bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Voter Behavior in Democratizing Nations: Reconsidering the Two-Step Model
Authors: Paolino Philip
Published: January 2007

A prominent literature on voting behavior during democratic transition in Mexico focuses upon two considerations: voters’ attitudes toward the dominant party and their uncertainty about the consequences of opposition government. These two considerations are said to form the first step of a “two-step” process that voters use to determine which party to support. In this article, I examine the evidence for this argument, using data from both Mexico and Taiwan and conclude that voters in nations with hegemonic parties give greater weight to the public policies of the dominant party than the two-step model argues. These findings have important implications for the opposition’s behavior in trying to complete a transition from a one-party dominant government to a multi-party democracy.
The Consolidation of the White Southern Congressional Vote
Authors: Bullock Charles S. , Hoffman Donna R. , Gaddie Ronald Keith
Published: January 2007

This article explores the initial desertion and continued realignment of about one-sixth of the white voters in the South who, until 1994, stood by Democratic congressional candidates even as they voted for Republican presidential nominees. Prior to 1994, a sizable share of the white electorate distinguished between Democratic congressional and presidential candidates; since 1994 that distinction has been swept away. In 1992, a majority of white southern voters was casting their ballot for the Democratic House nominee; by 1994, the situation was reversed and 64 percent cast their ballot for the Republican. Virtually all categories of voters increased their support of Republican congressional candidates in 1994 and the following elections further cement GOP congressional support in the South. Subsequent elections are largely exercises in partisanship, as the congressional votes mirror party preferences. Republicans pull nearly all GOP identifiers, most independents, and a sizeable minority of Democratic identifiers. Democrats running for Congress no longer convince voters that they are different from their party’s presidential standard bearers—a group that has consistently been judged unacceptable to overwhelming proportions of the southern white electorate.
The Supreme Court and Opinion Content: The Use of the Federalist Papers
Authors: Corley, J. D. Pamela C. , Howard Robert M. , Nixon David C.
Published: January 2007

Many scholars of the Supreme Court and many justices assert the importance of the Federalist Papers. They provide important evidence of original meaning and interpretation of the Constitution, and there is evidence that there is an increase in citations to the Federalist Papers in Supreme Court opinions. While some may view this increased citation use as a positive development because it demonstrates reliance on legal authority in judicial decisions, we provide evidence that in a period marked by dissensus and controversy, the use of the Federalist Papers represents externally and internally oriented strategic attempts by the justices to add legitimacy to constitutional interpretation, and to sway colleagues. We use a combination of descriptive and multivariate techniques to examine Federalist citations from 1953 to 1995 to demonstrate our interpretation.
Between Justice and Legality: Derrida on Decision
Authors: Sokoloff William W.
Published: January 2007

Recent critiques of Jacques Derrida have misunderstood his contribution to political theory and dismiss his work as apolitical or nihilistic. In contrast to this trend, I argue that Derrida’s concept of decision is the most explicitly political moment of deconstruction. Through readings of “Force of Law” and Politics of Friendship as well as some of his other writings, I argue that Derrida’s re-conceptualization of decision expands the way politics is conceived and enables a robust critique of Rawls’s consensus liberalism. Decision energizes citizenship through strategic interfaces between justice and law and foregrounds respect for others in order to make politics more ethical and lively. Derrida does not paralyze political action by taking the ground away at the moment of action but makes political actors more reflective and responsible by shaking up the stability of all political foundations. Not only have critics of Derrida overstated their case but liberals could learn something from his writings on politics.
The Cambridge School and Leo Strauss: Texts and Context of American Political Science
Authors: Major Rafael
Published: January 2007

Over the past quarter century, the Cambridge School of Intellectual History has had a profound influence on the study of political theory in the U.S. The scholarship of historians such as John Dunn, Quentin Skinner, and John Pocock has almost single-handedly defined the terms with which political scientists understand early modern thought, and consequently liberalism and its alternatives. In this essay I analyze Quentin Skinner's “Meaning and Understanding in the History of Ideas” as the seminal argument for the Cambridge School's interpretive strategy. In particular, I note the degree to which Skinner attacked the scholarship of Leo Strauss in order to establish the Cambridge approach. Contrary to Skinner, I argue Strauss too has a concern for genuine historical understanding. I conclude with a re-reading of Strauss' Persecution and the Art of Writing in order to show that Strauss' interpretive strategy ultimately comes much closer to the “historicity” claimed by Skinner and others.
“Lien On Me”: State Policy Innovation in Response to Paper Terrorism
Authors: Chamberlain Robert , Haider-Markel Donald P.
Published: January 2007

Within the current context of state governments searching for roles in the response to terrorism, we explore the nature of state policy response to recent domestic threats to government operations. We employ a general model of state diffusion of innovative policies in an effort to understand state adoption of laws against the use of frivolous liens. The use of such liens by right-wing Patriot groups grew in the 1990s, leading us to focus on key issues related to policy diffusion—the extent of the problem or threat, and the characteristics of regional response. To test specific hypotheses we use Event History Analysis on a state-level dataset from 1995 to 1999. Our results suggest that state adoption of lien laws is mostly driven by regional forces, including the regional threat posed by Patriot groups and the adoption of lien laws by other states in the region, rather than national forces or factors internal to a state. We conclude that previous research has been too limited in its conceptualization of regional influences and that these same forces will likely drive future state-level response to the threat of terrorism.
The Personal and the Political in Repeat Congressional Candidacies
Authors: Taylor Andrew J. , Boatright Robert G.
Published: January 2007

Analyses of the decision to run for the U.S. House are generally based on the self-reported motivations of a sample of candidates or potential candidates. In this article we take a different approach. We use a quasi-experimental design to model the decision of a losing candidate to initiate or reject an immediate repeat match-up against the person to whom they lost in the general election of the previous cycle. Of these potential repeaters we look at “strong” challengers—those who lost but secured more than 40 percent of the vote. We find the decision to repeat to be shaped at least somewhat by evaluations of the candidate’s chances of winning the party’s nomination and her personal desires and abilities. However, when we examine only “strategic” potential repeaters—those who lost in an open seat contest the first time around—we find the decision to repeat to be driven largely by broader political or partisan trends that affect the candidate’s evaluation of her chances of winning the general election. This finding confirms analyses of strategic candidates using other data.
The Political Roots of Disability Claims: How State Environments and Policies Shape Citizen Demands
Authors: Soss Joe , Keiser Lael R.
Published: January 2007

Who gets what from government is partly determined by who applies for government programs. Despite the importance of the claiming process, political scientists have said little about the factors that influence citizen demands on government programs. We explore the hypothesis that state environments systematically shape aggregate rates of welfare demand making by testing a model of welfare claiming in the Social Security Disability Insurance and the Supplemental Security Income programs. Our findings show that in addition to economic need for benefits, the density of civil society organizations, the political ideology of state officials, and the generosity of state-run public assistance programs shape the amount and direction of citizen demands on the welfare system. Although commonalities exist in which variables explain welfare claiming, relationships vary in interesting ways across programs and stages of the claiming process, highlighting the need for a theoretical model of claiming behavior that takes into account such differences.
The Dynamic Consequences of Nonvoting in American National Elections
Authors: Ellis Christopher R. , Ura Joseph Daniel , Ashley-Robinson Jenna
Published: January 2007

A growing body of work examines the consequences of unequal participation in American democracy for electoral outcomes. However, this scholarship has ignored the potential impact of unequal voting for the quality of dynamic representation in the American political system. Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), we examine the dynamic relationship between the policy preferences of voters and nonvoters in the American electorate. Further, we assess how unequal participation—and the incentives that it may give to policymaking elites—may moderate the relationship between the mass public and policy outcomes. Our analysis reveals that the policy preferences of voters and nonvoters respond in similar ways to the political and economic environment. In addition, we find no evidence that national policymaking elites are differentially responsive to changes in the preferences of voters and nonvoters.
National Missile Defense and Deterrence
Authors: Quackenbush Stephen L.
Published: January 2007

The current stance of the Bush administration has renewed debate on the implications of national missile defense. While a large part of that debate concerns its technical and economic feasibility, there is also considerable debate concerning the ramifications of national missile defense for international peace and stability. Unfortunately, few studies have analyzed the implications of missile defense through the lens of deterrence theory. Those that have were based on classical deterrence theory, which is plagued by a variety of logical inconsistencies and empirical anomalies. Accordingly, I examine the implications of national missile defense for deterrence from the vantage point of an alternative theory of deterrence, perfect deterrence theory. The results indicate that national missile defense generally enhances the stability of deterrence; the greatest threat missile defense poses is causing dissatisfaction in potential challengers.
Analysis and History; or, How the Invisible Hand Works Through Robert Nozick
Authors: Rodman John
Published: January 2007

Analysis may not get you anywhere, but it shows you more clearly where you are.1
Liberalism, Populism, and Collective Choice
Authors: Radcliff Benjamin
Published: January 2007

This paper examines how the problem of cyclical majorities affects the logical structure of the liberal model of democracy. I argue that Riker's (1982) defense of liberalism is unsatisfying in that it ultimately depends upon the hope that cycles are not common events. As an alternative solution, I propose that the assumptions of a properly construed liberal model imply conditions that prohibit the occurrence of the voter's paradox. I conclude that liberalism continues to survive despite the fact that its internal structure depends upon the transitivity of collective preferences, and that this fact in turn provides a theoretical foundation for pursuing more robust or "populistic" conceptions of democracy.
Courts and Crisis Regimes: A Theory Sketch with Asian Case Studies
Authors: Tate C. Neal
Published: January 2007

A set of concepts for the comparison of the institutional roles of judiciaries is used to sketch a preliminary theory of the interactions of courts and crisis regimes. Case studies of the Philippines, India, and Pakistan supreme courts in the 1970s explore how their crisis regimes responded to the independence, impartiality, scope, and depths of their supreme courts' decision making and how those courts were or were not able to maintain their performance of other functions and their institutional positions relative to the crisis rulers. The case studies suggest that the most usual relations between courts and crisis regimes involve efforts to restrict the scope and depth, in preference to the independence and impartiality of the courts' decision making. In addition, the judiciary backs down when faced with opportunities to assert its authority by challenging the legitimacy of the crisis regime and exerting its regime limiter/citizen rights protector function.
The Consequences of Gender Stereotypes for Women Candidates at Different Levels and Types of Office
Authors: Huddy Leonie , Terkildsen Nayda
Published: January 2007

Despite the recent electoral success of female candiates in local, state, and national elections, we find that voters' gender stereotypes have potentially negative implications for women candidates, especially when running for national office. We test the political impact of stereotypes by examining the relative importance of typical "male" and "female" personality traits and areas of issue competence for "good" politicians and a hypothetical candidate at different types and levels of office. Overall, we find a preference for "male" characteristics at higher levels of office. We attempt to reconcile the existence of gender stereotypes, which portray women candidates as insufficiently aggressive or less competent in their dealings with the military with the recent electoral success of women in national and statewide elections.
Postmaterialism and the Emerging Soviet Democracy
Authors: Gibson James L. , Duch Raymond M.
Published: January 2007

This paper evaluates whether postmaterialist theory helps explain the democratization movement in the Soviet Union. The findings are based on two public opinion samples conducted in the USSR: one conducted in the Moscow Oblast in February/March, 1990, and the other in the European USSR (May, 1990). Our approach to the measurement of postmaterialism follows closely the work of Ron Inglehart. We find that postmaterialist value orientations seem to play an important role in Soviet mass politics. Postmaterialists, though small in number, are unusually supportive of basic democratic institutions and processes, and are more likely to engage in unconventional, regime challenging political behavior. There is some evidence in our data that postmaterialism is concentrated among younger Soviets, although the relationships are not strong. In general, we think it fair to conclude that postmaterialist value orientations are affecting Soviet politics in much the same way they have affected Western politics.
Presidential Election Laws and Multipartism in Latin America
Authors: Jones Mark P.
Published: January 2007

This article examines the interaction between the rules governing presidential elections and multipartism in Latin America. Data from 16 Latin American systems are examined through the use of a multivariate model to gain an understanding of the independent impact of presidential electoral formula (plurality vs. majority), the timing of presidential and legislative elections (concurrent vs. nonconcurrent) and legislative district magnitude on legislative multipartism, and by extension, on the number of relevant political parties operating in the nation. The findings demonstrate the strong and significant impact which formula and timing have on multipartism. They also point to the importance of examining the interaction between elections for different constituent institutions. Finally, they underscore the applicability of Duverger's law to presidential elections.
Associational Freedom, Equality, and Rights Against the State
Authors: Sinopoli Richard C.
Published: January 2007

Freedom of association has long been recognized as a fundamental freedom protected by the liberal state yet it has not received nearly the theoretical attention of other such freedoms as worship or speech. This essay explores a tension between two deeply held convictions of liberal theorists and citizens. First is that like-minded citizens should be free to assemble in order to pursue their conceptions of the good so long as they do not harm others. Second is that the state must treat all citizens with equal respect and that doing so requires government to forbid "publicly supported" associations from imposing membership restrictions (favored by members) that deny some citizens equal opportunity or protection under law. I suggest that a significant contemporary strain in liberal theory, represented by Rawls and Dworkin, gives too much weight to the egalitarian concern and too little to the good associating does for members. By discussing concrete cases, I develop what I call a liberal perfectionist defense of associational rights which redresses this imbalance while still giving considerable weight to the duty of the state to treat its citizens as equals.
Electoral Representation, Zoning Politics, and the Exclusion of Group Homes
Authors: Clingermayer James C.
Published: January 2007

This paper examines how ward representation affects zoning policies with respect to group homes that house or care for the mentally retarded, juvenile offenders, recovering alcoholics and/or drug users. The analysis is motivated by an interest representation model that contends that constituency homogeneity should cause elected officials to be attentive to revealed preferences of their constituents. As predicted, ward representation, which enhances constituency homogeneity, is strongly associated with the exclu sion of group homes in municipal zoning ordinances. The median household income of a city, relative to that of its metropolitan area, also has some ex clusionary effect. Other demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of communities, which have been the primary focus of prior research on the siting of group homes, have no statistically significant effect in this analysis.
The Success of Amici in State Supreme Courts
Authors: Songer Donald R. , Kuersten Ashlyn
Published: January 2007

During the past decade, interest group participation in state supreme courts has continued to increase, reflecting the increasing importance of these courts as policymakers in the federal system. Groups participate both as sponsors of litigation and as amici curiae, but little is known about either role. The present analysis explores the success of amici curiae in state supreme court decisions on the merits. Three methods of assessing the relationship between amici support and litigant success are employed: their simple won/loss ratios, their success in "matched pairs," and the relationship between amicus sup port and the success of litigants in state courts in a multivariate logit model. All three methods suggest that support from amici is significantly related to the likelihood of success of the supported litigants, regardless of whether amici support the appellant or the respondent.
Retrospective Voting in Gubernatorial Elections: 1982 and 1986
Authors: Svoboda Craig J.
Published: January 2007

Aggregate-level studies of gubernatorial elections suggest that the state's economy is not a significant determinant of gubernatorial vote choice These findings run counter to expectations of retrospective voting behavior Gover nors today serve longer terms, have greater institutional powers, and are more publicly visible-all of which suggest that governors should be held accountable by the voters. The expectation is that individual-level studies, which measure voters' perceptions of the state's economy, will show a strong relationship between the state's economy and gubernatorial vote choice. Analysis of the 1982 and 1986 CBS/NY Times Exit Polls demonstrates that voters' evaluations of the state's economy have a significant impact on vote choice.
Gender Differences in Constituency Service Among State Legislators
Authors: Richardson Lilliard E. , Freeman Patricia K.
Published: January 2007

Do female state legislators differ from men in constituency service? Using a four-state survey of state legislators, we find that women receive more casework requests, are twice as likely to believe that they perform more casework than their state colleagues, and are three times more likely to agree that they would perform more casework if additional staff were available, even after controlling for a variety of other explanations. These findings support the sex role socialization literature that argues that interpersonal relations figure more predominantly in the motives of female officeholders than for men.
Partisan Divisions and Voting Decisions: U.S. Senators, Governors, and the Rise of a Divided Federal Government
Authors: Soss Joe , Canon David T
Published: January 2007

This paper argues that existing research on divided government has ig nored the intergovernmental dimensions and implications of this phe nomenon. We address the intergovernmental case by exploring the historical rise and micro-level foundations of divided outcomes among same-state U.S. senator and governor pairs. The electoral results for senator-governor pairs lie at the intersection of state and national-level divided government, and are subject to the same historical and electoral forces that have shaped these other divided outcomes. We trace the histor ical rise of split outcomes in these contests, outline the theoretical and policy implications of these results, and offer an analysis of individual- level voting behavior intended to compare two competing explanations for divided outcomes: the "simple party loyalty model" and our own "com parative informational relevance model."
Politics and the Quality of Education: Improving Student Performance
Authors: Smith Kevin B. , Meier Kenneth J.
Published: January 2007

Social science has provided poor guidance for educational policymakers interested in improving student performance. While education research is a large and active field of scholarship, much of the literature has concen trated on influences beyond the control of policymakers. This paper ex plores the influences of realistic policy options. Several policies are identified that meet the criteria of a positive relationship with student per formance and controllability by policymakers.
Directing Electoral Appeals Away From the Center: Issue Position and Issue Salience
Authors: Bernstein Robert A.
Published: January 2007

This study analyzes issues used repeatedly by the ANES in studying presidential races, 1972-88. Three conclusions stand out in the findings: (1) on issues offering concentrated benefits and diffuse or deferred costs, there is a correlation between issue position and issue salience; (2) those issues tend to be most salient to strong proponents, and of almost no salience to strong opponents; (3) consequently, the optimal candidate lo cation on such issues is not at the mean preference of the electorate, but between that preference and the preference of the strong proponents of each issue.
Explaining Changes in Tax Incidence in the States
Authors: Berch Neil
Published: January 2007

This study examines state and local tax incidence over time in the fifty states. The use of new data (McIntyre et al. 1991) allowed me to test a num ber of explanations for variation in incidence change from 1985 to 1991. I found that while 1991 incidence was largely a function of 1985 incidence, other variables were also important. Economic growth, the lack of structur al impediments to raising income tax rates, and, to a lesser extent, the presence of Democratic governors all appeared to be associated with great er progressivity over time. The strength of labor, relative to business, also appeared to be an influence for greater progressivity.
Do People Vote on the Basis of Minimax Regret?
Authors: Blais André , Young Robert , Fleury Christopher , Lapp Miriam
Published: January 2007

Rational choice theory has yet to provide a satisfactory explanation of voter turnout. One such account, minimax regret, is analyzed using data from a survey involving students at two Canadian universities during the 1993 Canadian federal election campaign. While the minimax regret hypothesis is supported at the bivariate level, it fails to pass a multivariate test in which other components of the calculus of voting are included. Minimax regret appears to be little more than a rationalization on the part of those having a strong sense of duty to vote.
Membership Change and Voting Change: An Analysis of the Rehnquist Court's 1986-1991 Terms
Authors: Hensley Thomas R. , Smith Christopher E.
Published: January 2007

This study examines the collective voting behavior of the United States Supreme Court in civil rights and liberties decisions for the 1986-87 through the 1991-92 terms to determine if the Court has become signifi cantly more conservative and, if changes have occurred, to determine the reasons for these changes. Despite the efforts of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush to pack the Court with judicial conservatives, the Re hnquist Court during this period was more liberal in its voting behavior than the Burger Court was in its last decade. Membership change, changes in the voting behavior of continuing members of the Court, and issue change all appear to have influenced the collective voting of the Rehnquist Court, with the result that the Court has not been as conservative as liber als had feared and conservatives had anticipated.
The End of the Democratic Era? 1994 and the Future of Congressional Election Research
Authors: Abramowitz Alan I.
Published: January 2007

Using data from the 1994 and earlier National Election Studies, this essay examines the causes and consequences of the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives and its implications for research on congression al elections. The dramatic Republican gains in the 1994 midterm election appear to reflect long-term shifts in the partisan and ideological loyalties of the U.S. electorate and not just short-term issues that favored the GOP Between 1990 and 1994, the American electorate became increasingly Republican and increasingly conservative while the Democratic party was perceived as increasingly liberal. Democrats will probably find it difficult to regain most of the seats that the party lost in 1994 because Republican identifiers outnumber Democratic identifiers by a wide margin in these districts. The era of Democratic domination may be giving way to a new era of intense competition for control of the House of Representatives. In light of these developments, more research is needed on the extent and consequences of partisan and ideological realignment in the U.S. electorate, variability among congressional contests, and the effects of congressional campaigns on voter decision making.
Opinion-Holding and Public Attitudes Toward Controversial Supreme Court Nominees
Authors: Gimpel James G. , Wolpert Robin M.
Published: January 2007

This article explores the basis of opinion formation and public attitudes toward recent Supreme Court nominees. The high salience of several re cent Court nominations has transformed the selection process from an elite affair to one with a popular dimension. We develop a model of opinion-holding in response to the Rehnquist, Bork, Souter, and Thomas nominations. We find that education and having an opinion about the president are strongly associated with opinion-holding about the nomi nees. We also find that presidential approval, party identification and ideology are all highly related to approval of the nominees. The influence of age, race, and gender on opinion-holding and evaluation tends to vary with the nomination. Of particular interest is the strong link we find be tween presidential evaluation and nominee evaluation. Presidents serve as important cues for those who have opinions about Court nominees.
Senate Committees and Turf: Do Jurisdictions Matter?
Authors: Shipan Charles R.
Published: January 2007

Committee membership is valuable to members of Congress for many reasons, not the least of which is the ability to exercise disproportionate influence over policies falling within the committee's jurisdiction. Yet at times these jurisdictions are violated. Given that a member values distinct committee jurisdictions, will he or she be more likely to oppose a bill brought to a vote by a violation of jurisdictional norms? In this article, I un dertake an investigation of the politics surrounding the Senate's extension of Daylight-Saving Time in order to shed light on this question. The empirical analysis shows that while members of the committee that lost jurisdiction are affected by the jurisdictional violation, other members are not.
Politics, Citizens, and the Good Life: Assessing Two Versions of Ethical Liberalism
Authors: Lund William R.
Published: January 2007

According to a number of recent critics, various efforts to justify liberalism in a neutral or merely "political" fashion have failed badly In response, William Galston and Ronald Dworkin, as well as other theorists, have tried to articulate a foundational conception of the good from which liberal poli tics can be derived. In analyzing their competing conceptions of ethical liberalism, I assume that any reasonable liberalism must be consistent with individual agency and the idea that genuine goodness is a product of inner persuasion and belief. Galston's "purposive liberalism" rests on a teleologi cal structure that compromises his expressed concern for those value con siderations and opens the door to public coercion and manipulation as a way of maximizing his liberal good. Since Dworkin's approach manages to avoid such problems, I argue that his "challenge model" of the good life provides a superior ethical foundation for liberalism.
Privacy and Sexuality in a Society Divided Over Moral Culture
Authors: Struening Karen
Published: January 2007

In this article, I develop an individuality-based conception of the right to privacy that can be used to protect the freedoms of sexual choice and inti mate association. In doing so, I draw on John Stuart Mill's concept of indi viduality and his celebration of lifestyle experimentation. This formulation of the right to privacy is defended against a critic, Jed Rubenfeld, who uses Michel Foucault's critique of the repressive hypothesis to argue that an individuality-based conception of the right to privacy will inevitably im pose standardized sexual identities on individuals. In response to Rubenfeld, I argue that the position that sexuality is central to self-definition does not depend on the assumption that speaking the truth about sex will set us free. The aim of the individuality-based conception of the right to privacy that I am advocating is not to fix identities, but to open up greater room for lifestyle experimentation.
When Waves Collide: Cycles of Protest and the Swiss and American Women's Movements
Authors: Banaszak Lee Ann
Published: January 2007

This article makes two related arguments. First, a rising cycle of protest may influence existing movements by altering their tactics, providing new allies, and altering others' perceptions of the movements. I illustrate these effects with examples drawn from the Swiss women's movement. The Swiss women's movement is unique because the first wave was still pursuing the enfranchisement of women when the second wave mobilized in the 1960s. Second, I argue that a cycle of protest perspective provides new insights into the events surrounding the decline of the American first-wave move ment. The study compares Swiss and American first-wave struggles to achieve an Equal Rights Amendment and increase women's representation in elected office. While the Swiss first wave was aided in these endeavors by the rise of the second wave, the U.S. women's movement after 1920 faced additional problems arising from its ties to the Progressive move ment. These ties exacerbated splits within the movement and engendered a backlash against the women's movement by interests threatened by Pro gressive legislation.
Regulatory Policy When Behavior is Addictive: Smoking, Cigarette Taxes and Bootlegging
Authors: Licari Michael J. , Meier Kenneth J.
Published: January 2007

Regulatory policy generally offers three policy instruments-command and control regulation, incentives, and information-yet efforts to test the comparative effectiveness of these instruments have been lacking. Using a simple theory derived from the economics of supply and demand, this study presents a hypothesis that information policies will interact with incentives and lessen their impact. If incentives policies are not uniform across the nation, they can also create compliance problems. These hy potheses are tested with pooled data set on cigarette regulation. While both information policies and incentives are effective at reducing cigarette consumption, they interact so that the total impact is less than the sum of the individual effects. State tax rates also interact with each other creating the incentive to avoid compliance by bootlegging cigarettes.
Loss Aversion and the Domestic Context of Military Intervention
Authors: Nincic Miroslav
Published: January 2007

This article examines the impact of loss-aversion, as defined by prospect theory, upon the responses of the American public and Congress to U.S. military intervention abroad. In particular, it asks whether the manner in which the rationale for the intervention is framed (whether as intended to avert a loss or secure a gain) will influence the amount of support mus tered for the intervention. Justifications offered for the active use of U.S. force abroad are content-analyzed to determine whether the main justifica tion stresses avoiding a loss to an acquired geopolitical position (a "protec tive" intervention) or securing a net foreign policy gain (a "promotive" intervention). The extent of shifts in presidential popularity occasioned by the intervention are compared, controlling for the rationale offered and the effort made by the president (in the form of relevant speech-making) to justify the intervention. Regression analysis indicates that, with these con trolling influences, a protective intervention is expected to elicit a six per centage point approval differential over a promotive intervention. The article also examines the difference that the two sorts of justification make with regard to the likelihood that Congress would pass a resolution supporting the intervention. Although the evidence is more ambiguous here, it indi cates that a protectively framed intervention comes to being a necessary condition for a supportive resolution, though it is not a sufficient condition.
Gender, Credibility, and Politics: The Senate Nomination Hearings of Cabinet Secretaries-Designate, 1975 to 1993
Authors: Borrelli Maryanne
Published: January 2007

This article demonstrates that men Senators use the confirmation hear ings of Cabinet Secretaries-designate to investigate nominees' understand ing of the political norms governing legislative - presidential - departmental relations. The status of the Secretary-designate as a Washington insider or outsider therefore affects the confirmation hearing, outsiders being pre sumed to lack the requisite socialization and consequently being viewed as less credible. In particular, women Secretaries-designate are more often treated as outsiders (their political experience notwithstanding) and thus encounter distinctive challenges in establishing their credibility before the confirmation (later, authorization) committees. The credentialling of Sec retaries-designate through the confirmation process gives men Senators extraordinary control over institutional developments within the national executive branch: Legislators can delegitimize a nominee's distinctive in sights, thereby structuring the political agenda at its most preliminary stage and ensuring that change will be strictly incremental.
A Comparative Anatomy of Urban Social Conflict
Authors: Sharp Elaine B.
Published: January 2007

This study explores local government's roles in "culture wars"—i.e., morals-based controversies such as those involving abortion clinic protest, anti-pornography crusades, debates over the extension of civil rights pro tections to gays, and regulation of hate group activities. Three particular roles are highlighted for analysis: hyperactive responsiveness, entrepreneur ial instigation, and repression. Both deductive and inductive approaches are used to develop a viable set of hypotheses linking the appearance of those roles to variation in local governing institutions. The rational choice approach to the new institutionalism provides an analytical framework which, when coupled with insights from the study of social movements and local political entrepreneurs, allows for the derivation of hypotheses. Comparative analysis of cases of culture war controversy are used as plau sibility probes to ground and further refine the hypotheses.
Explaining Federal Bureaucratic Compliance with Supreme Court Opinions
Authors: Spriggs James F.
Published: January 2007

Past research on bureaucratic compliance with Supreme Court opin ions offers few comprehensive theoretical frameworks and even fewer rigorous empirical tests. I argue that bureaucracies comply based on the costs or benefits of alternative ways of responding to the Court. Agencies develop these expectations from the environments within which they implement opinions, which I conceptualize as attributes of Court opin ions, agency characteristics, and external actors. I show that federal bu reaucracies generally comply with the Court, though they sometimes respond to the Court in self-interested ways. Using a probit model of agency implementation of Court opinions from the 1953 through 1990 terms, I also demonstrate that several factors explain whether agencies comply, including the nature of the Court's opinions, the characteristics of the responding agency, and support by societal interests. I further il lustrate that the absence of defiance or evasion most likely results from the interdependencies between federal agencies and the Court. The im plication is that legal rules are important, setting up referents for behav ior, and their ability to encourage compliance stems in part from their actual content.
New Tests of the Democratic Peace: Controlling for Economic Interdependence, 1950-85
Authors: Oneal John R. , Ray James Lee
Published: January 2007

Maoz and Russett (1993) reported that democratic states after World War II were unlikely to engage in militarized disputes with one another, but their continuous measure of joint democracy is problematic. It can decrease if one of a pair of states becomes more democratic, even if the political regime of the other does not change. Thus, results using this index are difficult to interpret. In this study we estimate the likelihood of dyadic conflict using more straightforward indices of joint democracy As in Oneal, Oneal, Maoz, and Russett (1996), we control for economic in terdependence and several other theoretically interesting, potentially con founding influences. Our analyses indicate that the more democratic a pair of states, the less likely they are to become involved in a militarized dispute; but a high level of democracy in one state can not compensate for less democracy in a strategic partner. The political distance separating states along the democracy-autocracy continuum is an important indica tor of the likelihood of dyadic conflict: democracies are unlikely to fight other democracies, but democracies and autocracies are conflict-prone. These results indicate that, ceteris paribus, democratic states are more peaceful than autocracies at the national level of analysis.
Challenger Quality in State Legislative Elections
Authors: Van Dunk Emily
Published: January 2007

Legislative incumbents at both the congressional level and the state legislative level have an advantage in electoral races (Jewell and Breaux 1988, 1991; Garand 1991; King and Gelman 1991). By using the per quisites of office many scholars believe that incumbents have brought about their own reelection success. However, many scholars argue that the quality of a challenger is one of the most important variables that affects the likelihood of incumbent success (Jacobson 1987, 1989, 1990). To this point, the research on challenger quality has been conducted almost exclusively at the congressional level. This article examines chal lenger quality and success at the state level by examining races for the state legislature across 10 states from 1988-1992. Using previous elected experience as a measure of challenger quality, I find that quality chal lengers are willing to challenge state legislative incumbents and are strategic in deciding when to challenge. Furthermore, this article demon strates that when quality challengers run they are more likely to be successful.
Deficits, Democrats, and Distributive Benefits: Congressional Elections and the Pork Barrel in the 1980s
Authors: Alvarez R. Michael , Saving Jason L.
Published: January 2007

In this study, we examine the extent to which legislators receive elec toral benefits from altering the geographic distribution of federal outlays. Although there are both theoretical and anecdotal reasons to believe in the existence of such benefits, previous empirical work has largely failed to verify the connection between pork barreling and reelection. We ex amine House incumbents during the 1980s, when budget deficits were allegedly forcing legislators to end the acquisition of distributive benefits, and we discover that legislators did in fact reap electoral benefits from pork barreling in the 1980s. We further discover that there is a sharp partisan difference in the marginal effects of federal outlays: additional federal monies strongly affect Democratic reelection margins but barely impact the electoral fortunes of Republicans. This conclusion has impor tant implications for current debates about Congress, divided govern ment, and the recent Republican takeover of Congress.
Economics, Racism, and Attitudes toward Immigration in the New Germany
Authors: Clark John A. , Legge Jerome S.
Published: January 2007

A number of different theories have been advanced to explain support for policies which may benefit minority groups. This paper utilizes eco nomic-self interest, traditional racism, and conservative values to explore attitudes of German citizens toward granting political asylum and resi dency to immigrants. The linear structural relations (LISREL) analysis on a 1991 sample of German citizens suggests that the structure of attitudes is different depending upon which section of Germany (the West or the former German Democratic Republic [GDR]) is considered. East Germans tend to "fuse" traditional racism with conservative values to express a racism argued by "symbolic" theorists while the West Germans tend to separate the concepts, possibly because of the more mature democratic development of West German parties and institutions. In explaining im migration policy, traditional racism tends to dominate the West German model, while economic self-interest partially explains policy attitudes in the former GDR. Still, even in the East, ethnocentrism is a very strong factor in understanding support for restrictive immigration policies. We discuss the implications of the analysis in terms of the literature on Ameri can racism and policy reasoning.
Foucaultian Masks and Contested Interpretations
Authors: Pickett Brent
Published: January 2007

Perhaps the central difficulty in the thought of Michel Foucault con cerns the shifts, breaks and changing stances across his various works. Two broad ways of interpreting Foucault are laid out. On the first view, Foucault is a liberal democrat whose thought is largely compatible with much of the modem project. On the second, Foucault is fully Nietzschean, opposing modernity in the name of an indeterminate and rhetorically affirmed "other," and arguing that all truth is deeply implicated in power. Many criticisms of this postmodern Foucault have already been made, but most of Foucault's defenders find them to beg the question. In order to avoid this stalemate, I examine how an engaged postmodern Foucaultian would deliberate about her moral and practical stance. I argue that this postmodern Foucaultian cannot consciously maintain her position while actually engaged, and for reasons that help to clarify which aspects of Foucault's thought need to be abandoned and which are useful.
Gender Differences on Crime and Punishment
Authors: Hurwitz Jon , Smithey Shannon
Published: January 2007

Despite extensive documentation of the gender gap across a range of po litical issues, little is known about gender differences toward issues of crime and punishment. In this study, we systematically examine how, and why, women and men approach the issue of crime. We find that women are more afraid of crime and more supportive of prevention ef forts than men, though fear of crime and women's policy attitudes are not related in a causal sense. These findings are consistent with differences in women's and men's socialization experiences. They have important im plications for both feminist theory and the ability of the political par ties to use the crime issue to their advantage.
Campaign Contributions in Local Elections
Authors: Fleischmann Arnold , Stein Lana
Published: January 2007

This study helps fill a gap in both the urban politics and campaign finance literatures by examining donation patterns for municipal elec tions in Atlanta and St. Louis. These local campaigns raised substantial amounts of money, much of it from suburban and out-of-state contribu tors. Businesses were the main contributors, but development interests were not the dominant force portrayed in the urban political economy literature. Like state and federal elections, contributors seemed to pursue an "investment" strategy by targeting incumbents and citywide offices. Multivariate analyses revealed no simple relationship, however, between candidate characteristics and the amount of campaign contributions or between the amount of money a candidate raised and outcomes in city council elections.
Issue Fluidity and Agenda Setting on the Warren Court
Authors: Palmer Barbara
Published: January 2007

While justices have considerable discretion in the picking and choosing between cases in the creation of their agenda, how much discretion do they exercise in the picking and choosing between the issues that were presented by the parties, or even in developing new issues? Given the Warren Court's reputation for articulating broad rules that went beyond the particular circumstances of an individual case, especially in the area of civil rights and liberties, we would expect that this issue fluidity, particulary the expansion of issues, occurred with some frequency during this era. With an analysis of a random sample of 200 cases from the Warren Court, I found that the justices developed new issues in about one-fourth of all cases, while they suppressed issues that had been fully briefed and argued in over half of all cases. In addition, surprisingly, the Warren Court tended to suppress issues in civil rights and civil liberties cases, rather than expand them.