IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/pubcho/v190y2022i1d10.1007_s11127-021-00918-6.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Emergencies: on the misuse of government powers

Author

Listed:
  • Christian Bjørnskov

    (Aarhus University
    Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN))

  • Stefan Voigt

    (University of Hamburg
    CESifo)

Abstract

Nine out of 10 constitutions contain explicit emergency provisions, intended to help governments cope with extraordinary events that endanger many people or the existence of the state. We ask two questions: (1) does the constitutionalization of emergency provisions help governments to cope with disasters and other extraordinary events? (2) What particular parts of emergency constitutions fare best? We find that the more advantages emergency constitutions confer to the executive, the higher the number of people killed as a consequence of a natural disaster, controlling for its severity. As this is an unexpected result, we discuss a number of potential explanations, the most plausible being that governments use natural disasters as a pretext to enhance their power. Furthermore, the easier it is to call a state of emergency, the larger the negative effects on basic human rights. Interestingly, presidential democracies are better able to cope with natural disasters than parliamentary ones in terms of lives saved, whereas autocracies do significantly worse in the sense that empowerment rights seriously suffer in the aftermath of a disaster.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Bjørnskov & Stefan Voigt, 2022. "Emergencies: on the misuse of government powers," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 190(1), pages 1-32, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:190:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-021-00918-6
    DOI: 10.1007/s11127-021-00918-6
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11127-021-00918-6
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11127-021-00918-6?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Emily Skarbek, 2014. "The Chicago Fire of 1871: a bottom-up approach to disaster relief," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 155-180, July.
    2. Russell S. Sobel & Christopher J. Coyne, 2011. "Cointegrating Institutions: The Time-Series Properties of Country Institutional Measures," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(1), pages 111-134.
    3. Peter T. Leeson & Russell S. Sobel, 2008. "Weathering Corruption," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(4), pages 667-681, November.
    4. Peter T. Leeson, 2008. "Media Freedom, Political Knowledge, and Participation," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 22(2), pages 155-169, Spring.
    5. José Cheibub & Jennifer Gandhi & James Vreeland, 2010. "Democracy and dictatorship revisited," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 67-101, April.
    6. Hafner-Burton, Emilie M. & Helfer, Laurence R. & Fariss, Christopher J., 2011. "Emergency and Escape: Explaining Derogations from Human Rights Treaties," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(4), pages 673-707, October.
    7. Christian Bjørnskov & Martin Rode, 2020. "Regime types and regime change: A new dataset on democracy, coups, and political institutions," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 531-551, April.
    8. James Raymond Vreeland, 2008. "The Effect of Political Regime on Civil War," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 52(3), pages 401-425, June.
    9. Monica Escaleras & Nejat Anbarci & Charles Register, 2007. "Public sector corruption and major earthquakes: A potentially deadly interaction," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 209-230, July.
    10. Matthew E. Kahn, 2005. "The Death Toll from Natural Disasters: The Role of Income, Geography, and Institutions," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 87(2), pages 271-284, May.
    11. Christian Bjørnskov & Stefan Voigt, 2020. "When Does Terror Induce a State of Emergency? And What Are the Effects?," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(4), pages 579-613, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Justin T. Callais & Jamie Bologna Pavlik, 2023. "Does economic freedom lighten the blow? Evidence from the great recession in the United States," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 357-398, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bjørnskov, Christian & Mchangama, Jacob, 2023. "Freedom of Expression and Social Conflict," Working Paper Series 1473, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Christian Bjørnskov & Stefan Voigt & Mahdi Khesali, 2022. "Unconstitutional States of Emergency," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 455-481.
    3. Christian Bjørnskov & Stefan Voigt, 2022. "Terrorism and emergency constitutions in the Muslim world," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 59(3), pages 305-318, May.
    4. Monica Escaleras & Charles Register, 2012. "Fiscal decentralization and natural hazard risks," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 151(1), pages 165-183, April.
    5. Bjørnskov, Christian & Freytag, Andreas & Gutmann, Jerg, 2022. "Coups and the dynamics of media freedom," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Padli, Jaharudin & Habibullah, Muzafar & Abdul Hamid, Baharom & Musa, Haslina, 2019. "Mitigating Fatalities and Damages Due to Natural Disasters: Do Human Development and Corruption Matters?," Jurnal Ekonomi Malaysia, Faculty of Economics and Business, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, vol. 53(2), pages 153-164.
    7. Francisco Jose Veiga & Linda Goncalves Veiga & Atsuyoshi Morozumi, 2015. "Political budget cycles and media freedom," Discussion Papers 2015/14, University of Nottingham, Centre for Finance, Credit and Macroeconomics (CFCM).
    8. Eiji Yamamura, 2014. "Impact of natural disaster on public sector corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 161(3), pages 385-405, December.
    9. Christian Bjørnskov & Stefan Voigt, 2022. "This time is different?—on the use of emergency measures during the corona pandemic," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 63-81, August.
    10. Chun-Ping Chang & Aziz N. Berdiev, 2015. "Do natural disasters increase the likelihood that a government is replaced?," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(17), pages 1788-1808, April.
    11. Christian Bjørnskov & Andreas Freytag, 2016. "An offer you can’t refuse: murdering journalists as an enforcement mechanism of corrupt deals," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 167(3), pages 221-243, June.
    12. Muhammad Habibur Rahman & Nejat Anbarci & Prasad Sankar Bhattacharya & Mehmet Ali Ulubaşoğlu, 2017. "Can extreme rainfall trigger democratic change? The role of flood-induced corruption," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 331-358, June.
    13. Michael Breen & Robert Gillanders & Caroline McMullan, 2024. "Corruption, homelessness and disasters," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(1), pages 70-83, January.
    14. Virgil Henry Storr & Stefanie Haeffele-Balch & Laura E. Grube, 2015. "Community Revival in the Wake of Disaster," Perspectives from Social Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-31489-5, December.
    15. van Bergeijk, P.A.G. & Lazzaroni, S., 2013. "Macroeconomics of natural disasters," ISS Working Papers - General Series 50075, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    16. Daniel Sutter & Daniel J. Smith, 2017. "Coordination in disaster: Nonprice learning and the allocation of resources after natural disasters," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 30(4), pages 469-492, December.
    17. Niklas Potrafke, 2016. "Policies against human trafficking: the role of religion and political institutions," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 353-386, November.
    18. Yamamura, Eiji & Andrés, Antonio R., 2011. "Does corruption affect suicide? Empirical evidence from OECD countries," MPRA Paper 31622, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Jerg Gutmann & Katarzyna Metelska-Szaniawska & Stefan Voigt, 2024. "The comparative constitutional compliance database," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 95-115, January.
    20. Adalgiso Amendola & Joshy Easaw & Antonio Savoia, 2013. "Inequality in developing economies: the role of institutional development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 43-60, April.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Constitutional emergency provisions; State of emergency; État de siege; Regime transformation; Positive constitutional economics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • K40 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - General
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:pubcho:v:190:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s11127-021-00918-6. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.