Dissertation and Monty Python.

These days I spend much time working on my dissertation. The reason is that by the end of next month our dissertation proposals have to be handed in. By now I have a topic and a very preliminary draft; I hope to post it here by the end of the week after another solid revision.

Thus, in upcoming weeks I will bother lots of professors and policy makers for comments. For the same reason I also present the draft at different occasions; Columbia's CP workshop, IGERT's International Development and Globalization meeting, and the PhD dissertation seminar. The best motivators, however, are my friends in the cohort for two reasons. (1) Four months ago we signed a post-dated check of 200 US$, which we then gave to a third-party enforcer. If a person now does not hand in his/her proposal that person's money is cashed, given to the group who will subsequently spend it on dinner, drinking or holiday. The loser is not allowed to join. (2) We spend lots of time reading and discussing each others proposals. Last Friday, for example, I spent 3 hours with a colleague who had read through my proposal. Because we are all good friends we can (and will) say whatever we think and really try hard to shoot holes in each others' proposals.

My dissertation partly deals with local governance. Of course, one has to be aware of one topic's classical works, so hereby. One more executive power oriented:

And one more judicial power oriented: