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The silvery minnow, a native to the Rio Grande is fighting for its life. It current habitat is just a mere 5% of a range that once stretched from Espanola in northern New Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. It has been listed as an endangered species since 1994. However, efforts to ensure the long term survival of this species have been limited. This stems from the weak application of the Endangered Species Act as well as from myopic solutions offered by the city of Albuquerque to create special fisheries to preserve the silvery minnow. In March 2003, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated 157 miles as a critical habitat for the minnow. However this is only a partial solution. Without the development of a stringent state-wide water conservation plan, the minnow?s respite from extinction will be short lived. In many areas, due to diversion, over-consumption and mismanagement, the once mighty Rio Grande has been reduced in many areas to merely a stream. If definitive measures are not taken to save the silvery minnow, the entire Rio Grande Ecosystem could be at risk. Several policy solutions need to be adopted. First the Fish and Wildlife Service needs to apply the Endangered Species Act to its fullest extent. The designated critical habitat may allow the minnow to survive, but is inadequate to ensure its recovery. Therefore multiple critical habitat locations need to be established. Additionally, the city of Albuquerque which is a third the size of Phoenix yet consumes more water must develop water conservation methods similar to those practiced in California (i.e. low flush toilets and temperature mechanized sprinkler systems). The long term survival of the silvery minnow as well as the entire Rio Grande ecosystem will only be guaranteed if there is full implementation of the Endangered Species Act as well as adherence to strategic conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on two questions: 1) how critical is rivalry to the escalation of territorial disputes, and 2) where in the conflict sequence, does rivalry fit? Our empirical evidence is relatively unambiguous on the first question. Rivalry is critical to conflict escalation. Conflict escalation can occur in its absence but the combination of territorial dispute, contiguity, and strategic rivalry is an impressive recipe for conflict escalation. The empirical answer to the second question is less cut and dried because we found eight different sequential paths in which rivalry could enter the picture at various points. We did find, however, that the notion that territorial disputes lead to militarized disputes and then to rivalry deserves more consideration. While the prevailing imagery does hinge to a considerable extent on how one defines rivalry, we find that rivalry is more often linked to the outset of territorial disputes than to subsequent iterations of the conflict sequence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) voters have overwhelmingly thrown their support to the Democratic presidential candidate for at least the past three elections. This paper examines whether this support owes more to LGB loyalty to the Democratic Party, liberalism, or concern for LGB issues. We use the 1991-2000 General Social Surveys to determine whether the LGB vote margin was as large in 1988 as in 1992 and 1996, and to what extent the margins in all three elections can be explained by greater LGB liberalism (on both lifestyle and tax-and-spend issues) and Democratic Party identification. We then perform the first detailed analysis of a 2000 Harris Interactive (on-line) poll of nearly 14,000 Americans, including over 1,000 self-identified LGB voters. Using a LGB-only sample, we examine how sexual identity, social involvement in the LGB community, and socialization into interest in LGB policy issues and openness about one’s sexuality affect ideology, partisanship, and the 2000 presidential vote. We then use the full Harris data to repeat the analyses performed on the GSS data and to suggest that the LGB vote was less partisan and ideological, and more focused on LGB issues, in 2000 than in prior years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among the most notable storytellers who chronicled the enormous changes during the Meiji Period in Japan was Natsume Soseki. Writing in a style called shaseibun, or "sketching," Soseki’s art reveals what Eric Voegelin calls "reservoirs of reality" rooted largely in Shinto, Confucian, and Zen Buddhist traditions. His artistic efforts, as reflected in selected works, are directed primarily at examining and revealing the impact of a Western ecumenism on these traditional sources of authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is only a matter of time before at least some other federal courts follow the view articulated in US v. Emerson (2001), which was handed down last year by a three-judge panel of the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. In that ruling, a two-judge majority held that the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. Even though that view deviates from the almost uniform opinion of the other US Circuit Courts, it is entirely predictable and proper. An increasing volume of scholarly research and analysis demonstrates what the Emerson majority saw: namely, that the text of the Second Amendment (?A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.?) directly protects a ?right of the people to keep and bear arms,? not a power of the states to arm and organize militias. Certainly, the amendment reflects the concern of the Anti-Federalists (and others) over protecting the power of the states to remain distinct political units. As Emerson noted, however, the Second Amendment adds to the states? militia power only indirectly: what it does directly is prevent the federal government from disarming the population of the states, which thereby ensures that the states have an armed ?people? from which to draw their militias. The Emerson majority went on to show ? by examining Supreme Court precedent and the text of the Bill of Rights ? that the constitutional term ?the people? means all adult American citizens (and not, for example, a few, select militia members).Based on this study of the Constitution’s text and structure, the Court reasonably concluded that the Second Amendment secures an individual right to keep and bear arms, which many scholars believe can and should be incorporated against the states like other provisions of the Bill of Rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The developmental state Park Chung Hee built exhibited a strong predatory quality, but it was different from Africa’s and Latin America’s more classic predatory propensity. The Korean state, too, generated rents for its business allies and clients, but unlike Africa’s and Latin America’s more classic predatory states, it explicitly tied rents to its business client’s undertaking a risky Five Year Economic Development Plan (FYEDP) investment project and pioneering export markets. This game of exchanging political support for business performance acquired complexity and subtlety when Park resumed Heavy Chemical Industrialization (HCI) as his top priority after 1973, but it was already in place even in 1961 when Park placed chaebol owners under house arrest to negotiate their terms of participation in his First FYEDP projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper traces the development of the concept of "political arts" within several of John Stuart Mill's texts. Mill is commonly classified as a liberal utilitarian who was also preoccupied with establishing the basis for social science in service to the cause of social progress. Recently, scholars have questioned the image of Mill as a "typical liberal." In order to extend such revisionary work, I have undertaken an examination of his writings about social science. What I have found is a skepticism regarding the possibility of a science of politics as a precursor to the political arts. Instead of criticizing Mill for his "failure" to illuminate the proper relationship between these two activities, I contend that there is much to learn through exposing the reasons for Mill's uncertainty. The tension between the science and art of politics is brought to light through a focus on Mill's mode of theorizing - the way in which Mill employs ambiguity and "many-sidedness" within and across his works. This mode of theorizing is especially effective within his political writings. While Mill explicitly advocates for the authority of science in politics, he implicitly acknowledges that the (democratic) political world erects many barriers to scientific knowledge about its workings. Mill's work on the political arts is worthy of consideration as it captures the difficulties involved in the application of political science within a democratic society. I conclude that Mill was correct to frame his writings with a scientific basis for the political arts - even if such a project is actually futile. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper comes out of a broader project entitled ?Two-Level Games and International Narcotics Control: Cooperation Between the United States and Mexico and Colombia, 1989-2000.? In the broader project, I examine how the United States handles narcotics control in its bilateral relationships with Mexico and Colombia during the presidential administration of George H.W. Bush and both William Clinton administrations. Working out of the ?two-level games? tradition associated with Robert Putnam, I seek to explain differences in cooperation across countries and across time by examining the interaction of domestic and international political processes. In so doing, I hope to contribute to the growing literature on this interaction as well as add theoretical and empirical rigor to the narcotics policy literature. In this paper I focus on the second Clinton administration and assess the degree of cooperation between the countries. I test three hypotheses consistent with the two-level games approach: strength of the president, timing of elections, and executive-legislative relations. I also address two alternative hypotheses: the ?interdependent? U.S.-Mexican relationship and the reputation of the Colombian president and probe their impact on narcotics control cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of the effects of military expenditures on macroeconomic performance is an important topic of study and debate. In this paper we examine an important, yet relatively unexamined element of this debate, the effect of military expenditures on inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). In a number of empirical tests we study the effects of military expenditures on FDI for over 100 countries from 1980-1997. Our primary result is that military expenditures generally have a negative impact on FDI inflows from 1980-1998, but this results varies greatly by level of development. In the less developed non-OECD countries, military expenditures are associated with large decreases in FDI inflows. In the developed countries of the OECD, we find that there is some, although limited, evidence that military expenditures are associated with higher levels of FDI inflows. Our final set of empirical tests estimate the impact of changing levels of FDI inflows on both developed and less developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We consider what colleges and universities might do to promote civic engagement among their students, both while on campus and upon their graduation. We do so by studying the entering attitudes about politics and civic engagement of a group of first year students at our university. What are their entering attitudes about politics? What experiences have they had that affect their attention to or dislike for politics? How are they expecting their college experience to influence their citizenship while here and once they graduate.? Our findings suggest that students most value experiential learning about politics and engagement and that they think colleges should promote community service and teach democratic skills. On the other hand, and thus the title, they have difficulty seeing where they will have time for any active engagement given the pressures of studying and social life and think of "citizenship" as something that comes later in life. We suggest that universities should "meet students where they are" by providing experiential opportunities in democratic life within their classes and in the student life context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the globalization of the food supply and the amount of international commerce involved in modern agriculture, cultural attitudes greatly affect the regulation and commerce of food production. Understanding the differentiating political acceptance of genetically modified (GM) foods between the United States of America (U.S.A.) and the member-states of the European Union (E.U.) is problematic because the decisionmaking apparatus for considering new technologies for both political organizations is the scientifically based assessment and rationally administered management of risk analysis. It appears, however, that the policy reluctance to grow and import GM food by the E.U. and the political willingness to consume and export GM agriculture by the U.S.A. is greatly explained by culture because the scientific conclusions for human health safety and environmental integrity by each ruling body of government are similar. It is our finding that risk assessment trades on statistical science to justify political authority and notions of individual consent from political attitudes and an idea of public sanction from cultural preferences are largely incorporated in risk management decisions about food safety measures for regulation and commerce both in the U.S and the E.U. Cultural influences greatly impact scientific decisions in risk analysis and recursively regulatory regimes that assess and manage environmental policies can modify culture. Risk analysis, therefore, must be interpreted as a normative framework of existing regulations beset with subjective influences that can be found in the objective scientific and rational evaluations in risk assessments and management. With the knowledge of this new framework it is suggested that the E.U. is starting--however slowly--to follow the U.S.A. cultural model of risk analysis in terms of allowing many economic and technocratic considerations to impact environmental policy about food biotechnology. Despite a great deal of public deliberation against genetic engineering in modern agriculture by citizens in the member-states of the E.U., it appears central decisionmaking by rational experts of the E.U. are evaluating GM foods with ideas not influenced by European culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the more intriguing paradoxes that has developed in Mainline Protestantism over the last thirty years is that mainline clergy have become more politically active. Since the public politicking of mainline clergy in the late 1960s on the issues of civil rights and the Vietnam War generated storms in the churches, why would clergy become more politically active over time? In this paper, we explore the place of political benefits in the range of services provided by churches through the evaluations of church members. We adopt the structure of a benefit exchange between leaders and members developed in the interest group literature to determine the extent to which church members’ appetites for political action by the clergy are shaped by a satiating selective benefit exchange or are driven solely by political compatibility. We propose that because of continued political disagreement between clergy and church members and considerable disapproval of clergy involvement in politics by church members, clergy politicking is allowed largely by the satisfaction of a selective benefit exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A glance at the top elective offices in the American political system exposes a deep gender disparity: 87% of U.S. senators, 86% of the members of the House of Representatives, 90% of state governors, 88% of big city mayors, and 78% of state legislators are currently male. Despite these large gender disparities in elective office, investigators conclude that there is little or no evidence of bias against women candidates. In terms of fundraising and vote totals, often considered the two most important indicators of electoral success, investigators find that women fare at least as well as their male counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops existing methods of analyzing social cleavages by looking at the subcomponents of cleavage level at the ascriptive (demography), attitudinal (opinion) and behavioral (voting) levels and at the inter-relation of each of the these three levels. Using this method, the paper details the types of cleavages faced in Slovakia and the Czech Republic and goes further to resolve conflicts among existing understandings of the process of cleavage formation. Check author’s web site for an updated version of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors for important measures of political engagement on a range of participatory skills and political attitudes in an emerging democracy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, among seventh- and eighth-grade students, half of whom had participated in a civic education program. A sample of over 1,400 students from four cantons were surveyed on measures of political skills, participation and attitudes. Drawing from theory and research, I developed hypotheses for predictors of these scales and analyzed the data using hierarchical linear modeling. In this sample, comprised primarily of Catholic and Muslim youth, civic education and active teaching proved significant predictors for nearly all scales measuring political skills and attitudes conducive to participatory democratic citizenship. Gender was also a significant predictor across most scales, which indicated that girls were less skilled and felt less efficacious than boys. Students belonging to minority ethnic groups within classrooms scored lower across some measures, as did those coming from less privileged backgrounds. Significant interaction effects revealed that Bosnian Croats made greater gains in some instances than Bosniac students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor People’s Movements by Frances Fox Piven and Richard A. Cloward was a most important and profoundly controversial book when it was published in 1977. It challenged us to think differently about the forms of resistance by the oppressed. This question is particularly relevant to the topic on which I tend to focus my thoughts and energy-- welfare politics. Poor People’s Movements was especially significant in pointing out important contradictions that needed to be negotiated if movement politics is to be effective. My thesis is that Piven and Cloward offered a sophisticated, if not always appreciated, response to these contradictions that continues to serve as a guidepost for negotiating the pitfalls of welfare politics. I suggest that their "praxis for the poor" can be understood as engendering what I call a "radical incrementalism." Piven and Cloward consistently emphasized in their own work, that political actors must work with what is available and figure out what can be done given the circumstances as they are presented. While the current era of welfare retrenchment is a bleak one, the one shining beacon for responding began burning brightly when Piven and Cloward began writing books like Poor People’s Movements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Harry Potter book series offers moral parables about teenagers and education. The books challenge the zero-tolerance, heavy-discipline American education regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the play Edward II, Marlowe educates his audience about the nature of tyranny, warning that even the laughable tyranny of weak kings can have a disastrous affect on the regime. Particularly, Edward II demonstrates the affects that a failure in friendship can have on both ruler and state. Lacking a sense of the good and the nature of political rule, Edward II seeks deficient friendships first in the lowly born Gaveston and later in Spencer. In so doing, he alienates among the noble class both those who, willing his good and that of the regime, could be true friends, and those whose slighted ambition makes them enemies of the state. More importantly, his vice is reflected in the actions of his citizens, leading the regime to the point of ruin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

These two productions, Prime Suspect and The Contender, tease out issues of the treatment of professional women in the workplace-either the high visibility and public eye of a public workplace (the U.S. Congress and Executive Branch) or a lower visibility, though still public, civilian workplace (for lack of a better term for the homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department in England). What is most intriguing about two productions is that both women are trying to operate by the standards and guidelines that had already been established in the venues in which they found themselves. Both women were treading completely new ground for A WOMAN-as presented in the respective productions-but they were operating by the "rules", as it were, that had been adhered to by men in similar positions. These actions raise two broad issues-equality and equity-which more or less provide the guidelines for analyzing these two productions and the characters therein. This is what is interesting about these productions-to see where Laine Hanson and Jane Tennison confront particular situations where their gender is working against them, and to then see how they "work" the situation so that they make those who might treat them differently treat them in the same manner as they would treat a man in the same situation. All the while both women know they are being held to a standard that is not the same as it would be for a man-the standard for their performance is higher, and the presumption that they can not fulfill expectations sets in earlier than it might for a man. Both women also stumble in terms of doing everything "right"-and in both cases, these slipups are telling in that they prove that both Jane Tennison and Laine Hanson are not perfect. Should we expect perfection? According to the character of Congressperson Shelly Runyon (played by Gary Oldman), the House of Representatives member who leads the attack against Laine Hanson's nomination to be Vice President, one can not expect perfection or even greatness in an individual, but what is sought by the American people and by the Congress as the representative body of that people, is the potential for greatness. This, of course, is Runyon's objection to the appointment of Laine Hanson as Vice President, he does not think she has the potential for greatness-and he seems to attribute this her gender and her lack of intelligence, though it is her gender, and all that he reads into that quality, the becomes the crux of his crusade against her confirmation. But perhaps this is where Oldman's character makes his greatest error in the film, by denying that an individual has the potential for greatness, and grounding that denial in the fact that the individual is female. The argument for equality feminism has always been that women should have the same-or equal-opportunities as men-that women do not have to be great from the start, just as men are not expected to display greatness before they are in offices that demand greatness-but women must be allowed the opportunities where they may have the potential for greatness. Both Prime Suspect and The Contender present the consideration of how two very capable women may, in fact, have the potential for greatness - and how they work towards that end. The intention here is to consider these characters, in some manner, as visions of the potential and shortcomings of the promise of equality-with attention paid to their occupational achievements, but also with regard to their respective attempts to seek, find, and implement justice and fairness within the realms in which they labor and live. The analysis finally becomes a consideration of the difficulties of the public and the private. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The works of Jorge Luis Borges can broaden our understanding of the contribution of literature to the main themes of political philosophy. In this paper I will read four of Borges' short stories with the hypothesis that the author's basic concern is to explore a twofold tension that arises between individual choice and chance, on the philosophical side, and between individual liberty and the coercion of political society, on the political side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an exploration of the paradoxical phenomenon of the tenuous link between feminist consciousness and political behavior. Despite research which has shown increases in the number of women who embrace tenets of the modern day women's movement, there is little evidence to suggest those with a feminist consciousness demonstrate distinctive patterns of political behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Earlier studies on issue voting in Europe and North America have found that the relative performance of two competing models, the proximity model and the directional model, depends on the different methodologies used, the nature of the party systems, the issue being examined, incumbent-challenger distinctions, and voter sophistication. The purpose of this paper is to test these two models in the Japanese electoral context. Empirical tests, using the survey data from Japan?fs 1995 Upper House election, demonstrates that the proximity model best explains the behavior of centrist parties, and the directional model best explains the behavior of extreme parties. I also show the advantages of the directional model for predicting vote choice when voters have particular issues that they care about intensely. Finally, I suggest the possibility that the number of issue-dimensions may be of crucial importance when evaluating the performance of the models.?@ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does negativity in Presidential campaigns affect voters? Analysis of a panel survey and field experiment conducted during the 1996 presidential election, demonstrates that emotions aroused by negative communication become part of a citizen’s dynamic construction of the campaign. Different types of negative communication influence citizens? assessments of the candidates, their level of political trust, and their attention to the campaign. The first type of campaign negativity, attack advertising, can diminish positive feelings about the sponsoring candidate and may have a negative, if not long-term, impact on the citizen’s likelihood of voting. The second type of negativity, cynical news coverage of the campaign, which questions candidates? strategies and motives, decreases citizens? feelings of trust in government, resulting in voter demobilization. The last type of negativity, emotional appeals that may be perceived as frightening, can have a constructive impact by leading voters to seek information. The study concludes by discussing the political implications of these effects and what, if anything, can be done to enhance the constructive effects and moderate the destructive impact of negative campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper concentrates on the experience of party formation and organizational development in the relatively recently established democracies of Southern and East-Central Europe. The analysis shows that these parties have adopted an organizational style which largely resembles that of their contemporary counterparts in the older democracies, in that they reveal a declining importance of partisan linkages with society, a high dependence on public funding and a concomitant oligarchization of party structures. They differ significantly from parties in the older democracies, however, in the sense that the control over both the extra-parliamentary organization and the party in public office emerges from a small center of power within the party executive rather than the public face of the party. Furthermore, and despite the many resemblances between party organizations in the older liberal democracies and the newly established ones, the path of party formation in new democracies is best understood as a process sui generis. The historical uniqueness of the emergence of parties as strong movements of society, as opposed to agents of the state, is a path which is unlikely to be repeated in contemporary polities that democratize in a different institutional context. Consequently, the absence of successful challenges of alternative types of party in newly established democracies is likely to enhance the continued prolongation of parties as elitist and statist institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The recent debate over President Bush’s faith-based initiatives combines a historical legacy of church-state conflict with an area of public policy ? welfare ? that rivals religion and politics in the controversy it generates. Organized groups have always helped create and reinforce disputes over both church-state and welfare policy, and the recent debate over faith-based initiatives is no exception. Groups have engaged both mass opinion and political elites over the interconnections of religious freedom and establishment, effective welfare provision, and employment discrimination, among other issues. This paper examines how the motivations and resources of certain key organizations were brought to bear on the issue of religion and welfare from the mid 1990s to the present. The political decisions of these organizations shaped the debate over public-private partnerships when Congress passed welfare reform legislation in 1996 ? legislation that ultimately set the stage for the White House’s most recent proposals. This study highlights the complexities of issue definition over time and across institutions, as different groups formed coalitions and divided their labor to focus on specialized needs within Congress, the courts, and the executive branch. My underlying argument is that organized participation has been both a product of and influence on the political and policy environment surrounding elite support for faith-based social services. Groups do not simply influence policy development from the outside; they take part in the political nitty-gritty by meeting with executive officials, testifying before Congress, litigating, helping to draft administrative rules, and so on. Groups use these political environments to push their policy preferences, but these preferences ? or, more precisely, the ways groups frame their preferences ? are shaped by the very environments groups attempt to engage. In particular, I focus on how different institutional contexts influence not only the types of information groups are likely to convey, but whether groups attempt to convey information at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although both George W. Bush and Al Gore praised the work of religious organizations and pledged to provide faith-based groups a voice in their administration, the bipartisan support of faith-based legislation quickly dissolved in the 107th Congress. How did the policy environment shift so dramatically from consensus to conflict? This paper compares and contrasts the role of the faith-based initiative in the Bush and Gore campaigns to identify important differences in the two candidates? rhetoric and focus. A final section considers several political factors that contributed to the divisiveness of the debate as the new President sought to implement the faith-based policies promised in his campaign. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on terrorism makes many references to the identity and states of mind of the terrorist, his ability to adaptively choose from among a limited range of tactics, and her willingness to make strategic choices that form the basis of political violence as a wholly instrumental act. The purpose of this paper is to explore the socially constructed identity basis of terrorism. I define terrorism and then examine the relationship between identity, and its sources, social learning, resource mobilization, opportunity, and strain, as causes of terrorism. After integrating the different identity approaches I derive six hypotheses and subject them to cross-sectional empirical analysis. The results suggest preliminary support for an identity-based theory of terrorism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political observers have long assumed the Republican Party suffers from a religious cleavage. The religious, or Christian, right forms one wing of the party, while the more traditional Rockefeller Republicans comprise the other. This paper examines the nature and extent of this division within the electorate. The analysis, which uses logistic regression to inspect data from VNS Exit Polls (1996 and 1998), suggest that Republicans in the South do make electoral distinctions based on both their own identification (or lack of identification) as a religious rightist, as well as the nature of the candidates from which they choose. Traditional Republicans are less likely to vote for their party’s candidates if that candidate is closely connected with the religious right, while religious right Republicans vote for Republican candidates at similar rates regardless of the candidate’s connection with the religious right. This regional cleavage may have dramatic ramifications for the Republican Party’s ability to maintain, or even increase, its dominance in the South and across the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The study identifies the factors associated with the nomination and election prospects of white ethnic and visible minority candidates in three Canadian elections held between 1993 and 2000. Bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses identified how party affiliation, the geographic location of a riding, incumbency, local party competitiveness, riding cultural heterogeneity, campaign spending, minority competition, and a candidate’s racial or ethnic background influenced electoral outcomes for 3,634 candidates. Interviews were also conducted with minority politicians representing the five main parties, in order to delineate how party gatekeepers, access to campaign funds and volunteers and media coverage of their local campaigns, influenced their prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]