bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Independence of Creative Potential and Behavior Disorders in Gifted Children
Authors: Gallucci Nicholas T. , Middleton George , Kline Adam
Published: January 2007

Samples of gifted children in Louisiana ( N = 44) and Connecticut ( N = 34) were administered the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking (TTCT), and their parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). As predicted, scores on the TTCT and CBCL were statistically unrelated. Also as predicted, scores for the CBCL were very similar to national norms (Achenbach. 1991) and represented an absence of behavior disorders. Contrary to expectations, TTCT scores were slightly below national norms (Torrance, 1990c). Previous research has demonstrated a relationship between creativity and psychopathology. The results of this study suggest that this relationship is a result of selection on the basis of artistic eminence rather than superior intellectual functioning.
Conferring Sameness
Authors: Steen Sara
Published: January 2007

There is little agreement in modern American society about what constitutes appropriate and healthy sexual behavior for juveniles. There are, however, institutions that proceed as though consensus exists. It is important, therefore, to take a critical look at institutionally embedded definitions of appropriate juvenile sexuality. In a previous article, I showed that embedded in the laws and practices of Washington State are implicit definitions of appropriate juvenile sexual behavior. In the present article, I look at how these definitions affect decision making within the juvenile justice system. My analyses suggest that these definitions have the effect of reducing or eliminating the possibility that decision makers will recognize cases that do not conform to these definitions (i.e., cases of nondeviant juvenile sexual behavior). This in turn creates the appearance of consensus among decision makers, when in fact, such consensus does not exist.
“Where You From!”
Authors: Garot Robert
Published: January 2007

This article investigates how young people in an inner-city ecology invoke the relevance of gangs by demanding, “Where you from!” Such a challenge creates a lively venue for performing identity and emotional manipulation for both the instigator who offers the challenge and the respondent. Rather than conceptualizing young people as gang members and gangs as a static group, this analysis shows how the doing of gangs is strategic and context sensitive. Such an approach provides an alternative to conceptualizing identity, and especially gang identity, not as a fixed personal characteristic but as a sensual response to a moment’s vicissitudes.
Gang-Related Gun Violence
Authors: Stretesky Paul B. , Pogrebin Mark R.
Published: January 2007

Few studies have examined how violent norms are transmitted in street gangs. The purpose of this research is to add to the gang-related literature by examining socialization as the mechanism between street gang membership and violence. To explore this issue, we draw upon in-depth interviews with twenty-two inmates convicted of gang-related gun violence. We find that the gangs are important agents of socialization that help shape a gang member’s sense of self and identity. In addition, inmates reported to us that whereas guns offered them protection, they were also important tools of impression management that helped to project and protect a tough reputation. Our findings provide greater insight into the way gang socialization leads to gun-related violence and has implications for policies aimed at reducing that violence.
Brief History of Inclusion of Content on Culture in Nursing Education
Authors: DeSantis Lydia A. , Lipson Juliene G.
Published: January 2007

Nursing has a long history of focusing on the cultural dimension of care, dating back to Florence Nightingale and the early days of public health nursing. Nursing education studies advocated for including social science concepts in nursing curricula well before the founding of the first university school of nursing in the United States in 1910. A brief review of the highlights of major nursing curriculum, licensing, funding, accreditation studies, and initiatives reveals that culture competence in nursing education continues to receive increasing emphasis and support.
Community-Based Approaches to Strengthen Cultural Competency in Nursing Education and Practice
Authors: Anderson Nancy Lois Ruth , Calvillo Evelyn Ruiz , Fongwa Marie Ngetiko
Published: January 2007

This article explores existing informal as well as formal approaches that address health disparities in the communities where they occur, enhancing the opportunity to strengthen the cultural competency of providers, students, and faculty. A particular focus centers on the community-based participatory research approaches that involve community members, providing opportunities to develop mutually respectful, trusting relationships through co-teaching and co-learning experiences. With community-based participatory research approaches to community involvement in place, the stage is set for partnerships between communities and schools of nursing to collaboratively design, implement, and integrate informal and formal cultural competence components in nursing curricula.
Actions Taken by Frail Older Widows to Allow Home Care Providers Access to Their Homes
Authors: Porter Eileen J.
Published: January 2007

Nurses have been advised to encourage older persons to keep their doors locked, but there is little guidance about how home care providers should best gain access to the homes of clients. During a descriptive phenomenological study of the experience of home care ( N = 25), 9 frail older women explained their strategies for allowing providers access to their homes. Women who typically left their doors open for their own reasons were not uncomfortable leaving the door open when a provider was expected. However, women who left the door unlocked at the request of a provider expressed misgivings about doing so. Older women need personalized counseling about ensuring access to care providers while maximizing safety. For practical, ethical, and legal reasons, home care providers who ask older women to leave their doors open should reconsider that strategy.
Political Expertise and Principled Political Thought
Authors: Goren Paul
Published: January 2007

Many public opinion theories suggest that all citizens rely on core beliefs and values to guide their preferences on social and political issues. The “Expertise Interaction” model of public opinion challenges this postion by arguing that the ability to use core principles in this manner is a function of political expertise. However, there is very little direct evdence that measures of expertise strengthen the relationship between measures of core beliefs and policy preferences. This article analyzes the effects of expertise on principled political thought across several issues with data from the 1990 and 1992 National Election Study surveys. The results demonstrate that the expertise effect is surprisingly limited. These findings call into question the presumed ascendancy of the expertise interaction model.
How Long Do Economic Sanctions Last? Examining the Sanctioning Process through Duration
Authors: Bolks Sean M. , Al-Sowayel Dina
Published: January 2007

In this research we consider the determinants of economic sanction duration. Why do some sanction episodes last longer than others do? Why do some target states concede faster than others do? To explain the duration of sanction episodes we consider the target's institutional struture and its political stability We develop a theoretical framework based on the target's political features and apply this model to 108 sanction cases using hazard analysis. Our empirical findings indicate that the target state's features, especially its institutional structure and the politcal vulnerability of its regime, significantly impact the duration of sanction episodes.
Valuation of Individual Liberty Vs. Social Order among Democratic Supporters: A Cross-Validation
Authors: Chen Jie , Zhong Yang
Published: January 2007

Many classical studies from Soviet and post-Soviet societies have found that, when given the choice between liberty and social order, those who support democratic principles tend to choose liberty in preference to order. Yet the results from our two sample surveys conducted in Beijing, China in 1995 and 1997 directly contradict their findings. We find that those who support democratic principles are more likely to choose order over liberty In this study, we present differences between their findings and ours. Then, we draw some important theoretical and political implications from such differences.
Why the Haves Don't Always Come Out Ahead: Repeat Players Meet Amici CCuriae for the Disadvantaged
Authors: Songer Donald , Kuersten Ashlyn , Kaheny Erin
Published: January 2007

The question of who wins and loses in American courts has traditionally been viewed as one of the central questions in the study of judicial politics. State supreme courts are particularly important in this regard since they are the final arbiters for the vast majority of litigation in the nation. In this article we examine the relationship between the status of litigants, especially the comparison of repeat player “haves” to oneshotters who are ususally “have nots,‘ appearing as litigants in state supreme courts, and their rates of success in that forum. A quarter of a century ago, Galanter (1974) made a compelling case for the proposition that the ’‘haves’ tend to come out ahead in litigation.” Since then, studies have confirmed the advantages of repeat players in the context of a wide variety of courts. But none of these party capability studies have considered whether the oft-found advantages of repeat litigants can be offset by the addition of support for their opponents from organized groups appearing as amici curiae. The present analysis seeks to explore how the normal advantages of the repeat players are modified by the entry of amicus curiae in support of one-shot disadvantaged litigants. Testing these ideas in the context of three state supreme courts, we find that group support through filing briefs of amicus curiae, is successful in neutralizing the normal advantage of upperdogs in court. In all three courts, disadvantaged litigants with group support were substantially more successful than similar litigants without group support. In contrast, the additional support provided by amici did little to increase the probability of success of litigants who were themselves repeat players.
The Impact of Presidential Appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court: Cohesive and Divisive Voting within Presidential Blocs
Authors: Lindquist Stefanie A. , Yalof David A. , Clark John A.
Published: January 2007

Previous research by Robert Dahl and others has argued that the predominant pattern of Supreme Court decisionmaking reflects the appointments Presidents make to the Court. But each President's impact on the Court's decisions may be limited if that President appoints multiple justices who fail to vote cohesively. In this article we evaluate the relative impact of five Presidents' appointments by focusing on the group behavior of blocs of presidential appointees, emphasizing the extent to which such blocs vote cohesively or fragment in determining actual case outcomes. After first constructing “cohesion scores” for these “presidential blocs” to test the level of cohesive voting within each bloc, we examine particular configurations of votes in order to evaluate each bloc's adherence to its appointing President's ideological expectations on various issues. We find that in order for the chief executive to wield the strong influence hypothesized by Dahl and others, three conditions must be met: (1) the President must have the opportunity to appoint one or more justices; (2) when multiple justices are appointed, they must vote cohesively relative to the Court as a whole; and (3) voting cohesion among multiple appointments must further the President's (and the political majority's) policy preferences. Among modern Presidents, these conditions were fulfilled only by the Nixon and Reagan appointments.
Regulatory Policymaking in the American States: A Review of Theories and Evidence
Authors: Gerber Brian J. , Teske Paul
Published: January 2007

While most studies of the determinants of regulatory policymaking have concentrated on national-level issues, state-level regulatory politics represent a productive opportunity to examine the efficacy of competing theories of the regulatory process over variable political, economic, and demographic conditions. In this article we discuss the significance of state-level regulation to broader theoretical understandings of policy-making. We review a broad set of recent empirical work in the context of three models of policymaking: principal-agent theory, Gormley's salience and complexity model, and Lowry's dimensions of federalism model. The relative effectiveness of the three approaches in explaining the dynamics of political controls or influences over state-level regulation is assessed in order to point to future theoretic directions for the field. We conclude by suggesting the need for a greater integration of incentive-based and issues-based explanations of regulatory policy choices in the states.
Information and Political Engagement in America: The Search for Effects of Information Technology at the Individual Level
Authors: Bimber Bruce
Published: January 2007

Some aspects of democracy appear more sensitive than others to the availability throughout society of political information. Individual-level political engagement poses a puzzle in this regard. An instrumentalquantitative conception of information that is central to rational theories and is also found in some behavioral theories of participation appears contradicted by historical trends. I treat the contemporary expansion in political information made possible by new information technology as a form of natural experiment. I test for a relationship between information availability and political engagement using survey data about Internet use in the period 1996-99. This test is relevant to the applied debate over whether the information revolution will prove salutary for participation, and at the same time sheds light on contending theories of information. I find little relationship exists; the only form of participation which is demonstrably connected to Internet use is donating money This finding fails to support instrumental conceptions of information and instead endorses cognitive conceptions employed in psychological and certain behavioral theories of political engagement.
The “Gender Gap” in State Legislative Representation: New Data to Tackle an Old Question
Authors: Arceneaux Kevin
Published: January 2007

Explanations regarding the gender gap in state legislative representation have centered on attitudinal, institutional, and situational characteristics of states (e.g., Carroll 1994; Nechemias 1987; Norrander and Wilcox 1998; Rule 1981, 1990; Welch 1977). In regard to attitudinal characteristics, researchers have primarily focused on the impact political culture and ideology have on female representation. Less attention has been paid to specific gender-role attitudes due to the lack of a state-level gender-role attitudes measure. Consequently, little is understood about how culture, ideology, and gender-role attitudes relate to one another or female representation in the states. Recently, a cross-sectional measure of state-level gender-role attitudes constructed from the General Social Survey (GSS), 1974-1996 by Brace et al. (1999) has become available. A cross-sectional analysis of 38 states reveals that gender-role attitudes affect the level of state legislative female representation independent of political culture and ideology. Thoughts on why this is the case are discussed, suggesting future lines of research made possible by this new measure.
PAC Contributions and Lobbying Contacts in Congressional Committees
Authors: Hojnacki Marie , Kimball David C.
Published: January 2007

Researchers and political observers often assume that campaign contributions help political action committees (PACs) and their affiliated lobbyists gain access to members of Congress. But empirical studies demonstrating that contributions purchase access are extremely rare. In this paper, we compare the degree to which organized interests with PACs have more contact with members of Congress than groups without an affiliated PAC, and we also identify why PAC affiliates might have an advantage in making contact. Our empirical analysis is based on data we collected from a mail survey of lobbyists involved in one of four issues, and campaign finance data we obtained from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Our analysis indicates that PAC affiliated organizations contacted significantly more undecided committee members than nonaffiliated groups. However, this lobbying advantage derives not from PAC affiliates' contributions but from the base of support these groups have established in congressional districts around the country.
Race and the Representation of Blacks' Interests During Reconstruction
Authors: Cobb Michael D. , Jenkins Jeffery A.
Published: January 2007

A majority of recent studies finds that black members of Congress are more supportive of blacks' interests than are white members of Congress, even white Democrats. These results are limited, however, exclusively to the contemporary period as scholars have not studied how black members of Congress behaved during Reconstruction, the first era of blacks' descriptive representation. Although black representatives from this era are typically portrayed as having been responsive to blacks' interests, some recent studies suggest that they often supported whites' interests on issues important to their black constituents. Employing a measure of racial ideology as well as a measure of general ideology developed by Poole and Rosenthal (1997), we investigate the relationship between descriptive and substantive representation in the U.S. House immediately after the Civil War, through the use of descriptive statistics, OLS regression, and forecasting techniques. We find that black Republicans during Reconstruction were more ideologically liberal on both general and racial issues than their white Republican colleagues in the South. These results suggest that the linkage between descriptive and substantive representation for blacks is not merely a recent phenomenon, but rather has more general applicability across time.
Institutional Context and Reduction of the Resource Bias in Political Sophistication
Authors: Berggren Heidi M.
Published: January 2007

I argue that institutional context conditions the effect of socioeconomic resources on individuals' levels of political sophistication. Specifically, because the decision to become sophisticated is quite expensive for citizens at the lower end of the SES scale, the relatively high levels of free information produced in certain party and electoral system contexts leads disproportionately large numbers of these citizens-as compared to those with more resources-to decide to become politically sophisticated. I formulate and test (using OLS regression) a conditional model of political sophistication that includes institutional context variables, a “resources” factor score, and interaction terms representing the product of “resources” and each of these context variables. The model is supported empirically. The interaction term coefficients have signs that are the reverse of those for the context variables, indicating that the effect of resources on sophistication is greater or smaller depending on the value of the institutional variables. This conditional effect is graphically depicted.
Gender, Scientific Knowledge, and Attitudes toward the Environment: A Cross-National Analysis
Authors: Hayes Bernadette C.
Published: January 2007

As of yet, relatively little information exists regarding gender differences in attitudes toward the environment. This is particularly the case when countries besides the United States and Canada are considered. Further-more, the information available has proved to be inclusive, with some studies indicating that men are more concerned about the environment than women, others indicating that women are more concerned but only in relation to a narrow range of risk-related environmental issues, and still others finding no significant differences. Using nationally representative survey data from the United States, Great Britain, Norway, the Netherlands, West Germany, East Germany, and Japan, this study investigates gender differences in levels of scientific knowledge and its consequences for attitudes toward general environmental issues. The results suggest that although men and women do differ in terms of their knowledge of scientific matters, this has little or no effect on their attitudes toward the environment. Across a majority of nations, women are not more concerned about environmental issues than men and this lack of relationship holds whether or not differences in levels of scientific knowledge are controlled for in the analysis.
Citizens by Choice, Voters by Necessity: Patterns in Political Mobilization by Naturalized Latinos
Authors: Pantoja Adrian D. , Ramirez Ricardo , Segura Gary M.
Published: January 2007

In this article, we compare the 1996 turnout among cohorts of naturalized and native-born Latino citizens, looking for between-group differences endogenous to recent anti-immigrant rhetoric and events in California. We argue that immigrants naturalizing in a politically charged environment represent a self-selected subsample of all voters, identifying individuals who feel strohgly about the political issues at hand, and who seek enfranchisement as an act of political expression. We suggest that newly naturalized citizens living in California made exactly these choices, which differentiate them from native-born citizens, longer-term naturalized citizens, and Latinos in other states. Using the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute's 1997 three-state survey of citizen attitudes, validated using original registrars-of-voters data, we estimate multivariate logit models of individual turnout of Latino citizens in each state for the 1996 national election. The data support our hypotheses. Newly naturalized Latinos in California behave differently from other Latino citizens of California, and the patterns of difference are not replicated in either Florida or Texas. Turnout was higher among those who naturalized in the politically hostile climate of California in the early 1990s. Our results suggest important political effects of wedge-issue politics that target Latino immigrants.
Nonminating Presidential Candidates: The Primary Season Compared to Two Alternatives
Authors: Cooper Alexandra L.
Published: January 2007

Study of the impact of the McGovern-Fraser reforms on presidential nominations, though extensive, has focused largely on (1) the effects of reduced control by party leaders, and (2) the nature of inputs including votes, media, and money Despite the unusual practice of holding sepa- rate contests in multiple states to select a single nominee, little research explicitly addresses how such sequential contests function to transmit voters' preferences. I use computer simulations to tackle this seemingly intractable question and compare the results of a primary season to two alternatives, a single national primary and a national primary followed by a runoff. Using first a uniform distribution of voter preferences and then a distribution based on ANES data, I explore the impact different deci- sion rules have on (1) a party's ability to satisfy its own voters' prefer- ences, and (2) its competitiveness in the general election. I find that, on average, the primary season does better both at estimating party voters' preferences and at selecting candidates nearer the general electorate median. A primary followed by a runoff yields results close to those for the primary season, whereas a single primary generates results not dis- similar to those created by random selection. I conclude with a discus- sion of the implications of these findings for the system used to nominate presidential candidates.
Toward a New Typology of Vetoes and Overrides
Authors: Conley Richard S. , Kreppel Amie
Published: January 2007

This research develops a typology of vetoes and overrides based on the nature of the coalition that originally passed the legislation. We posit that both legislative and non-legislative objectives inform the strategies of the President and congressional leaders. The implications for measures of presidential and congressional power are considerable. Using veto and override data for the period 1969-98, we show that vote-switching between the passage of legislation and veto overrides is likely to occur only for a specific subset of legislation.
Domestic Politics and the Political Use of Military Force by the United States
Authors: Meernik James
Published: January 2007

The diversionary hypothesis, that leaders use force to distract publics from suffering economies and declining performance, has been explored in numerous articles and books. Despite this attention, the empirical evidence is often contradictory Some argue there is little evidence of diversionary behavior, while others find significant relationships between domestic politics and U.S. foreign policy behavior. I argue that problems with research design and selection effects account for the contradictory evidence, and that by addressing these issues we can better model the impact of domestic political conditions on presidential decision-making. First, I hypothesize that domestic politics influence the occurrence of international crises. After accounting for this influence, I argue we should find that domestic political conditions do not directly influence presidential decision-making. Second, I hypothesize that we can best model their impact on the decision to use force as a function of the severity of the international crisis to which the President may respond. I find evidence to indicate domestic factor exercise little direct impact on the decision to use force. I found qualified evidence that domestic factors exercise some impact on the decision to use force when the severity of an international crisis is not so great as to demand action and not so insignificant as to guarantee inaction.
Nationalism, Liberalism, and Democracy
Authors: Dzur Albert W.
Published: January 2007

Liberal nationalism is an important recent development in political theory that challenges liberals to acknowledge the significance of nationality in people's lives, and its role in the justification and implementation of liberal policies. If liberal nationalists are correct, national identity serves basic human needs and is not only compatible with liberal ideals of equality and individuality, but must be fostered for these ideals to flourish and for the liberal-democratic state to function. In this article I analyze the doctrine of liberal nationalism and argue that it actually points to the significance of democratic action, not national sentiment, for liberal states. Civic ties between citizens engaged in the public domain, such as those articulated by contemporary democratic theorists, have more relevance for addressing the functional requirements of liberal states than the bonds of national identity.
Hispanic Turnout: Estimates from Validated Voting Data
Authors: Cassel Carol A.
Published: January 2007

This study is the first to test theories about the distinctiveness of Hispanic voting participation using validated voting data, which are necessary to assess Hispanic turnout relative to the turnout of other groups. The cetral issue is whether a Latino immigrant culture sustained by proximity to homelands makes Hispanic voters distinctive, or whether Hispanics vote at the same rate as others with the same social circumstances. The analyses show that in presidential contests, Hispanic citizens vote at the same rate as similarly situated Anglos and African-Americans. In midterm contests, Hispanic turnout is distinctively low and cannot be explained by the recency of immigration or weak participatory predispsitions related to Latino political culture. The explanation may be that Latinos lack the political networks and political history that motivate Anglos and African-Americans to vote in low visibility races, or Latino political leaders prefer to mobilize voters in more competitive presidetial or municipal elections.
Universalism through Common Access: An Alternative Model of Distributive Majoritarian Politics
Authors: Buchanan James M. , Yoon Yong J.
Published: January 2007

The rational-choice logic of majority rule embodies discriminatory distribution of burdens and benefits as between members of majority and minority coalitions. Empirical observation, however, suggests universality or near-universality, even in programs that are potentially discriminatory. Attempts have been made to explain the anomaly, but the basic issues have not been resolved. Weingast and others have argued that working legislatures will implicitly adopt quasi-unanimity rules or conventions. We present an alternative model of distributive majoritarian politics. The distinctive feature is “common access.” If democratic politics is modeled, not in terms of a monolithic decision structure, but instead as a setting where differing and separate decision authorities are granted access to the general taxable capacity, collective action can be analyzed in the logic of common resource usage. Our model allows for universality, even with pork-barrel spending, without resort to institutionalized rules or informal conventions.
Political Party Opposition to Noncompetitive Regimes: A Cross-National Analysis
Authors: Franklin James C.
Published: January 2007

Many competitive parties have witnessed the overthrow of competitive regimes, but the activities of political parties under noncompetitive regimes have received very little scholarly attention. Several authors suggest that parties, constrained in their conventional activities, Will take part in protest or political violence (referred to here as contentious political action). I first examine the activities of 51 political parties in 24 noncompetitive regimes and establish that a majority of these parties (over 62 percent) did take part in contentious political action. Second, I attempt to explain the great variance in the incidence of party-led dissent using the theoretical framework of the political process-opportunities approach. A multivariate analysis suggests that parties will take part in greater levels of contention when the country's government has been criticized for human rights abuses, when repression of party organizations is low, and when repression of party leaders is at an intermediate level.
Television News and Political Partisanship in Latin America
Authors: Perez-Linan Anibal
Published: January 2007

This article explores the linkages between television news and the decline of partisanship in Latin America, using survey data for eight countries. After discussing the erosion of traditional Latin American parties during the 1990s, I show that the literature has assumed different types of causal links between television and party dealignment (treatment vs. strategic effects, and cohort vs. short-term effects). Based on comparative research on industrial and new democracies, I present two contrasting hypotheses (television news inhibits partisanship; exposure to television creates political awareness) and test the impact of short-term treatment effects using a multinomial logit model. The results suggest that television news encourages party identification in the short run (through treatment effects), although the development of television may weaken Latin American parties in the long run (through strategic effects).
Getting the Message Out: Candidate Communication Strategy During thr Invisible Primary
Authors: Haynes Audrey A. , Flowers Julianne F. , Gurian Paul-Henri
Published: January 2007

This article applies the theory of competitive (war) and substantive (marketing) communication strategies to the presidential nomination campaign, focusing primarily on the time period during which we expect the candidates to be most concerned with framing their campaigns-the invisible primary. We utilize candidate press releases to assess the accuracy of this theory and refine it. We then test the hypothesis that a candidate's strategic goals, which are generally defined by the candidate's competitive status relative to the field, determine the dominant type of message communicated during this penod. We find that there are definite patterns of messaging choice relative to candidate status. We also find that competitive messages dominate the “discourse” of candidates relative to the news media to a far greater extent than anticipated.
Partisanship and Participation in Political Campaign Activities, 1952-1996
Authors: Gershtenson Joseph
Published: January 2007

In 1972, Verba and Nie identified a “puzzle” of Republican “hyperactivity” in political participation over the 1952-1968 period. Verba and Nie argue that higher levels of Republican participation (after controlling for socioeconomic variables) result from the differential motivating influence of policy preferences for identifiers of the two parties. Using National Election Studies (NES) surveys from 1952 to 1996, I examine the possibility that Verba and Nie's findings are time-bound and/or contextbound. I find that the partisanship-participation relationship is variable. Republican hyperactivity has not continued since 1968, and among weak and leaning partisans no “puzzle” exists even in the 1952-1968 period. I also show that while opinion extremity did provide greater motivation for strong Republicans than for strong Democrats up to 1968, this difference does not extend to the weak and leaning partisan ranks. In addition, since 1972 opinion extremity appears to be more important to Democrats than to Republicans as an impetus to participate in campaigns. I conclude by suggesting that future research should examine more closely the role of contextual variables as determinants of participation.
Examiining Claims about Procedural Choice: The Use of Floor Waivers in the U.S. House
Authors: Hixon William , Marshall Bryan W
Published: January 2007

Congressional theories offer competing explanations of the role of restrictive amendment rules in the U.S. House (Krehbiel 1997; Dion and Huber 1996; Sinclair 1999). But this literature has largely ignored the importance of waivers in the legislative process. Our analysis begins to address this gap by utilizing waivers to test theoretical claims that to this point have only been applied to the amendment portion of special rules. We find waivers are a source of conflict on special rules independent of the restrictive characteristics of the rule. We also find waiver protections can be explained by some of the same determinants of restrictive rules as claimed by informational, distributive, and partisan theories, but that no single explanation covers all types of waivers. In general, we infer from these results that procedural choice is shaped not only by amendment restrictions imposed by special rules, but also by features of waivers that determine which standing rules of the House may apply. By not incorporating waivers in our studies of floor procedure, we miss an important source of evidence for distinguishing between theories of legislative organization.
Are There Sex Differences in Fiscal Political Preferences?
Authors: Alvarez R. Michael , Mccaffery Edward J.
Published: January 2007

This article examines the relationship between attitudes on potential uses of the budget surplus and sex. Survey results from the Fall of 1999 show relatively weak support overall for using a projected surplus to reduce taxes, with respondents more likely to prefer increased social spending on education or social security. There were, however, significant sex differences, confirmed by multinomial logit analysis: men were far more likely than women to support minimizing “private bads,” that is, tax cuts or paying down the national debt; women were more likely to support expanded spending on public goods, such as education or social security. The strongest sex effect from the Fall 1999 surveys was that women were far more likely to express no opinion than men. When respondents were primed that the tax laws are biased against two-worker families, men significantly changed their stated preferences; women did not.

A second round of surveys conducted from July through mid-October, 2000—a period encompassing the two major party political nominating conventions and the brunt of the presidential election campaign—revealed a dramatic narrowing of sex differences in fiscal political preferences, with an almost complete elimination of the gap in “no opinion” responses as to using the surplus to fund a tax cut. Combined with other recent work, this new research suggests that sex differences in fiscal political preferences are a far more complex, nuanced phenomenon than previously thought.
An Institutional View of Congressional Elections: The Impact of Congressional Image on Seat Change in the House
Authors: Finocchiaro Charles J.
Published: January 2007

The literature on seat change in U.S. House elections abounds with explanations regarding the factors contributing to the biennial change in the partisan balance of the body. While a number of theoretically and empirically appealing models have been presented, many base their explanations around presidential politics and a variety of factors independent of Congress. In this article, I argue that in developing models of congressional seat change, it is worthwhile to consider how the public image of the institution impacts the electoral success of its members. I describe and test a model that captures the influence of the public’s perception of Congress on party seat change. Encompassing tests suggest that this framework significantly improves upon existing models. The results underscore the importance of endogenous, Congress-specific factors in explaining aggregate seat change in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Conditional Impact of Blame Attribution on the Relationship Between Economic Adversity and Turnout
Authors: Arceneaux Kevin
Published: January 2007

Previous research has found that those facing economic adversity are less likely to vote. This has serious implications for the nature of democratic accountability, since those who are less likely to vote in an economic downturn may also be the ones most likely to punish the incumbent party. In fact, some have used aggregated electoral data to justify such a claim (Radcliff 1994). However, such conclusions are premature. Once the intervening effects of blame attribution are taken into consideration, there are conditions under which economic adversity actually enhances turnout. Data from the American National Election Studies (1990-98) demonstrate that those facing economic adversity are more likely to vote when they blame the government for economic outcomes. These are the same people who have been shown in numerous economic voting studies to be much less supportive of the in-party. These findings suggest that economic adversity does not necessarily constrain democratic accountability and highlight the perils associated with making inferences about individual-level behavior with aggregate data.
Gendered Discourse in the Political Behavior of Adolescents
Authors: Rosenthal Cindy Simon , Jones Jocelyn , Rosenthal James A.
Published: January 2007

The roots of adult civic and political participation originate in pre-adult experiences (Verba et al. 1995) and high school extracurricular activities offer students opportunities to develop interpersonal and leadership skills. In this research, we ask whether adolescents also learn gendered norms of political discourse through extracurricular activities. This project assessed gender differences in participation at the 1999 Model United Nations of the Southwest (MUNSW) at the University of Oklahoma. Important differences in participation were observed in the number and character of speaking turns taken by male and female delegates. We find that contextual factors, such as the sex of the committee chair, the issue areas addressed by the committee, and the timing of the session in the conference significantly influence who participates in the discourse, but the percentage of female participants surprisingly does not. The character of the political discourse suggests norms dominated by masculinity.
Democratization and Political Tolerance in Seventeen Countries: A Multi-level Model of Democratic Learning
Authors: Peffley Mark , Rohrschneider Robert
Published: January 2007

Research on mass support for democracies shows that popular support for democratic norms is at an historic high. At the same time, research on political tolerance draws considerably bleaker conclusions about the democratic capacity of mass publics. We attempt to synthesize the essential lessons of these two literatures into a general model of democratic learning which argues that exposure to the rough-and-tumble of democratic politics should enhance political tolerance. We provide a test of the model using multilevel data from a diverse set of 17 countries. At the macro-level, we find, consistent with our theory, that: (1) political tolerance is greater in stable democracies that have endured over time (the longer the better), independent of a nation’s socioeconomic development; and (2) that federal systems increase levels of tolerance, as well. At the micro-level, we find that democratic activism, or using civil liberties, enhances political tolerance, independent of a host of other individual-level predictors. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for studies of democratization and political tolerance.
Mobilization Strategies of the Democrats and Republicans, 1956-2000
Authors: Gershtenson Joseph
Published: January 2007

Although democracies offer citizens the opportunity to participate in their own governance, not all individuals do so. As intermediaries between elected officials and the public, one of the primary functions of political parties is to mobilize support for their candidates. Using NES data, I examine the strategic nature of party contacting over the 1956-2000 period. I find that both parties target individuals whose personal characteristics make them more predisposed to be politically active, individuals likely to support the party’s candidates, individuals more capable of influencing others, and individuals in areas with competitive elections. However, these general tendencies exhibit variation across time and party. Most notably, party contacting behavior has adapted to developments in the political/party system including the upheavals in American politics during the 1960s.
The Construction of National Identity—A 23-Nation Study
Authors: Rusciano Frank Louis
Published: January 2007

A theory has been advanced that the construction of national identity derives, in part, from a negotiation between a nation’s Selbstbild (or the nation’s national consciousness, or the image its citizens have of their country) and a nation ’s Fremdbild (or the nation’s perceived or actual international image in world opinion). This article tests the theory using survey data on 23 nations, from the International Social Survey. The project proceeds in four steps. The first step uses factor analysis to generate measures of national consciousness and pride, and perceived international image and orientation; the relationship between these measures is established. The second step involves generating indices that measure the ways in which respondents define their relationship to their country. These measures fall into two groups—measures of allegiance to the nation, considered as an ethnic or religious entity, and measures of allegiance to the state, considered as a set of institutions and laws. The relationships among these measures are also established, and correlated with Selbstbild, or national pride. The third step involves generating indices of tolerance of diversity and immigration. These measures are then correlated with the measures of perceived international reputation, or Fremdbild. The resulting model defines a complex relationship among factors of national-focused and international-focused perspectives, all of which combine in the negotiation of national identity. Finally, the study concludes by analyzing the variations in these measures across the 23 nations in the survey, and testing whether religious culture affects the construction of national identity.
Explaining Wars Fought by Established Democracies: Do Institutional Constraints Matter?
Authors: Leblang David , Chan Steve
Published: January 2007

Extant research has shown that cross-national variations in the level of a country ’s democracy tend to be related to its propensity to be involved in external conflict. The dyadic version of the theory of democratic peace contends that democracies rarely, if ever, fight each other, and it is strongly supported by the available evidence. The monadic version, suggesting that democracies are in general more peaceful regardless of the nature of the other party involved in a relationship, has been less well supported. This article addresses the latter proposition, seeking to explain the variations in war involvement among the established democracies on the basis of major differences in their institutions of governance. Among the various distinctions considered (such as parliamentary versus presidential forms of government, rule by a single dominant party versus a coalition government, and phases of the electoral cycle), a country ’s electoral system turns out to be the most important institutional factor that dampens war involvement. Established democracies with a proportionate - representation system tend to have significantly less such involvement according to three alternative measures. We adduce insights from comparative studies of democratic politics to explain this major finding, thereby offering a more specific and cogent account of why this particular institutional arrangement matters for external belligerence.
Do Governors Matter? Budgeting Rules and the Politics of State Policymaking
Authors: Barrilleaux Charles , Berkman Michael
Published: January 2007

Whether and how governors influence public policies in the U.S. is open to question. This research tests a model of gubernatorial influence on public policymaking in which gubernatorial power is conceived of the governor’s power over the budgetary process relative to that of the state legislature. We argue that governors with greater control over the budget process will use those powers to deliver a higher proportion of policies that confer benefits to statewide versus more localized constituencies. As governors’ electoral security increases, their willingness to support legislatively desired localized spending increases. Empirical results derived from pooled cross-sectional models largely support the models tested.
Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote for Free Trade: The Dynamics of the Labor PAC Punishment Strategy over PNTR
Authors: Jackson David J. , Engel Steven T.
Published: January 2007

Studies of PAC contribution strategies tend to focus on the ways in which PACs seek to buy access to legislators or elect candidates friendly to their interests. What do PACs do when those to whom they have given large sums of money vote against their interest on a key piece of legislation? We examine whether labor PACs followed a strategy of punishment in order to send a message to Democrats who supported the passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China (PNTR) in May 2000. We find that labor PACs punished pro-PNTR Democrats in a measured fashion indicating a deterrent form of punishment. A harsher form of punishment strategy was followed in an attempt to incapacitate those pro-PNTR candidates who were most electorally vulnerable. This behavior indicates that contributions are not just inducements to vote favorably or attempts to purchase access.