” The jumping off point for the piece is the recent slate of discussion around Jimmy John’s requiring its employees to sign noncompete clauses: The latest of these [stories] involves a sandwich chain that allegedly asked its line workers to sign noncompete agreements. Such stories… Continue reading Regulation and private laws