bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Culture, Institutions, and Urban Officials' Responses to Morality Issues
Authors: Sharp Elaine B.
Published: January 2007

This article focuses on city officials' actions when morality issues (gay rights, pornography regulations, etc.) are at stake. Cases drawn from a systematic sample of cities reveal a continuum of local officials' actions ranging from actions unfavorable to activists to evasion of the issue to actions favorable to activists. In order to account for this variation, hypotheses are developed that identify institutional arrangements, ideol- ogy of issue activists, and the community's cultural context as key explanatory concepts. Empirical tests show that (a) officials in cities with more developed counter-cultural elements handle morality issues differ- ently than officials in cities where orthodox/traditional sub-cultural ele- ments dominate, (b) narrower measures of community demand/prefer- ences specific to particular kinds of incidents are less useful in predicting governmental action on these issues, (c) institutions (ward versus at-large council elections; mayor versus city manager executive) are important in mediating the expectations or pressures stemming from the local sub-cul- ture, and (d) official actions vary considerably depending upon the ideo- logical stance and degree of controversiality of issue activists, but this too is contingent on the mediating effects of institutional arrangements.
Regional Court Influence Over Bureaucratic Policymaking: Courts, Ideological Preferences, and the Internal Revenue Service
Authors: Howard Robert M. , Nixon David C.
Published: January 2007

While there have been numerous studies demonstrating bureaucratic control of administrative and regulatory agencies, many argue that the Internal Revenue Service is an agency out of control, and one not subject to political constraints. However, some recent studies have shown that the IRS is subject to some political control in shifting policy between the often competing concerns of efficiency and fairness. We extend these studies to examine judicial control of the IRS. Examining cross sectional time series data from 1960 until 1988, we use regression with panel corrected standard errors to show that, while efficiency is always very important, the IRS shifts audits between the wealthy and the less affluent in response to the prevailing median ideology of the relevant federal court of appeals. As the median appeals court judge becomes more liberal, the IRS shifts its audits in that region in favor of equity by reducing the audits on the poor and increasing the audits of the more affluent. As the median appeals court judge becomes more conservative, the IRS shifts the audits in that region in favor of greater efficiency by increasing the audits of those in the lower economic strata. Courts provide an additional measure of control of bureaucratic behavior.
The Determinants of Privatization in Latin America
Authors: Biglaiser Glen , Brown David S.
Published: January 2007

Previous work on political institutions and economic reform provide a number of testable hypotheses that have yet to be fully examined in a multivariate framework. The strength of the presidency, divided government, political polarization, fragmented legislatures, ideology, and democracy itself have all been forwarded as possible constraints that influence the depth and speed of economic reform. Using time-series cross-sectional data, we provide a multivariate test of the impact these institutions have on privatization. Our findings suggest privatization is a unique process that should be analyzed separately from other economic reforms. More importantly, the results provide reasons to be optimistic: privatization can occur under a variety of different political institutions.
Voter Participation and Party-Group Fortunes in European Parliament Elections, 1979-1999: A Cross-National Analysis
Authors: Pacek Alexander C. , Radcliff Benjamin
Published: January 2007

Scholars have addressed the relationship between voter participation and party electoral fortunes for some time. Specifically, a number of studies postulate that left-of-center parties are the primary beneficiaries of higher rates of voter turnout. This research note extends this argument to a classic “low turnout” environment: the elections to the European Parliament. Using data from 11 members of the European Union between 1979 and 1999, we test the turnout-party vote linkage through pooled cross-national time series analysis. We find that, indeed, increased turnout benefits the left party groups in the European Parliament. We conclude with some implications for this finding.
Political Ambition and Women in the U.S. House of Representatives, 1916-2000
Authors: Palmer Barbara , Simon Dennis
Published: January 2007

This analysis demonstrates how political ambition theory can be applied to women who have served in the U.S. House of Representatives: under what conditions do political women manifest discrete, static, and progressive ambition? Our database includes all women elected to the House between 1916 and 2000. In differentiating between discrete and static ambition, we find that among congressional widows, there are measurable differences between those who seek reelection and those that step down, with independent political experience and working partnerships in their husband’s political careers being especially important. In addition, we show that women in the House are strategic when deciding whether to run for the Senate. Progressive ambition—the decision to run for higher office—flows from a calculus that incorporates the probability of winning, the value of the office, and the costs of running. As such, it appears that the women of the House respond to the same strategic forces as their male counterparts.
Cracks in the Rainbow: Group Commonality as a Basis for Latino and African-American Political Coalitions
Authors: Kaufmann Karen M.
Published: January 2007

The focus of this article is on mass attitudes and the propensity of blacks and Latinos to build electoral coalitions. The theoretical argument is that perceived commonality between Latinos and African-Americans is essential to constructing mass political alliances. Using recent public opinion data, this research explores the levels of perceived commonality between blacks and Latinos and in particular studies the process by which Latinos come to feel close to African-Americans. This article tests four main hypotheses: pan-Latino affinity, acculturation, perceived discrimination, and racial identity. Findings suggest that pan-Latino affinity is a robust predictor of Latino/black commonality, but that long-term Latino political acculturation, in its current form, is unlikely to result in particularly high levels of closeness to blacks. The conclusion of the article points to the important role that Latino leadership and political organizations play in promoting strong pan-ethnic identities and suggests that the prospects for future coalitions between African-Americans and Latinos rest, in part, on the development of these more inclusive Latino orientations.
The Effects of Political Representation on the Electoral Advantages of House Incumbents
Authors: Box-Steffensmeier Janet M. , Kimball David C. , Meinke Scott R. , Tate Katherine
Published: January 2007

We examine factors that influence whether or not constituents know and like their representative in Congress, exploring how constituents respond to very different forms of political representation—descriptive, symbolic, and allocational—provided by House members. We compare the relative contribution that non-policy representational factors make to the electoral advantage that incumbents enjoy among their constituents. The statistical analysis demonstrates that several non-policy aspects of the representational relationship, including descriptive correspondence and the member’s legislative activity, benefit the incumbent through increased name recognition and, ultimately, in voters’ choices at the voting booth.
Collaborative Institutions, Belief-Systems, and Perceived Policy Effectiveness
Authors: Lubell Mark
Published: January 2007

In this article I combine two existing policy theories, institutional rational choice and the Advocacy Coalition Framework, to explain actor perceptions of the effectiveness of public policies targeting common-pool resource dilemmas in coastal watersheds. Survey data from estuaries with and without the USEPA’s National Estuary Program provides evidence for two main hypotheses. First, perceived policy effectiveness is a function of “collective-action beliefs”: beliefs about situational variables that determine the benefits and transaction costs of collective action within the estuary action arena. Second, the effects of policy-core beliefs and institutional structure on perceived policy effectiveness are interdependent. In particular, governance institutions have a favorable effect on perceived policy effectiveness among political actors whose policy-core beliefs are congruent with the structure of the institution.
Causes and Consequences of Public Attitudes Toward Abortion: A Review and Research Agenda
Authors: Jelen Ted G. , Wilcox Clyde
Published: January 2007

This article provides a critical review of empirical research on attitudes toward abortion among mass publics in the United States, with a view toward suggesting promising avenues for future research. We identify three such themes: Accounting for pro-life movement among mass attitudes in recent years, when the composition of the U.S. population would seem to trend in a pro-choice direction; explaining the sources of party polarization of the abortion issue; and anticipating changes in abortion attitudes which might result from public debate over human cloning.
Evolution in State Governance Structures: Unintended Consequences of State Tax and Expenditure Limitations
Authors: Bowler Shaun , Donovan Todd
Published: January 2007

How did state governments respond to constraints imposed by tax and expenditure limitations? We argue that the states’ experiences with TELs help us understand an evolutionary dimension to political institutions and institutional change. We test if TEL states created new local governments in response to constraints TELs placed on state budgeting. Other studies show that states shifted their revenue and expenditure mixes in response to TELs. We demonstrate that they also shifted their jurisdictional mix of governance. We find that TEL states were more likely to create new local governments after the “tax revolt” of the 1980s. However, this effect depends on where TELs were introduced. They had greater effects on generating new governments in states where ballot initiatives were easier to use.
The Dynamics of Issue Ownership in Presidential Campaigns
Authors: Damore David F.
Published: January 2007

This effort examines the dynamics of the agenda-setting process in presidential campaigns by assessing the conditions that motivate candidates to discuss issues associated with their opponent’s party. The article’s argument contends that occurrences of issue trespassing are a function of the context in which a campaign is occurring and factors stemming from the campaign process. The hypotheses are tested against data collected from all available campaign advertisements produced by major party candidates competing in the 1976 through 1996 presidential elections. The results of the logit analysis indicate that candidates’ decisions to address issues owned by their opponent’s party are a function of their competitive standing, their partisanship, the importance of an issue to the electorate, and the tone of their campaign messages.
Divided or Together? Conflict and Cooperation between African Americans and Latinos
Authors: Meier Kenneth J. , McClain Paula D. , Polinard J. L. , Wrinkle Robert D.
Published: January 2007

This article examines the political relationships between Latinos and African Americans in 194 multiracial school districts. The empirical results indicate that at times the relationship between Latinos and African Americans is competitive and at times it is complimentary. When scarcity is a factor, such as in administrative and teaching positions, gains by one group often result in losses by another. When the focus changes to policy questions where scarcity is not a factor (e.g., student performance), both groups gain at the same time.
Internationalism in Congress
Authors: Meernik James , Oldmixon Elizabeth
Published: January 2007

This article explores the conditions under which Congress supports U.S. involvement in international affairs. While Presidents have tended to support internationalist foreign policies, Congress, pre-occupied with district and state-level concerns, has shown more reticence in this area. Probit analysis was used to study internationalist, presidential support votes taken in the House and Senate from 1948 to 1994. The results suggest that while a mix of foreign and domestic factors affects the level of congressional internationalism, domestic economic factors have the most consistent impact across chambers. When economic indicators are depressed, so too is congressional support for presidential internationalism.
Women, War, and Winning Elections: Gender Stereotyping in the Post-September 11th Era
Authors: Lawless Jennifer L.
Published: January 2007

Scores of political science studies reveal that female candidates fare as well as their male counterparts. But the percentage of citizens willing to support a woman presidential party nominee has significantly decreased over the last two years. Based on the results of a Knowledge Networks national random sample survey, this article offers the first empirical examination of the manner in which the atmosphere of war might affect women candidates’ electoral prospects. I find that citizens prefer men’s leadership traits and characteristics, deem men more competent at legislating around issues of national security and military crises, and contend that men are superior to women at addressing the new obstacles generated by the events of September 11, 2001. As a result of this gender stereotyping, levels of willingness to support a qualified woman presidential candidate are lower than they have been for decades. These findings carry broad implications for the study of women and politics. If women fare as well as men when the political climate is dominated by issues that play to women’s stereotypical strengths, but are disadvantaged when “men’s issues” dominate the political agenda, then we must reconsider the conclusion that winning elections has nothing to do with the sex of the candidate.
The Politics of Truth: Power in Nietzsche’s Epistemology
Authors: Glenn Paul F.
Published: January 2007

This article concerns first a curiosity found in Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Antichrist. In the midst of a heated attack on Christianity, Nietzsche detours into a discussion of epistemology. I argue that this turn indicates the importance of epistemology, and illustrates its political and moral character. The weak, who cannot tolerate uncertainty and shades of gray, seek to impose an epistemology of clarity and certainty. At the same time, the strong, who revel in ambiguity, seek to enjoy the richness and subtlety of a non-dichotomous view of the world. This is a political struggle because the weak cannot allow the strong’s epistemology to exist, let alone prevail. It is not surprising, then, that Nietzsche talks about epistemology in the midst of attacking Christianity: its view of truth is essential to its mission of taming the nobles. Here, I consider Nietzsche as a political thinker in a different light. Political battles are fought far beyond the halls of government. Nietzsche is a political thinker; one, however, who looks at politics in an uncommon way.
Who Evaluates a Presidential Candidate by Using Non-Policy Campaign Messages?
Authors: Abrajano Marisa A.
Published: January 2007

This article tests the hypothesis that low-education voters are more likely to evaluate a candidate using personalistic or non-policy campaign messages than are more educated voters. The Latino electorate in the U.S. presents an ideal case study, given that both Presidential candidates in the 2000 election directed personalistic campaign messages toward them. Latinos with low-levels of education should be the most likely to evaluate a candidate using personalistic campaign cues since processing and understanding these messages require little in stored political information. Analysis of self-reported responses from the Latino Voter Survey of 2000 indicates that low-education Latinos are more likely than are high-education Latinos to use non-policy cues when evaluating a candidate. This finding implies that vote choice is structured differently for Latinos with varying levels of education. To test this implication and to confirm the finding from the self-reported responses, I estimate a model of Latino vote choice for the 2000 Presidential election. Probit analysis shows that high-education Latinos are indeed more likely to use factors that are informationally demanding, such as candidates’ issue positions and ideology than are low-education Latinos.
Religion and Latino Partisanship in the United States
Authors: Kelly Nathan J. , Kelly Jana Morgan
Published: January 2007

This article examines the interplay among religion, ethnicity, and the partisanship of Latinos in the U.S. Using pooled data from the 1990-2000 National Election Studies, we assess denominational affiliation and religious commitment as explanations of partisanship. We show that there is more religious diversity among Latinos than is usually acknowledged in studies of Latino politics and that the political importance of religion among Latinos has not been adequately assessed because variation beyond a Catholic/non-Catholic dichotomy has been ignored. We demonstrate that variation in Latino religious affiliation has important political implications.
Bias in Newspaper Photograph Selection
Authors: Barrett Andrew W. , Barrington Lowell W.
Published: January 2007

Previous research has shown that visual images of political candidates can influence voter perceptions. This study examines newspaper photographs of candidates to determine whether the favorableness of these pictures is related to the “political atmosphere” of individual newspapers. In particular, we examine 435 candidate photographs from several races covered by seven newspapers during the 1998 and 2002 general election seasons. Based on our analysis, we conclude that candidates endorsed by a particular newspaper—or whose political leanings match the political atmosphere of a given paper—generally have more favorable photographs of them published than their opponents.
Jurisdiction, Institutional Structure, and Committee Representativeness
Authors: Battista James Coleman
Published: January 2007

I model the ideological representativeness of state legislative committees and their majority-party slates, testing hypotheses derived from extant models of committees and institutional choice. Committee representativeness and the representativeness of majority-party slates vary across states as a function of their effective number of parties and professionalization, but the jurisdiction of a committee has little discernible effect on representativeness of either. A possible mechanism is that competitive parties create committees that more closely adhere to the party ratio of the chamber, eliminating many possible outlying committees.
Contribution Limits and Disparity in Contributions between Gubernatorial Candidates
Authors: Eom Kihong , Gross Donald A.
Published: January 2007

Campaign contribution limits have been a common feature of campaign finance reform efforts in most states. Despite their apparent popularity, campaign contribution limits have been criticized in academic literature. In particular, it has been suggested that contribution limits are likely to increase the disparity in contributions among candidates in general and the disparity between incumbents and challengers in particular. In this article we subject this important criticism of campaign contribution limits to empirical testing. Analyses of both the number of contributors and the dollar amount of contributions to gubernatorial candidates suggest no sup-port for an increased bias in favor of incumbents resulting from the presence of contribution limits. If any-thing, contribution limits can work to reduce the bias that traditionally works in favor of incumbents. Also, contribution limits do not seem to increase contribution disparity between candidates in general. Results hold for different subsets of contributors: all contributors, particularistic contributors, and corporate contributors.
The Role of Group Consciousness in Latino Public Opinion
Authors: Sanchez Gabriel R.
Published: January 2007

The public opinion of the Latino community is an understudied area within the political science literature. This analysis contributes to this literature by investigating the role of group consciousness across both Latino salient and general policy areas utilizing the 1999 Washington Post/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation National Survey of Latinos. By including both issue areas that are salient to the Latino community (immigration, bilingual education) as well as those that are not directly tied to Latinos (abortion, death penalty), I test the primary hypothesis that group consciousness has a greater impact on Latino political attitudes across issues that are directly tied to ethnicity than on those that are not. Results from this analysis support the overall theory, as perceived discrimination motivates public opinion toward both immigration and bilingual education, and collective action toward immigration. Among other factors, nativity and the length of time lived in the U.S. have the greatest influence on Latino public opinion.
The Impact of Transnational Terrorism on U.S. Foreign Direct Investment
Authors: Enders Walter , Sachsida Adolfo , Sandler Todd
Published: January 2007

This article investigates the extent to which transnational terrorist attacks altered U.S. foreign direct investment (FDI). Time-series intervention analysis shows that 9/11 generally had little lasting influence on U.S. FDI flows. Only a few countries that experienced subsequent terrorist attacks displayed a post-9/11 drop in U.S. FDI flows, which, except for Turkey, was not long-lived. For a panel of countries, this study also examines the effect that terrorist attacks against U.S. interests had on the stock of U.S. FDI. Based on a methodology previously applied to the study of U.S. assets abroad, we find that such attacks had a significant, but small, impact on these stocks in OECD countries. Greece and Turkey displayed the largest declines—5.7 percent and 6.5 percent of their average U.S. FDI stocks, respectively. There was no such effect for non-OECD countries. Terrorist efforts to limit U.S. FDI have been cost-effective.
The Impact of Ethics Laws on Legislative Recruitment and the Occupational Composition of State Legislatures
Authors: Rosenson Beth A.
Published: January 2007

Over the past half-century, ethics laws have proliferated at the federal, state, and local levels, yet their effects are not well understood. Critics of ethics laws have charged that financial disclosure requirements and restrictions on outside income deter individuals from pursuing public service. However, empirical testing of this claim has been lacking. This study examines the impact of substantive ethics restrictions and disclosure laws on state legislative recruitment in the 1990s and on the changing occupational composition of state legislatures between 1976 and 1995. Ethics laws are found to have several effects on the decision to run and on the occupations represented. I suggest that these effects are not necessarily all negative.
Characterizing Consent: Race, Citizenship, and the New Restrictionists
Authors: Jacobson Robin
Published: January 2007

Birthright citizenship provides a key to more racially equalitarian policy. This article explores the use of consensual citizenship to challenge the tradition of birthright citizenship in the United States. Tracing the central narratives of race, immigration and citizenship in the immigration restrictionist movement in the 1990s shows the move away from birthright citizenship is racially exclusionary regardless of shifting conceptions of consensual citizenship. In the early and mid 1990s, a republican version of consensual citizenship is used in conjunction with a raced image of the problem immigrant. In the late 1990s, the same racialized image undergirds the use of a liberal conception of consent to argue for limiting birthright citizenship. Both periods of contemporary restrictionism show that the move to restrict birthright citizenship is not colorblind; race is used as a lens through which citizenship and consent are understood.
Rawls on Politics and Punishment
Authors: Honig B.
Published: January 2007

Rawls stabilizes and secures his liberal institutions with a stategy of reconciliation that progressively narrows and even closes the spaces of politics and contest. But the democratic politics and pluralism to which Rawls himself is committed thrive best in a setting that resists the closure that he postulates as their necessary condition. Rawls' theorization of punishment illustrates the point. In his effort to justify punishment and move it beyond the reach of contestation, Rawls is driven back to a discourse that his own theory of (distributive) justice disavows, the discourse of antecedent moral worth: Criminals are demonized as "bad characters" and misfits are viewed by Rawlsian citizens as outside agitators. These impulses touch every politics but they are aggravated, not alleviated, by Rawls' effort to contain contestation.
The Gender Factor in Soviet Mass Politics: Survey Evidence from Greater Moscow
Authors: Tedin Kent L. , Fiona Yap Oi-Kuan
Published: January 2007

Based on a representative sample of 504 respondents from the Moscow oblast of the Soviet Union, gender differences in both political and non- political variables (which may serve to explain the connection between gender and the political) were investigated. With controls for age, edu cation, income and membership in the Communist party, women were found to be more favorable to the Communist party, less in favor of radical change, less politically interested and efficacious, more likely to vote but less likely to be involved in unconventional participation. Several inter vening variables were examined as possible explanations for these gender differences, including feminist orientation, compassion, religiosity and fatigue.
Greek Tragedy and Civilization: The Cultivation of Pity
Authors: Alford C. Fred
Published: January 2007

Of all the strategies for civilization reviewed by Albert O. Hirschman in The Passions and the Interests, one is distinctly missing: that civilization might be rendered more decent and peaceful by cultivating the civilizing emotions based upon love and pity. The reason, it seems, is not the fear that these civilizing emotions are too weak to quell rage, greed, and violence, but too strong, too likely to cause problems of their own, which is why Kant writes of "pathological love." Turning to Greek tragedy, I argue that it provides a paideia in pity, an account of what it would take to educate and channel the civilizing emotions, so that they might foster civilization. Here is an alternate account of what it might take to tame civilization and its discontents, an account neglected in modem political theory.
Testing Competing Explanations for Policy Adoption: Municipal Solid Waste Recycling Programs
Authors: Feiock Richard C. , West Johathan P.
Published: January 2007

Cities were the source of a substantial amount of policy activity regarding recycling during the 1980s. This paper explores a set of variables, based on alternative conceptions of municipal policymaking, to explore differences between cities adopting residential curbside recycling programs and cities not adopting such policy changes. Probit analysis finds empirical support for explanations of policy adoption based on need, party competition, fiscal capacity and interest groups organization.
Incumbency and the News Media in U.S. Senate Elections: An Experimental Investigation
Authors: Kahn Kim Fridkin
Published: January 2007

Although our understanding of voting in Senate elections has increased considerably over the past decade, the exclusive reliance on survey data has limited the range of questions we have explored. Using a less traditional design, the present study expands our understanding of vote choice in Senate elections. This study combines two methods-a content analysis and an experiment-to examine the impact that news coverage and candidate status have on voters views of Senate candidates. The results of this study suggest that both campaign coverage and the candidate's status favor incumbents. First, current patterns of campaign coverage encourage people to develop more favorable impressions of incumbents. Second, people use incumbency as a cue to draw distinctions between identical incumbents and challengers, and these distinctions always favor incumbents.
Organized Labor in the Electorate, 1960-1988
Authors: Sousa David J.
Published: January 2007

This paper examines the union effect on vote choice and turnout in presidential elections from 1960 to 1988. It shows that union household status had a significant effect on vote choice in the last four presidential elections, including the widely reported debacle of 1984. Declining membership and other political-economic factors may explain organized labor's apparent political weakness, but these explanations have very different implications for our thinking about labor politics than the argument that leaders have diminishing impact on members' voting decisions. Surprisingly, union status does not have a significant impact on tumout; Verba, Nie, and Kim's "group-based political mobilization" hypothesis does not hold up well in the American context.
State Political Cultures and Public Opinion About Abortion
Authors: Cook Elizabeth Adell , Jelen Ted G. , Wilcox Clyde
Published: January 2007

We investigate the distinctiveness of state attitudes and their impact on attitudes toward legal abortion. We find modest differences in the level of support for legal abortion and for additional restrictions on abortion, but these differences are not significant after controls for the demographic characteristics, religion, and ideology of each state's citizens. Our results suggest that the abortion debate is a national debate, and that state differences in abortion attitudes can be explained by differences in the charateristics and other attitudes of the states' citizenry.
The Functions of Committee Change in State Legislatures
Authors: Freeman Patricia K. , Hedlund Ronald D.
Published: January 2007

Little research has focused on the changes made in individual legislative committees through time. In this study we do a committee-by-committee analysis to determine the extent to which various committees were added, dropped, or had jurisdictional change in each chamber of eighteen states over a twenty-year period (1971-91).

Using propositions adopted from organizational theory, we predict that committees are altered to help the legislature respond to both exter nal pressures and internal tensions. Two types of data are used to test our hypotheses: a longitudinal analysis of committee listings for each of the eighteen study states and individual level committee request data from four states.

We find that professionalized legislatures make more committee changes and exhibit more commonality in the types of changes made than nonprofessional legislatures. The committees dropped in legislatures are requested less than the committees added.

These findings reinforce the conclusions of others that committees have political as well as policy-making functions. While the stability of professional legislatures has been emphasized, our findings point to the adaptive function of organizational change.
Retrospective and Prospective Voting in Presidential-Year Elections
Authors: Lanoue David J.
Published: January 2007

This paper addresses the debate over whether retrospective or prospective economic voting has the greater impact on electoral behavior. Considering the presidential elections of 1984 and 1988, we develop models of the effects of economic evaluations on voting in presidential and congressional elections. First, we test this model for the overall electorate. Then, we divide our sample between voters who do and do not hold government economic policies responsible for fluctuations in personal and national well-being. We find that retrospective economic judgments have the stronger and more consistent impact on voting behavior in nearly every case. We discuss the implications of these findings for elections research.
Beliefs About Democracy and Satisfaction with Democratic Government: The Canadian Case
Authors: Kornberg Allan , Clarke Harold D.
Published: January 2007

This study uses 1990 Canadian national survey data to investigate public beliefs about democracy and how these affect satisfaction with the opera tion of an existing democratic political system. Confirmatory factor analyses reveal that conceptions of democracy are structured in terms of four factors- security, opportunities, elections-capitalism, and equality of group influence. All four factors affect levels of democracy satisfaction, controlling for several other influential variables. Consistent with the long-standing, but largely un tested, congruence hypothesis, Canadians whose beliefs about democracy tend to be consistent with the realities of political life in their country are more satisfied than are those whose beliefs accord less well with prevailing practices.
Preferred Freedoms: The Progressive Expansion of State Power and the Rise of Modern Civil Liberties Jurisprudence
Authors: Gillman Howard
Published: January 2007

In this article I explore the origins of the tradition in constitutional law where by judges identify and extend special protections to a set of "preferred freedoms." I argue that American judges in the nineteenth century were in terested in constructing general protections for liberty broadly defined rather than special protections for a handful of particularly important liberties. They accomplished this by allowing legislative interferences with liberty only when it could be shown that the legislation promoted certain judicially approved public purposes. This limit on legislative power survived until the turn of this century when, in response to industrialization, progressive reformers agitated for an expansion of government powers beyond the limits established in traditional police powers jurisprudence In the 1920s and 1930s, those justices who helped usher in the expansion of state power drew on their familiarity with American pragmatism and their experiences with totalitarianism to forge a new constitutional methodology for the pro tection of individual rights, one that replaced what they viewed as the anachronistic "limited powers-residual freedoms" model with the contem porary "general powers-preferred freedoms" model.
Specialization and Authority Acceptance: The Supreme Court and Lower Federal Courts
Authors: Baum Lawrence
Published: January 2007

Research on organizational behavior suggests that the authority of higher officials for their subordinates is relatively low for subordinates whose work is highly specialized. If this proposition is valid, the Supreme Court should have more limited authority for specialized federal courts than for their generalist counterparts. To test this expectation, citations to the Court's deci sions in patent law were analyzed. It was posited that the former Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA), a specialized court, cited the Supreme Court in patent cases less often than did the generalist federal courts of appeals. This hypothesis was strongly supported according to several measures of citation frequency. The results emphasize the potential impact of specialization on hierarchical authority in organizations and underline the consequences of specialization for judicial behavior.
Amici Curiae and Strategies for Gaining Access to the Supreme Court
Authors: McGuire Kevin T.
Published: January 2007

In the process of case selection in the U.S. Supreme Court, lawyers try to secure space on the justices' plenary agenda; through briefs amicus curiae, interest groups try to advance their policy views. Thus, both seek access to the Court. What brings lawyers and organized interests together? In this article, I develop a model which examines when and why lawyers who represent petitioners build coalitions with groups. Using survey data from the 1986-87 Term of the Court, I show that lawyers-particularly lawyers with expertise in the agenda setting process-actively recruit the support of interests as amici curiae. Solicitation of amici most often occurs when lawyers and interest groups share similar goals, specifically, the desire for the justices to speak authoritatively on an issue of national importance. Con sistent with the literature on organized interests, the results serve to explain why so few lawyers seek the support of amici curiae, despite their impact on the justices' decision making.
Studying Courts Comparatively: The View from the American States
Authors: Brace Paul , Hall Melinda Gann
Published: January 2007

In this study, we perform a basic exercise to illustrate the vital influence of institutional rules and structures on judicial behavior, and the impor tance of recognizing this influence in models of judicial choice. Specifically, we estimate several models of state supreme court justices' voting on the death penalty. Beginning with a simple preferences model, an institutional model, and an additive preferences-institutional model, we explore the extent to which our understanding of judicial behavior is enhanced or changed through models that include the interactive effects of institutional features with other sources of influence on judicial choice. Our most fundamental point, clearly supported by the results, is that the effects of case facts, per sonal attributes, and environmental features are conditioned by institutional arrangements. Any explanation of judicial choice must consider carefully the impact of institutional context on the exercise of judicial discretion. Through this approach, the inconsistencies among findings and theory in the judicial behavior literature can be reconciled, and a general theory of judicial choice can be developed.
The Influence of Political Conditions on Foreign Firm Location Decisions in the American States (1974-1989)
Authors: Fox Sharon E.
Published: January 2007

Over time, the changing nature of federal and state relations has resulted in much of the responsibility for economic development to be centered at the state level. In attempts to foster potential economic growth, the states have engaged in high-priced games of luring foreign firms with incentive packages, business climates, and recruitment strategies. While both the in tensity and scope of their efforts has increased over time, relatively little is known about how political conditions, such as governmental institu tions, political parties, and policy instruments influence foreign firm loca tion decisions. Using a regional and time effects Poisson analysis this study seeks to explore how state political conditions influence firm location deci sions over time. The findings indicate that labor market conditions, the ex istence of agglomeration economies, access to markets, taxes, governmental institutions, policy instruments, and the national context are significant factors in determining firm location decisions and that the factors influenc ing firm location decisions vary over time.
John Marshall and the Sugar Trust--A Reply to Professor Gillman
Authors: Mendelson Wallace
Published: January 2007

In a revisionist effort Howard Gillman finds that Chief Justice Marshall despite his and the Founders' widely recognized concern for national in terests--was in fact responsible for the Knight states-rights disaster in 1895. In my view nothing Marshall said or did supports the revisionist view- indeed much of what he said and did repudiates it. I suggest that dual federalism, the doctrine on which Knight turns, was a concoction of the plantation South to thwart Marshall's and the Founders' well-known nation alism. I suggest further that this concoction was part of the "lost cause" until the 1890s when business lawyers adopted it for their own anti-federal-regulation purposes. The result was Knight.
The Myth of the Diversionary Use of Force by American Presidents
Authors: Meernik James , Waterman Peter
Published: January 2007

One of the most intriguing claims that has been made about the behavior of American presidents is that they have been motivated by deteriorating political conditions at home to engage in conflict abroad. However, we identify three problems with this literature: (1) the use of increments of time rather than international crises as the unit of analysis; (2) the assump tion that presidents can respond to international crises whenever they wish; and (3) the assumption that there are significant political payoffs for diver sionary uses of force. We argue that few if any relationships are likely to be found between presidential popularity, congressional support, economic conditions and elections and the use of force. We test our hypotheses by looking at the political use of military force by American presidents in the post-World War II era (1953-88). We also test to determine if the causal order is not reversed and if it is domestic conditions which precipitate international crises. Ultimately, we find little evidence of any kind of link between domestic political conditions in the United States and uses of force or international crises.
Presidential Nomination Politics in the Post-Reform Era
Authors: Norrander Barbara
Published: January 2007

Since 1980, more than 175 scholarly articles, chapters, or books have been published about the post-reform presidential nomination system. Numer ous authors investigate primary rules, media coverage, candidates, voters, or momentum. Less well covered are the subjects of interest groups, win nowing of candidates, campaign contributors, and connections to other phases of the presidency Research on presidential nominations has to con tend with an ever-changing environment as rules change, candidates exit the contests, and the primary season progresses from February through June. This environmental complexity adds to the challenge of investigating the first phase of the presidential selection process. Coupling this environ mental complexity with a lack of consensus among scholars on measure ment, model building, and theory leads to contradictory findings in a number of areas. Nevertheless, much has been learned about the patterns of presidential nominations.
Women's and Men's Campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives
Authors: La Cour Dabelko Kirsten , Herrnson Paul S.
Published: January 2007

Widely proclaimed as the "Year of the Woman," 1992 resulted in the election of more women members of Congress than any other election in U.S. history. Using campaign data collected from a survey of 1992 House candidates and campaign aides and campaign finance data, this study ap plies theories of campaign convergence and divergence to the study of women's and men's bids for public office. It demonstrates that there are more similarities than differences in the campaigns of female and male candidates. Women and men give similar reasons for running for Con gress, assemble comparable campaign resources, and employ similar strat egies and communications techniques. Men and women also give similar assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of their own and their opponent's campaigns and hold similar perceptions of how the electoral process works. Where they disagree is on substantive issues. Women are more likely than men to campaign on social issues. This study shows that both the convergence in campaign styles and the divergence in issues help to explain the success rates achieved by female candidates in recent elections.
Structural and Elite Features in Open Seat and Special U.S. House Elections: Is There a Sexual Bias?
Authors: Gaddie Ronald Keith , Bullock Charles S.
Published: January 2007

Conventional wisdom long held that there was a bias against women in elections. Subsequent research indicates that men and women who challenge for elective office confront a common barrier: incumbency. In this article we extend our previous research on women in open seat elec tions by examining the performance of women who compete in special elections. Female candidate emergence in special House contests is slightly higher than in regular open seats. Using multivariate regression models, our analysis uncovered no bias against women in special elections. Over all, the performance of women in special elections and open seats indi cates that disruptions of the political status quo by the sudden vacancy creates opportunities that women exploit with effectiveness, although the low level of female candidate emergence limits the growth of descriptive female representation.
Creating a "Well Regulated Militia": Policy Responses to Paramilitary Groups in the American States
Authors: Haider-Markel Donald P , O'Brien Sean P
Published: January 2007

In a democratic political system responsive to citizen demands govern ments must often balance conflicting interests. The rise of armed right- wing paramilitary groups, and especially the recent growth of citizen militias, have created such a situation in the American states. In particu lar, governments must respond to the threat of armed anti-government groups, while simultaneously attempting to address the "mainstream" con servative issues these groups often raise. This study examines how gov ernments balance these demands by developing a general theory of policy formation and adoption. We expect that adoption of anti-paramilitary laws is more likely when paramilitary groups pose a greater potential threat to the state and when elected Republicans are less conservative. Our model also controls for the activities of interest groups and the pos sibility that policy change is incremental. Using a data set of the fifty American states, we find that governments do balance opposing inter ests. While anti-paramilitary laws arise out of a perception of the threat posed by armed far-right groups, conservative Republicans, faced with a constituency that supports some issues raised by paramilitary groups, appear to try to limit the scope of anti-paramilitary laws.
Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Tale of Two Beatings
Authors: Sigelman Lee , Welch Susan , Bledsoe Timothy , Combs Michael
Published: January 2007

This study uses data from a national and a local opinion survey that were underway when highly publicized police beatings of African Ameri can citizens occurred in two American cities-the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles and the killing of Malice Green in Detroit-to probe the impact of these dramatic events on public perceptions of racial discrimi nation. The incidents appear to have had their greatest effect on specific perceptions of the way local police treat blacks, and markedly less effect on broader perceptions of the extent of discrimination against them.