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The conference paper on use of signing statements by the U.S. Presidents which are official statements issued at the time of a law's enactment is discussed. It refers to the usage of constitutional signing statements as an effective unilateral tool which can be use to combat a hostile Congress functioning in the nation. An overview of the controversies behind amount of scholarship devoted to the rationale behind signing statements is also included.

A conference paper about bad U.S. Presidents with reference to the core responsibilities of American chief executives is presented. It mentions that the presidential rating has started in 1948 by historian Arthur M. Schlesinger who asked respondents to assign presidents to categories from great to failure. It also discusses the attributes that determines Presidents' ranking.

A conference paper discussing the ideological connection between members of the U.S. Congress and their constituents is presented. It examines the effect of partisan political polarization on several benefits that result from or coincide with seniority but are independent of ideology. It also discusses data from the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1990s and 2000s and found that partisan political polarization may not factor into members' electoral calculations.

A conference paper about political satire and candidate evaluations in the 2008 U.S. election is presented. It examines general models of candidate evaluation formation and discusses the role of added element of political satire into these existing models. It mentions that this model would explain the failure of American voters to remember specific details about candidates and their campaigns.

After many semesters of teaching an upper division political science elective in environmental policy and frustration with the end product of a semester long policy project, it occurred to me that a significant part of the problem was the type of sources and the kinds of information that students were utilizing. After a series of discussions with the reference librarian for political science, I came to hypothesize that poor student information literacy might be the problem. Accordingly, a reference librarian and I decided to test this hypothesis and see if the underlying issue was subpar information literacy. Instead of the traditional model of a faculty member sending his/her students to the library to get information (c.f. Marfleet and Dille 2005), we decided to work together before the semester began to redo the entire policy project and to continue those collaborative efforts throughout the semester. While there are still changes we would make, we have been pleased with the outcomes of our collaboration over the course of two different semesters in which the project was implemented in the environmental policy course. After analyzing citations in two different sets of papers, we note a remarkable increase in the number of sources students used in their project and in the quality of the sources employed. Ultimately, we have found that when a faculty member works with a librarian throughout the semester, it is better and our collaboration has improved the information literacy of our students, and therefore, the finished product. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the correlation of the food protests with economic, and political development is presented. It discusses the mechanism of understanding the reaction of people and the government to food price shock. It examines the potential of the food protests which have followed food price increases in 2011, with much less frequency than before.

A conference paper about the adoption of school interventions for youth obesity prevention in the U.S. is presented. It utilizes cross-sectional probit analysis and fifty state data through 2007 to analyze the adoption in different categorical school interventions. The findings reveal that the state government is more likely to adopt the school intervention of setting competitive food nutritional standards.

This paper will examine how extreme partisanship in the United States Senate has prevented any significant collaborative efforts between the President Obama and Congress. I argue that the United States Senate is undergoing a modern era of disunion. The conditions in the Senate can be directly traced to the concerted efforts of Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to maintain ideological purity among his caucus members for the purposes ensuring that President Obama's has a failed presidency by asserting a Republican agenda that is aimed at undermining the legitimacy of Democratic initiatives. The Constitutional responsibility for shared governance has been severely compromised by conservative factions of the Republican Party. Subsequently, members of Congress who wish to find compromises across party lines are shut out of the political process. I propose that the restoration and continued health of the American democracy is dependent on the members' ability to reassert their influence collectively into the political process through engaging their colleagues and constituencies in the process of deliberative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Winthrop University used its location in the Charlotte metropolitan area to develop a course that combined academic content with an experiential component during the Democratic National Convention. This paper seeks to use a variety of measures of student performance to determine the relative value of experiential learning. Consistent with previous findings, the experiential component did not lead to new academic knowledge, or necessarily improve students' academic performance. However, the academic portion of the course did seem to provide students with the necessary context to understand the value of the experiential component. In addition, consistent with the literature, the experiential component did seem to be a meaningful and memorable experience that may encourage students to continue to be actively engaged citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a text analysis on the presidential speeches in the U.S. to examine the factors that contributed to the rhetorical president and the claim by political scientist Richard Neustadt that the power of a president depends on his power to persuade. Also cited are the studies by political scientists Jeffrey Tulis and David Nichols on rhetorical presidency, the guiding principle of presidential communication, and the speeches of such U.S. presidents as George Washington.

The article discusses contributions of students regarding how to work large undergraduate research projects with ideas about participation, presentation, and delivery of the paper, as well as future directions for undergraduate research based upon lessons learned in 2009. It also discusses individual projects prepared by students at conferences like the 2010 Southern Political Science Association conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

Since the end of the Second World War, two political parties have dominated political activity in the Kurdish territory in Northern Iraq: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Recently, a new movement has begun to emerge that presents the first legitimate opposition to these ruling parties. The Change List, a splinter group formed by former PUK members, is mobilizing Kurdish voters on the platform of change. In the KRG's 2009 parliamentary elections, the Kurdistan Region's ruling parties took nearly 60% of the votes, leaving the Change List with a mere 25% of the open parliamentary seats. While still a loss for the new movement, this development illustrated an unprecedented shift away from the nearly seventy years of the patronistic rule that defined Kurdish politics. This paper hypothesizes that voter concerns regarding nepotism, patronism and lack of transparency with the ruling parties drove this ground-breaking development and that socioeconomic changes over the past two decades have allowed for this shift in voter preferences. The emergence of the Gorran-Change List indicates a challenge to the status-quo relationship between the parties and the voters. This study will use a historical-sociological single-case study of security and economic liberalization as possible causal mechanisms influencing the realignment of the party-voter relationship in the Kurdish Regional Government of Northern Iraq. Additionally, this paper will investigate the implications of this shift on the Kurdish nationalist and separatist movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines the credibility imperative as an independent variable in explaining the foreign policy and international relations behavior of the U.S. Concepts of reputation and credibility as they relate to state behavior; Discussion of the dynamics of U.S. foreign policy; Effects of the credibility imperative on U.S. foreign policymakers since the end of the cold war.

The article discusses the impact of the recession in the late 2000s on the trends of migrant employment. Topics discussed include changes in employer demand, supply of labor, and consumption of goods due to the global recession, fundamental human rights of foreign migrant workers based on the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (UCW) and push and pull factors in international migration.

The article discusses the failure of the U.S. government in achieving good foreign intelligence that has led to the events of September 11, 2001. It informs that from the starting of the U.S. Republic, the need for good intelligence in wartime has been critical. The U.S. President George Bush mentioned that foreign intelligence forms the basic part of the constitutional authority.

Even before she came onto the national political screen, Sarah Palin, a former Governor of the State of Alaska and the former 2008 Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, was mentioned in The Washington Post Newspaper as a noteworthy politician. This commentary will attempt to discern why that was and still is the case, considering the fact she often ends actions soon after she starts them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs about the ban of lobbyists to contribute financially by U.S. President Barack Obama. It informs about tactics used from the period 2008-2009 during the presidential translation. It mentions that the analysis focuses on policies including area of transportation, criminal justice and disabilities. It also mentions that research has been done to analyze types of group including for-profit business, non-profit government and citizen groups.

Younger voters since at least 1996 have been somewhat more likely to place themselves closer to Democratic presidential candidates on a one-dimensional ideology scale. In this paper I explore whether such effects can be explained due to lower levels of partisan selective exposure by this age demographic to conservative niche media. The theory of partisan selective exposure has enjoyed a revival in recent years as one way of explaining more polarized partisan attitudes within the electorate. Younger voters are an attractive group to investigate for selective exposure effects, as they are sometimes theorized as being more labile to new information due to relative inexperience. I thus investigate whether younger voters do in fact, contrary to their liberal label, demonstrate the same effects when they report actual exposure to conservative media. I contrast their opinions to that of older voters, using 2008 Annenberg panel data. The hypothesis is not supported by a cross-lagged panel analysis. Conservative partisan selective exposure does appear to be real, and to have played some role polarizing the older electorate in 2008. But it did not seem to affect younger voters in a likewise manner, at least not over the available time lag. There is some limited evidence, however, that information youth collected online polarized them more in favor of Barack Obama. I conclude with speculation that the most straightforward, though hardly proven account for such results, is that content and interaction effects for specific audiences matter, for partisan selective exposure hypotheses, and they must be taken into account as the theory is developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Even prior to its publication in 1787, Jefferson's "Notes on Virginia" had an impact on the ratification debates surrounding the new Constitution. The view of constitutionalism promulgated in the "Notes", a theme which has often eluded scholars due to the difficulty of understanding the work as a whole, reveals Jefferson to be a critic and influential opponent of the argument for reverence put forward by Madison in his contribution to the second volume of the "Federalist Papers". We argue that the underlying structure of Madison's "Papers" (37-51) took shape as a theoretical and practical engagement with Jeffersonian theories being employed (with and without Jefferson's permission) by opponents of ratification, especially regarding the nature of republican constitutions. This argument points to significant disagreement between Jefferson and Madison, who otherwise were life-long political allies, at a crucial juncture in the American founding period. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do justices strategically think about the consequences of their decision on Cert? In this paper I analyze this question in light of material taken from Justices' private papers. The major source of information used here is documents produced by clerks for their justices and the general correspondence between justices and clerks. Several aspects of strategic behavior during Cert are demonstrated. First are strategic considerations that go way beyond One First Street N.E. At least when considering whether to review what they expect to be cases with weighty political ramifications, justices may think about the politics of appointment, the results of upcoming presidential elections, and the role of the Court in protecting certain groups in American society (e.g. women). The second facet of strategic behavior is in cases where justices would refrain from hearing a case for fear of the influence of the opinion written. Next, issues justices would like to see included in the opinion affect the choice of cases. This leads to the fourth facet of strategic conduct demonstrated here, in which justices' strategy is not limited to a single case. The result of their consecutive decisions to review a string of cases is the attrition of an objectionable precedent, which may even lead to the overturning of that precedent. Finally, when registering opinion dissenting from denial, it is not infrequent for Justices to lay out their view on the merits (both in terms of disposition and in terms of the doctrine that should result). Of particular interest are relisted cases, in which a dissent from denial had been registered following the first Cert vote, but the dissenter had an opportunity to actually influence the opinion when the case was granted full review in a second vote on Cert. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the views of several philosophers including Socrates, Plato and Aristotle regarding the conflicts in philosophy and democracy. Topics discussed include morality, justice and fabric of social life. Also highlights the conflict between the city of the rich and the city of the poor in Athens, Greece.

The article offers information on the Black politicians and their leadership style. It states that Black leadership has come from elite strata of black Americans but today's Black politicians are different from their predecessors. It furthers states that, these politicians have not strong background as of now but if they would have charted a path earlier in life to acquire the appropriate credentials, they could have cultivated more professionalized backgrounds.

What is our Civic Responsibility as Disaster/ Emergency Management Professionals when it comes to sharing critical and time sensitive disaster related information with civilians? To what extent does privacy and information protection play a role in our decision making process while mitigating, and responding to a crisis situation? I like to explore the ethical issues surrounding information and education in disasters. Our freedoms and rights Our social responsibility Role of Corporate Social Responsibility Contingency Planning Information relay Technical infrastructure to support our civic processes Documentation and record keeping Security and information [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to demonstrate the impact mid-term Congressional elections have on presidential speechmaking, specifically the State of the Union Address. I have two curvilinear hypotheses, one which focuses on the seats lost or gained, the other on if there is a change in control of the chamber. I selected the U.S. House for many reasons. If many seats are lost by the President's Party, his upcoming SOTU will be noticeably longer. Many seats is defined as 30 because the average loss from 1934 throgh 2010 is -29.45 seats. Noticeably longer is 20% increase in comparison to the year before. This holds true if he gains seats as well, but that has only happened three times (1934, 1998, 2002). H#2 is if the President's party loses control of the House, his SOTU will be noticeably longer. If his party remains in power, or his party remains the minority, there will not be a major increase. There is case where the President's party wins control of the House in a mid-term Congressional election. Data for the IV is from Century Investments, while the DV is from CQ. The method is a mix of qualitative analysis (content analysis) and quantitative (Chi Square). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to understand the Supreme Court's wartime jurisprudence. Previous work in political science has found that the Supreme Court curtails rights and liberties during war to rally support for the president (e.g. Epstein et al 2005). This project refines this work by evaluating the Supreme Court's decision-making during war as a function of public support for the president. Generally, the Court behaves strategically, keeping an eye toward public opinion, to ensure that the elected branches will enforce the decisions of the Court and maintain the legitimacy of the Court (e.g. Barnum 1985; Page and Shapiro 1983; Marshall 1989; McGuire and Stimson 2004). During conflict, the Court's legitimacy as it relates to the president is of even more importance. When the president is popular, the Court will support the president to avoid a conflict with the president. However, when the president and the conflict are not popular with the public, the Court will be more likely to vote against the president and limit the authority of the president. This allows the Supreme Court to curry favor with the public by breaking with an unpopular president. I test this theory using decisions made by the Supreme Court from 1941 to 2006. This shows that during war, as popularity for the president declines, the probability that the Supreme Court votes to curtail rights and liberties declines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on paper proposal related to the decision made by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010 concerning unlimited corporate and union investment in federal election campaigns. It state that this decision may result in large spending of money in advertizement, which has made several politicians, political pundits and scholars to fear.

The article presents the discussion on conference sessions covering various topics in political science including nationalism and rights, social policy theory, and the origins of American liberalism.

The article discusses the analyses of the book ''The Two Faces of Issue Voting,'' by Edward G. Carmines and James A. Stimson. It is discussed that Carmines and Stimson testes the validity of the assumption that political sophistication is a necessary prerequisite of issue voting and showed that during those elections voter sophistication to affect voter behavior was not required in some issues.

The article discusses the role played by different religions in driving homosexual persons to commit suicide globally and also highlights the genocide of Iraqi gay men.

James Madison's understanding of the duties and the limits of civic obligation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Madison's understanding of the duties and the limits of civic obligation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National identity is to some degree a fluid and manipulable concept, as it is based on perception rather than objective fact. Despite arguments that primordial traits prescribe ethnic and therefore national identity, this paper argues that the fact that the concept of the nation remains intangible allows for manipulation of nationalism and popular sentiment in this regard. Far right parties have recognized this opportunity and have had focused much energy on promoting nationalism as a response to identity threats resulting from the presence of immigrants in West European societies. This paper investigates the use of nationalism and ethnic distinction by radical right-wing parties to promote racism and anti-foreigner sentiment among their domestic populations. It focuses on the construction of an “us versus them” mentality and the portrayal of immigrants as outside of the national community. Both integration and assimilation are explored as a means of incorporating immigrants and overcoming the perceived threat. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the politics in organizational design is presented. It looks at the design of the authoritative decision-making bodies. The design principles incorporated by classic intergovernmentalism are discussed, which include the first principle of sovereignty. The paper also explores the circumstances that may influence states to choose one institutional form over the other. Exmples of institutions are presented, including the United Nations Security Council and the European Commission.

Over the past 40 years, the initiative in national environmental policy has usually been taken by the national government, which has enforced rules and regulations on sometimes reluctant states. In recent years, this scenario has started to change, and states are beginning to create innovative approaches to dealing with environmental issues. The focus of this paper is one such law, North Carolina's "Clean Smokestacks Act". This paper examines how this law came to be by examining five models: severity, wealth, partisanship, organizational capacity, and national reaction. The conclusions of the study are that the severity of the air pollution problem in North Carolina combined with a favorable partisan environment in the legislative and executive branches of government to produce this innovative law. Similar conditions in other states are likely to produce the same kinds of innovation, especially in the face of limited action by the national government in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s position on abortion. I suggest that Kennedy’s decisions are not a product of his personal views on the matter – he is morally opposed – nor can they be explained by his overall moderately conservative voting pattern on civil liberties issues – as the attitudinal model suggests. Indeed, his votes on later abortion cases, such as Planned Parenthood v. Casey (1992) could not be anticipated from his position in earlier abortion cases such as Webster v. Reproductive Health Services (1989) and Hodgson v. Minnesota (1990). Instead, I argue his decisions can only be explained by his understanding of larger political forces. I suggest that Kennedy’s votes and opinion are based on his conception of how the abortion issue fits into the dominant political regime. In the first part of the paper, I define the dominant “abortion regime” in terms of public opinion, the activity of social movements, and legislative trends. The evidence suggests that the American people are supportive of a woman’s right to choose an abortion, yet at the same time supportive of restrictions on that right. I then discuss Kennedy’s decisions and opinions in High Court, high-profile abortion cases. I argue that his position on abortion is consistent with larger political developments: i.e. in line with the “abortion regime.” Indeed, his judicial opinions suggest that he is not only conscious of where the larger polity is located on this issue, but that he uses this understanding to make his decisions. I pay particular attention to Casey as the recently released papers of Justice Harry A. Blackmun have shed knew light on the “agony” Justice Kennedy went through in ultimately changing his vote in the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, policy makers are being forced yet again to confront serious practical as well as theoretical considerations regarding how to transform societies unaccustomed to the tenants of Western political institutions into modern, democratic nations. This idealistic objective is neither simple nor novel. Since the end of the major world wars, the independence of dozens of new states, and the growth of economic globalization, a great number of theories have developed on the best way to integrate new and underdeveloped states into the global community. Many of these emerging countries were born out of centuries of colonial rule, and quickly descended into ethnic or tribal conflict. Some however, were able to make the transition from colonial subject to modern democracy more smoothly than others. This paper seeks to explore various modernization theories and analyze how those theories have been applied. It begins with the task of defining modernization, and then briefly describing the history of political development theory as it evolved in the post war period. Modernization shall than be discussed as it related to institutions, psychology, conflict, and State-building. The paper will also look at the underlining biases that influence modernization theories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument made in this paper is that there are multiple forces that shape U.S. foreign policy to Cuba. Some of these are inconsistent although many of the paradoxes are subtle and relegated to the background in the face of continuing and prominent debates on the critical role of ethnic group interests and domestic politics on U.S. foreign policy to Cuba. Indeed, of the multifarious approaches in the literary oeuvre on foreign policy, ethnic group interests and their influence on domestic politics provide some of the best explanations for U.S./Cuban relations in the post-Cold War era (Haney, Vanderbush, Walt, 1999). But beneath the iceberg of American Cuba policy, there is considerable movement. There are other forces at play which are not often highlighted in the literature and which suggest that inconsistencies may be more prevalent in U.S. foreign policy to Cuba than the theorists acknowledge. Indeed, even while arguing the predominant domestic politics explanation, U.S. policy to Cuba can be viewed a as a multi-level game. This is the position taken in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of the ongoing analysis of the findings of the Research Network on Gender Politics and the State. It compares state responses to women's movement activists in abortion and prostitution policy debate in post-industrial democracies since the 1970s. The paper is a work in progress, a first cut at using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to uncover causal configurations leading to policy and procedural responses. The paper includes a brief primer on QCA. Preliminary findings support the case for the importance of women's policy agencies inside the state as allies for movement activists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines implementation of Reinventing Government (REGO) policies in US municipalities between 1997 and 2003. The data for the paper come from two ICMA surveys of city managers and chief administrative officers of US municipalities with populations over 10,000 conducted in 1997 and 2003. The data indicate that city managers are important actors in implementing REGO policies. The 1997 results show that the manager's attitude toward REGO is the most important predictor of making REGO policy recommendations. Several local government and community variables are also important predictors. The 2003 results show that local government and community variables have become more important than the manager's attitude. We conclude from this that REGO has taken on more of a local flavor over the six year time span. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the function of gender in print political advertisements distributed during two 2002 US Senate races involving women candidates. In addition to examining the ads produced by the candidates, this paper also analyzes gender messages in the ads distributed by political parties and interest groups involved in the races. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What factors cause protests? Scholars have conducted cross-national analysis on determinants of protest. However, their studies have been paid less attention on institutional factors. This paper examines the importance of institutional factors in accounting for protest in 17 Western European democracies from 1980 through 1995. To deal with cross-sectional time-series count data, this paper uses Generalized Estimating Equation (GEE) model with negative binomial distribution. Results show that institutional factors do matter in explaining the causes of protest. Especially, electoral system is strongly related with the number of protests: Proportional Representation (PR) system really decreases the number of protests more than any other electoral systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Actors are constituted in the international system by their interactions with other actors. Those interactions are the results of preferences and interests. But what are the sources of preferences and interests? Realism would have us believe that interests are universally determined by the needs of survival in a conflictive world. I have argued elsewhere (Roberts, 1997) that interests and preferences are socially constructed out of rules that define historic and cultural practice. This approach to rational-choice modeling demands that the analyst devote more time to understanding preferences and less time to deriving formulaic analysis of the strategic interaction itself. This paper will apply the analysis of socially constructed preferences to the decision by Romania to assist NATO during the 1999 campaign in Kosovo. This case study is well suited to the approach because historical analysis of Romanian interests should indicate interests favoring Serbia and opposing NATO. The post cold-war practices of European politics in which the decision was made, set up cognitive dissonance for Romanian foreign policy that redefined Romania as an international actor through its actions and preferences. The paper will examine the historical-cultural-political foundations for Romanian interests and apply them to a cooperative game between the NATO and Romania to explain Romania's decision to assist NATO during the Kosovo campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the question of whether voter turnout matters for Democratic Party success in gubernatorial elections, examining the years 1978 to 2000 in 43 states. In contrast to past research, the relative voter turnout of low and upper income people is emphasized, in contrast to examining aggregate turnout. Controlling for a variety of factors, the higher turnout among low income people compared to upper income people the better Democratic gubernatorial candidates do in elections. Together with the well-known finding that lower income people are less likely to vote compared to upper income people, this paper constitutes evidence that the electorate is not representative of the population as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a pooled cross-sectional time series regression to determine if the juvenile death penalty has a deterrent effect on either juvenile murderers or juvenile violent criminals. Though there is much writing on the utility of capital punishment in general, there is a void in policy studies literature concerning the juvenile death penalty. This is an important policy topic due to the historically unique nature of the juvenile justice system in the United States. Traditionally, state justice systems have dealt with youth offenders in a different manner than adults, but in a political climate fostering get tough on crime policies, the original purposes of the juvenile justice system are going by the wayside. Further, it is especially timely given that the Supreme Court is now deliberating on the legality of the juvenile death penalty with Simmons v. Roper. Data gathered from 1974-2001 from all 50 states demonstrates that there is no statistically significant deterrent effect to the punishment, though there is also no discernible evidence of an increase in juvenile violence; the so-called brutalization theory. However, control variables based on sound criminal justice theory point to state economic conditions, population density, and prison population as having a noticeable effect on either juvenile murder rates or juvenile violent crime rates. This paper is an extension of the existing literature on criminal deterrence theory and the death penalty, as well as a first state-level aggregate study of the juvenile death penalty in particular. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does a policy subsystem adapt to conflicting policies? What happens when the negative externalities of distributive policies are in conflict with regulatory policies? Will such conflict trigger subsystem change? These questions are important to our understanding of the "inner life" of policy subsystems. This paper examines the structural changes that occur in a policy subsystem when the negative externalities of distributive policies conflict with the goals of regulatory policies. Set against the backdrop of the Mississippi River watershed, the paper examines the region's navigation and flood policies; the negative externalities of wetland loss in Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico's seasonal "dead zone"; and the regulatory policies that address these externalities. This study is longitudinal in nature with baseline data spanning six decades. Data is complied from congressional hearings, Environmental Impact Statements, and federal court records. I propose that the conflict between distributive policies and regulatory policies leads to an expansion of the policy subsystem, causing the system to mimic an issue network as opposed to the iron triangle model that characterizes the politics of distributive policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the influence of electoral competition, party alternation, and voter turnout on the performance of local governments in Mexico. Using data for virtually all municipalities in the country, I investigate whether these political factors have any role in improving the levels of coverage for water, drainage, and electricity, between 1990 and 2000. I find that electoral competition has a modest influence on the growth of drainage coverage, but plays no role in the other two services. The alternation of parties is irrelevant in explaining service provision. However, voter turnout consistently emerges as a meaningful factor, which supports the proposition that policymakers are more likely to expand the provision of public goods when citizens are more active in the electoral arena. The paper suggests that competition might be better viewed as an influence on the spending choices of higher intergovernmental levels, rather than on local decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strongly influencing recent work on political parties has been the framework of party system institutionalization developed by Scott Mainwaring and Timothy Scully in their 1995 book Building Democratic Institutions: Party Systems in Latin America. This paper addresses an important anomaly arising from Mainwaring and Scully's work on party system institutionalization when the approach travels from its home base in Latin America to a communally-charged or ethnically-segmented environment such as exists in many countries of Asia and Africa. Using the case of post-Suharto Indonesia and drawing on the author's dissertation research, the paper discusses institutionalization in the contemporary Indonesian party system and shows how party rooting, one of Mainwaring and Scully's four key areas of party system institutionalization, can serve as a negative force in the consolidation of democracy, rather than the positive one highlighted by the authors. Particularly, in the Indonesian case, party rooting in communal groups and the existence of historic and programmatic tensions among those groups have contributed to high levels of instability, as could be seen in the tumultuous process surrounding the impeachment of President Abdurrahman Wahid in 2001. In the Indonesian case, the negative effects of party rooting have been brought about by the exploitation of party roots by cost-conscious potential political leaders in the development of their political power bases. As rational actors, Indonesia's party leaders have perpetually used the least costly means available to reach their political goals. The existence of ready-made groups waiting to be captured by an enterprising leader has allowed inter-communal tension to be escalated, bringing the country almost to the brink of civil war in 2000 and 2001. In addition to the threats to Indonesia's stability, the exploitation of inter-communal tensions for political gain has had important effects (all negative) on the nature of... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March of 1973, the United States Supreme Court ruled, in the San Antonio I.S.D. vs. Rodriguez case, that the school finance system was not in violation of the federal constitution and that the matter should be resolved by the state. Today, arrays of questions concerning quality of educational opportunities and equity in educational funding have devolved to the states. After that decision the search for legal remedies concerning education shifted to state supreme courts. This paper explores coalition behavior among the state supreme courts concerning education policy. Under what conditions do state supreme court justices decide to vote in favor or against an educational policy case? The authors believe that as final arbiters, state Supreme Court judges consider issues of fact, but also act in a strategic manner balancing these facts, state contextual environments, and personal preferences. Specifically, this paper examines the phenomenon of dissenting opinions and the willingness of state Supreme Court judges to join the majority opinion within the context of education related cases. Evaluating both policy and finance related education cases; the authors seek to understand which conditions contribute to both those decisions favoring "haves" and those favoring "have-nots" separately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1994, Republicans have matched their success in presidential politics in the South by winning and maintaining a majority of the Southern congressional seats. One theory suggests that prior to the 1990s the paradox of Republican success in presidential elections and holdover Democratic success in congressional elections was, in part, the result of an advantage in the size and quality of the Democratic candidate pool. The theory argues that Republicans had no viable alternative to defeat Democratic candidates in open seat congressional elections, much less in elections to challenge incumbents. Recent research has shown that Republicans largely negated this advantage in the 1990s. This paper argues that alongside partisan realignment and redistricting favorable to Republicans (among other factors), changing patterns of candidate emergence contributed to the Republican?s success in winning and maintaining a majority of Southern congressional seats at the end of the 20th and into the 21st Century. This paper introduces measures of candidate emergence to the prevailing models used to explain the rise of Republican strength in Southern House elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]