The papers in this thesis explore the political economy of the macroeconomic imbalances that built up between advanced democracies during the Great Moderation—the long period of reduced macroeconomic volatility and low inflation that preceded the global financial crisis. More specifically, the papers focus on the role that institutions, political systems and electoral politics, and government demand-side policies played in the imbalances that emerged in real exchange rates and current accounts. The first paper uses macroeconomic data on OECD economies and a new statistical approach for causal inference in observational studies—the synthetic control method—to estimate the effect of the European Monetary Union (EMU) on the current account balances of individual member states. This counterfactuals approach provides strong evidence that the introduction of the EMU was responsible for the divergence in current account balances among member states. The second paper maps out the complex set of interrelationships between varieties of capitalism, growth models, and political systems in advanced democracies. The new approach to comparative political economy developed in the paper provides a theoretical framework that helps explain the current account divergence between the export-led coordinated market economies (CMEs) and the consumption-led liberal market economies (LMEs). The third paper brings modern macroeconomics back into political science. The paper sets out a suite of simple open economy macroeconomic models and uses them to show how governments pursuing different demand-side policies can result in persistent current account imbalances between countries within a system of independent inflation-targeting central banking. Taken together, the papers provide important theoretical arguments and empirical evidence on the political (and political economic) drivers of the macroeconomic imbalances that were a crucial precursor to the worst global economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

This thesis traces the creation and trajectories of regulatory transparency policies (RTPs) within what I define as the three ‘logics of regulatory transparency’: control, performance and transaction. Through in-depth case study analyses of the birth and long-term evolution of selected RTPs in Brazil and the United Kingdom, this study shows that the logics can impact the trajectory of an RTP by shaping the power and priorities of actors in particular ways or by disclosing specific types of information. What I refer to as RTPs in this thesis are a specific class of transparency policies that carry an inherent regulatory goal pursued through the disclosure of information and published directly by governments and regulators. These are not a new class of policies; rather they are studied from the perspective of government transparency or from the perspective of governance. The goal of the thesis is to understand the creation and evolution of RTPs, identify eventual patterns of progress, and learn about the stability of these policies and of the multi-actor interactions that take place during or as a result of their creation and progress.

This thesis offers a positive reinterpretation of the relevance of Isaiah Berlin’s political thought. It re-examines his work hermeneutically with the double aim of claiming its intrinsic relevance as a work of political theory beyond what most critics have acknowledged, first; and second, with the intention of using it to draw conclusions that will address some of the most pressing discussions found in contemporary liberal political theory, such as the conflicting link between value pluralism and liberalism, or the recent confrontation between political moralism and political realism. This is achieved by reading Berlin hermeneutically, and thus transcending the categorical differentiation between historical and philosophical methods in his work. The argument is presented in three sections. The first one is a biographical introduction that acts as a methodological statement. In it, the dilemma on the nature of values that sits at the heart of Berlin’s work is defined by reference to his biographical context. The second section of the thesis is formed by three chapters that look at the central philosophical aspects of Berlin’s political thought: value pluralism and a neo-Kantian normative ethical theory that emerges in relation to it. By claiming a relationship between Berlin and Kant, and by presenting value pluralism as a meta-ethical theory, the thesis offers an alternative reading of Berlin’s work that deviates substantively from most existing scholarship. The third section of the thesis compares Berlin’s political interpretation of value pluralism with that of Bernard Williams and John Rawls, in order to claim that liberal theory demands a hermeneutic method in its justification. This will show the enduring relevance of Berlin’s contribution to political theory as one that expands beyond his own historical moment, against what many commentators have argued. It also raises a strong claim on the crucial implications of method in political theory, calling for a more hermeneutic approach.

This thesis consists of three papers that make a distinctive contribution to the study of decentralization in the areas of fiscal policy, legislative behavior and government responsiveness. The first paper revisits theories of substate tax policy that usually draw on evidence from stable federations. Investigating fiscal decentralization reforms in four European countries subject to intense center-periphery territorial competition, I find that incentives operating in such systems generate a paradox whereby prominent autonomist regions are among the least likely to make proactive changes after decentralization. I theorize this as the best response to central government attempts at blame-shifting by locking regions into making controversial policy changes. The frequent alignment of autonomist parties as ‘catch-all’ parties buttresses incentives to avoid tax innovation. The second paper picks up these themes of institutional constraints and electoral incentives faced by political actors. Addressing a frequently confounding question in the field, I exploit the unusual treatment of dual candidacy in the UK’s devolved legislatures to examine whether mixed-member electoral systems influence the legislative behavior of reelection-seeking politicians and uncover a split finding. Although there is some evidence that status as a list or constituency member influences members’ assignments, other connections to members’ presumed re-election interests are not found. I contend that the influence of electoral rules is conditioned by contextual factors including re-selection procedures, chamber size and strong parties. Building on insights from the first paper, the third paper empirically scrutinizes expectations from fiscal federalism theory that lower tiers of government should be more responsive to citizens. Using the responses from two waves of FOI requests emailed to 812 public bodies, I develop objective measures of timeliness and quality which identify significant variations in responsiveness across the tiers and territories of the UK. I argue that the theoretical foundations of traditional fiscal federalism theory are inadequate because they ignore institutions’ cultural underpinnings, capacity constraints and principal-agent relationships shaping public officials’ behavior.

This thesis challenges the widely accepted discourse of post-truth politics, which finds support in what is in this thesis referred to as ‘antinomy hypothesis’ – the belief that politics and truth are opposites and external to one another, where one exists the other disappear; truth is abstract and absolute, while politics is a theatre of appearances with no room for truth. In contrast, this thesis explores the conditions of possibility for thinking that we inhabit a world of post-truth politics, by proposing the concept of the ‘politics of truth’ – the struggle at the most general level of society where the true is separated from the false and where what gets to count as truth and reality is decided. If truth only has value in so far as it serves life then the central problem in the politics of truth, the thesis argues, is to establishes the socio-political limits of thought: how and by what practices is it possible for thought to test its own truth in politics? It is by erecting the epistemological space that sets out possible answers to this question that thought became the tyrant of truth, which today has taken form of hyper-real politics of truth. This thesis thus asks the genealogical question: what will or wills have shaped the politics of truth, so that it today has become hyper-real? To answer this question the thesis develops a theory of ‘traditions of thought’ based on the French school of Historical Epistemology. The rest of the thesis explores, in a series of chronological chapters spanning from Archaic Greece until today, how the politics of truth has been problematized in thought through the concepts of parrhēsia, exhortation, public critique, and hyper-real politics. In hyper-real politics of truth where the real is in the process of being replaced by its copy, there is no space for the difference of thought, only the positive mode of thought that affirms and produces more truth.

How do practices guiding the engagement of the international private sector in fragile and conflict-affected states emerge, and who are the important actors and institutions in this process? Using a human security framework, this thesis seeks to apply critical security studies by taking a closer look at the role of the Turkish private sector in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. This thesis argues that the international private sector can be a vital tool to enhance human security, in particular economic security, in fragile and conflict-affected states. However, without a regulatory environment for the private sector to follow “best practices,” it is largely at the discretion of each business to adopt measures to enhance human security. In this light, this thesis presents the conditions that either enhance or constrain economic security following the intervention of the international private sector. The central findings suggest the Turkish private sector enhanced certain economic security areas such as infrastructure recovery and restoration of access to basic services, the dismantling of a war economy and illegal economic networks, and expansion of opportunities for people through training, skills development and empowerment. The central findings also suggest the Turkish private sector constrained economic security in the areas of job creation or to the establishment of public and private sector employment, wage employment and self-employment. The impact of the Turkish private sector on public-private relations appeared to have had a mixed impact. Moreover, there were some economic security conditions such as basic income and poverty alleviation, rehabilitation and diversification of the agriculture sector, development of productive activities for ex-combatants, returnees and impoverished groups, provision of microfinance opportunities, clarification of property rights, macroeconomic development, and provision of well-coordinated, predictable, and multifaceted aid, where the Turkish private sector appeared to have had little impact if any at all.

This interdisciplinary dissertation seeks a more holistic and broader understanding of political identity formation processes in post-USSR Eastern Europe. It seeks to develop a theoretical approach for assessing the non-rationalistic factors, which influence domestic and foreign policy, political attitudes and identities in the region – including associative symbolism, human experience, political images and historical narratives. The research is based on the main case of Lithuania, which is analysed in the first three chapters of the dissertation from three perspectives: the historical/political, the intellectual/narrative and the experiential/symbolic. Along the way, a theory is being inductively elaborated, offering new insights into the process of Lithuanian political identity formation. In the next two chapters, other cases are also explored in order to examine the theory’s applicability and broaden its spectrum of inquiry. These include Russia, Poland, Estonia and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Qualitative methods are used in this dissertation, including textual and visual analysis (of primary and secondary literary sources, photographs, film, etc.), unstructured interviews, historical analysis, as well as political, philosophical and anthropological theoretical approaches by Roland Barthes, Raoul Girardet, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, Victor Turner, Arpad Szakolczai, and others. The dissertation seeks to improve our understanding of political identity formation, periods of political transition and the importance of human experience to politics. It also aims at developing a theory capable of accounting for the often unrecognised factors of historical narrative, political symbolism and emotional associative charge. As a result it makes a contribution towards a better understanding of post-USSR Eastern European politics and thus to more effective policy towards the region, which is gaining increasing importance in global political arena.

Political journalists are some of Twitter’s most enthusiastic users and the platform has become one of the key social media tools in the news industry. While a growing body of research has addressed journalists’ observable tweeting practices, we know little about the considerations and strategies that underpin their activities on the platform, how these manifest themselves in their engagement, and which benefits they yield. This thesis examines US political journalists and the process of their Twitter engagement via an integrated conceptual framework that is organised by macro, meso and micro levels of investigation. On the macro level, it conceptualises the influence of organisational factors via a management of media innovation perspective. On the meso level, it uses the concepts of technology affordances and appropriation to analyse the role of journalistic routines and practices. On the micro level, it employs the uses and gratifications framework to examine individual-based motivations that drive Twitter engagement. The thesis further investigates how different socio-political environments and the type of news medium, that is, broadsheet and broadcast, moderate the factors located on each level as they impinge on journalists’ Twitter engagement. The empirical part of the study uses a mixed methods approach that combines expert interviews as the primary method with quantitative content analysis as the secondary method of (1) the Twitter profile pages of 120 political journalists and (2) 2,400 of their tweets, published during a mundane news period and the US Midterm elections in 2014. Findings indicate that journalists experience organisational influences on their Twitter engagement most prominently when their employer is in an advanced stage of innovation implementation and Twitter use has been formalised on an institutional level. The empirical analysis further demonstrates that practices and routines are especially sensitive to changing news climates, and it is here where the perceived benefits of Twitter use are most clearly articulated. Findings on the individual level indicate high degrees of individualisation and personalisation that shape journalists’ Twitter presence. Overall, the relationships and interactions between macro-, meso- and micro-level factors can create mutually beneficial outcomes for the employer, news product and journalist, but equally so, generate fields of tensions and significant conflicts of interest. The empirical analysis and its novel integration of independent macro-, meso- and microlevel concepts into a combined framework provide a basis for advancing a theoretical understanding of the interplay of factors that motivate, shape and moderate political journalists’ engagement with Twitter. This allows us to position and understand tweeting journalists, on the one hand, as employees bound by contractual agreements and occupational demands, and on the other, as autonomous agents who are not fully controlled by managerial strategies, organisational logics and professional workflows.

This dissertation attempts to provide a scholarly interpretation of Locke's political theory, the interpretation which reveals him as a classical liberal who defended property and justice. The major task of this dissertation is to elaborate this interpretation, and defend it against all major alternative interpretations. This task is performed in the Introduction, Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. The interpretation I offer is based on Locke's texts, and the writings of his 17th-century predecessors and 18th-century successors. Appendix 1 criticizes Peter Laslett' s "historical" approach to the Two Treatises. Appendix 2 criticizes a "philosophical" approach to Locke's political theory. I shall reject those approaches, and show the overall soundness of my approach to Locke's political theory. A subsidiary task of this dissertation is to criticize Locke's liberal political theory. Chapter 3 criticizes the concept of property which he uses in his political theory, by offering a detailed analysis. Chapter 4 criticizes his political theory by showing how it disintegrates with the erosion of its basis, i. e., a myth of appropriation. However, the present study is not intended to offer a full-scale critique of Locke's theory. It merely shows how his theory can be criticized on the basis of the interpretation provided in this dissertation. The major purpose of the present work is to understand Locke rather than criticize him. A systematic critique of his liberalism would have to take into account the whole classical-liberal tradition which developed after Locke. Such a task goes far beyond the scope of this dissertation.

Motivated by concern about growing social marginalisation and injustice in Western democracies, this thesis examines these issues from the perspectives of post-structuralist and perfectionist traditions of democratic political thought. Both traditions fear that dominant contemporary political theory, here represented by Rawlsian liberalism, is insufficiently attentive to voice. I seek to explore the critique put forward by each tradition, and demonstrate how in contrast to Rawls, the post-structuralists seek an open, revisable democracy, achieved via a culture of dissent or a democratic ethos. However, since post-structuralism lacks attention to the formation of democratic subjectivity I suggest that it may be productive to look to Cavell’s work on this topic, to help improve the post-structuralist ability to be attentive to the emergence of voice. Yet, given Cavell’s neglect of constructive social power, it becomes necessary to first bridge the gap between Cavell and the post-structuralists by examining the move from voicelessness to voice in more detail. I therefore propose using Rancière’s work on the development of subjectivity, complemented by reference to James Tully and Cristoph Menke, to show how Cavellian aversive thinking can help develop democratic subjects. This also leads me to challenge the strict nature of the divide that Rancière envisions between la politique and la police, making it possible for me to read Rancière as a call for political action, re-casting the ordinary as extraordinary. Hence I suggest that radical democratic political thinkers need to attend to the background police order to consider if it is possible to institutionalise conditions to encourage eruptions of politics, by supporting the cultivation and emergence of individual voice.