The Cambridge series on the Political Economy of Institutions and Decisions is built around attempts to answer two central questions: How do institutions evolve in response to individual incentives, strategies, and choices, and how do institutions affect the performance of political and economic systems? The scope of the series is comparative and historical rather than international or specifically American, and the focus is positive rather than normative.

What makes citizens comply with various costly exactions of government, particularly those like military service in which citizens risk losing their lives? In a provocative effort to provide a rational choice perspective on democratic legitimacy, Margaret Levi argues that citizens will prefer to comply provided the personal costs of compliance are not too burdensome. However, she argues, citizen compliance is contingent, requiring a positive assessment of both government trustworthiness and ethical reciprocity, the likelihood that other citizens will also do their share. Her evidence is rich and varied. She shows how mutual distrust between linguistically separate subgroups during two world wars made ethical reciprocity and “fair shares” arrangements unobtainable. Moreover, institutional arrangements making government commitments credible are essential to getting people to act on the belief that any fair shares arrangements will be enforced, and variations in credibility explain differences in the success of conscription. Finally, she shows how different personal costs of obtaining the status explain varying extents to which people became conscientious objectors.