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This research focuses on the work of John Rawls and political liberalism in the context of housing policy in post-apartheid South Africa. During the democratic transition in South Africa, the new administration's attention to housing policy was negligent. There was a failure to address and rectify the systemic discrimination in spatial arrangement serving to further worsen the situation for the disadvantaged black majority. This paper will go through an ideal conceptualization of post-apartheid housing policy. Following this, the paper will examine the evolution of housing policy from 1989 to the present. Through a Rawlsian lens, this research asks the question: what can be learned from a comparative analysis of ideal theory and actual circumstance in a post-apartheid South Africa? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about knowledge scales and the measurement of political sophistication to be presented at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association at Orlando, Florida from January 3-5, 2013. It also examines the results from these self-assessments with the judgments rendered by survey interviewers.

This paper seeks to build upon the current literature examining whether federal funding of R&D projects at U.S. universities acts as a complement or a substitute to private investment. The analysis begins by building upon the framework set forth by Payne (2001), which suggests that public funding acts as signal of institutional quality to private investors. This paper utilizes panel data on virtually every research university in the country from 1975 - 1999 to determine if investors receive signals stemming from the distribution of university resources. This paper also looks at whether the source of government funds matters in terms of the strength of the signals broadcast to private investors. Results from an OLS regression using institutional fixed effects support both hypotheses. Finally, possible issues resulting from non-stationarity and cointegration are explored using a Single Equation Error Correction Model. The results from this estimation suggest that federal and private funding may interact in a long-run equilibrium, but only when changes in federal funding are treated as the dependent variable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper related to outbidding model of terrorist group politics and violent intergroup dynamics and domestic terrorist campaigns to be presented at the Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, from January 3-5, 2013, in Orlando, Florida, is presented. It also examines the aspects of outbidding as part of a broader strategic logic of conflict and terrorism.

A conference paper related to role of citizens in decentralization and formation of local government. It informs about decentralization, which is defined as a process of state reform composed of a set of public policies that transfer responsibilities, resources, or authority from higher to lower levels of government. It further states that the potential benefits of decentralization will not be realized unless citizens do not perceive these actions as responses to their preferences.

While the link between religion and politics in the U.S. has been heavily researched, the idea of religion as a voting cue in congressional elections warrants attention. This paper expands on the idea that religion can act as a voting cue signaling voters to cast their ballot for a candidate who shares their religious affiliation. Specifically, this paper answers the question of whether individuals vote for a congressional candidate who shares their religion. Data from the American National Election Studies (ANES) 2008 post-election survey, as well as data on candidate religion from Project Vote Smart's candidate biography dataset and the 2008 Almanac of American Politics, are used to gauge the extent to which religion acts as a voting cue in U.S. House elections. This paper finds that there is indeed a relationship between the major religious group of voters and the major religious group of House candidates. In other words, this paper suggests that there is a link between voter religion and vote choice, which gives insight into both voter behavior and the link between religion and politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A substantial amount of scholarship examines external interventions into civil conflict, but there is a dearth of similar effort regarding pre-conflict intervention. This is due, in no small part, to a lack of available data that accurately captures the phenomenon of interest. However, a new dataset that includes states at-risk of experiencing political instability offers empirical leverage on many questions regarding interventions into such situations. This paper focuses on the structural and contextual conditions that make states the likely targets of those interventions. I find that low levels of violence and the presence of identifiable opposition groups increase the likelihood of intervention while the presence of oil within a state seemingly has no effect. On the whole, the paper provides the first step into a promising new research area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political disengagement of the poor poses an enduring challenge to the integrity of American democracy. In 1993, Congress attempted to address this problem by passing Section 7 of the National Voting Registration Act (NVRA), which requires that all public assistance agencies provide beneficiaries with the opportunity to register to vote. Since the passage of this legislation, compliance with Section 7 has declined steadily and has exhibited marked variation across the American states. This paper draws on federal administrative data as well as census and other contextual information to explain the reasons for such patterns. Times series cross-sectional analyses reveal that state level configurations of race and class are key determinants of section 7 implementation. Moreover, these findings reflect a combination of top-down (stemming from political elites) and bottom-up (stemming from street-level bureaucrats) influences. The paper concludes by considering the broader implications of non-compliance with Section 7 and assessing the appropriate policy tools for combatting states' tendencies towards conditional commitment to the political equality of marginal groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper supposes that stability in leader survival is the key interest to a leader herself although it may not provide an accountable leader. The hypothesis to test in this paper is whether leader longevity is influenced by mass movement that is indicated as electoral behavior, or depends on a leader's strategy of survival determined by the loyalty norm institution. Based on a composite data set that provides information on electoral politics and the winning coalition institution, I employ three measures of electoral and social stability - the level of mass threats, electoral non-participation, and electoral competition - to test these hypotheses. The empirical findings indicate that electoral non-participation and mass threats are key determinants to the risk of leader deposition, while the leader herself has room to manipulate the risk by constraining the level of mass media. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More than a decade ago, Brehm and Gates introduced their "working-shirking-sabotage" taxonomy on how bureaucrats respond to work task--and proposed that employee "shirking" behavior is less detrimental to performance than "sabotage." However, the performance consequences of "shirking" as opposed to those of "sabotage" remain empirically unsubstantiated. This paper offers evidence on the task performance effect of frontline public service employee "working," "shirking," and "sabotaging" preferences using a new approach to operationalization of Brehm and Gates' taxonomy. Specifically, I suggest that measures of effort (how hard a person works) and direction (the direction that a persons' effort takes toward attainment of workplace goals) can capture the "working-shirking-sabotage" taxonomy classifications. Using rich survey and administrative data on 454 secondary school teachers and 4309 students, the paper exploits a data feature allowing for within-student between-subject estimation. I discover that the direction of teachers' work efforts has a positive effect on their teaching performance, i.e., their students' final exam achievements. The findings thus confirm heterogeneous performance effects of "shirking" and "sabotage". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about individual decision making behavior in the context of reservation wages in the U.S. is presented. It address the question that why individual legislators decide whether to remain in their elected position or voluntarily retire. It further discusses additional tenure, pensions, and public office employee benefits given to public service officers, and benefits of professionalization.

A conference paper about investigating the effects of political science education on the feelings of the students for the U.S. and its political system is presented. It discusses impact of political scientists' curricular practices and pedagogical approaches on students. It examines the political courses introduced by political sociologist Seymour Martin Lipset, and explores how learning about American politics in comparative perspective affected students' attitudes towards the U.S.

A conference paper about the process and conduct of the design, delivery, and assessment of a legislative simulation for an upper division undergraduate level for the learning about the U.S. Congress in political science in the U.S. presented. It mentions that simulation included committee hearings, markup sessions, floor debates and final votes along with a debriefing session. It examines the use of simulations in the political science classroom by many educators.

This paper presents a synthesis theoretical framework that could serve as a basis for empirical studies of the fulfillment of electoral pledges in modern democracies. A weak version of positive mandate theory is put forth that draws on a number of theoretical sources. A partially restricted mandate is seen as a natural theoretical fit for modern representative government, as well as manifesto-based governance and responsible party government. Nevertheless, these approaches share a sense of normativity, in that they all assume that representative government is in line with the 'public good'. Mandate theory, so defined, remains self-contradictory, which poses difficulties for the efforts to create a coherent theoretical framework that can be functional for empirical testing. Leaving questions of the public interest aside, a potent alternative to standard accountabilitycentered, ex post theories of representative government may be constructed. Amongst the major elements of this framework counts the informativeness of the electoral campaign; the transparency and straightforwardness of electoral pledges; and the unambiguity of the results of the authorization process, i.e. the election. A weak version of positive mandate theory, so construed, lends itself well for operationalization. Thus, the paper concludes by outlining a possible research agenda for this weak version of mandate theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narratives play a significant role in shaping identity and take central role in the traditions of the Acholi tribe in northern Uganda. This paper is a deconstructive feminist analysis of the Acholi genesis narrative of Labongo and the spear. Historical narratives frame complicated events and act as a guiding framework for group action and define notions of self, other and difference. The Acholi have been at the center of an ongoing twenty-six year conflict between the Lord's Resistance Army and the government of Uganda. Additionally, they have played a role in an even longer history of tumult and conflict in the country since independence in 1962. Drawing upon feminist and psychology literature, this paper examines the multiple meanings of this particular genesis narrative and has two major implications for conflict and security studies: narratives based on conflict have a self-perpetuating loop between reinforcement of warrior identity and conflict, and that historical myths can be politically manipulated to justify hostilities and violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political parties can be major players in promoting citizens' political participation, One of the mechanisms parties can utilize to increase citizens' participation are open and democratic internal processes in the selection of their candidates. In this paper, based on the Mexican Partido Revolucionario Institucional internal primaries, held in November 1999, and a panel data survey with four rounds analyzing the Mexican presidential elections of 2000 I show that citizens who participated in the PRI primaries had a larger propensity to be engaged in the electoral process. This paper brings new evidence to three understudied subjects: primaries in Latin American democracies, primaries in democratizing countries, and the participatory effects of those election mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I assess the impact of the presence of opposition entrepreneurs in campaigns on affirmative vote percentages for county and school district special purpose local-option sales tax (SPLOST) proposals in counties in the Metropolitan Atlanta region. SPLOSTs are one percent sales taxes for developmental capital infrastructure projects, such as roads and new schools. The main question addressed by this paper is, how does the presence of identifiable opposition-leading entrepreneurs in SPLOST campaigns affect the affirmative (?yes?) vote percentages for these sales tax proposals? Aggregate-level county data and election specific campaign data are collected for 86 county and school district SPLOST referenda in 15 counties in the Atlanta metropolitan region during the time period spanning from 1998 through 2011. The results of OLS regression analyses support the hypothesis that the presence of opposition entrepreneurs in SPLOST campaigns reduces affirmative voting. The expectation that the existence of opposition generally would result in a decline in affirmative voting was not supported. The results suggest that opposition, by itself, is not sufficient to impact voting outcomes in tax referendum elections. Rather, consequential opposition efforts need to be led by a clear, identifiable leader. This study contributes to the overall understanding of aggregate-level voting behavior in local tax referenda with the finding that individual entrepreneurs leading opposition in tax campaigns play a significant role in tax issue election vote outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about monetary policies of the U.S. Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), a committee within the Federal Reserve System (the Fed), is presented. It discusses dispute over the degree of politicization of the Fed's monetary policy, and board members of the Committee including the Board of Governors, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and four other Reserve Bank presidents. It examines the effects of global financial crisis on the Fed.

In this paper I examine the fundamental factors that shaped the 2012 presidential campaign and ultimately produced a fairly close but decisive victory for Barack Obama. I argue that the voting patterns seen in 2012 both at the state level and at the individual level reflected an increasingly partisan and polarized electorate. The paper also discusses some of the long-term trends within the American electorate that contributed to Obama's victory including growing racial and ethnic diversity and increasing liberalism on social issues. I argue that the 2012 results may signal the emergence, at least in presidential elections, of the long-term Democratic majority predicted a decade ago by John Judis and Ruy Teixeira. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of interest group population characteristics is becoming increasingly popular. This is for good reasons as these studies reveal important insights in population dynamics, such as niche behavior, survival rates, the development of individual groups and bandwagoning. All of these aspects are immensely important to understand skewed interest representation patterns which ultimately may feed into biased policy outcomes. Few interest group population studies, however, have been carried out in neo - corporatist systems. Presumably, population development in these polities differs from the dynamics found in neo - pluralist systems, which represent the focus of most studies on this topic. Our paper aims to contribute to the study of interest group populations by employing a comparative population analysis in two neo - corporatist countries, Belgium and The Netherlands. In addition to examining how a corporatist system affects population dynamics, this comparison also allows for testing the effects of institutional variation. Our paper thereby contributes to the comparative study of interest representation more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the impact of state and federal Second Amendment on the U.S. cause lawyers is presented. It examines gun rights and gun control Second Amendment cause lawyers who are litigating on cases related to fire arms. It discusses various styles of cause lawyering including mobilization cause lawyering, individual-client lawyering and client voice lawyering.

A conference paper about social composition of the Korean National Assembly is presented. It mentions that the electoral system for the National Assembly is defined by laws and political parties also establishes rules for the selection of political candidates. Topics discussed include women quota system and its effect, adoption of a two-vote system, and gender biasness.

This paper analyzes the effects of ethnic secession upon Eritrea and South Sudan, examining the purported benefits and the actual results. Ethnic conflict is a significant problem for many states, with the African continent suffering disproportionately. Proponents of ethnic secession argue that secession alleviates ethnic conflict by permitting individual ethnic groups to have their own state, stimulating ethnic homogeneity and social harmony. Opponents argue that ethnic secession creates greater ethnic fragmentation, fueling ethnic cleansing, and raises the prospects of renewed violence. Using the case studies of Eritrea and South Sudan, along with data from the Polity IV and Freedom House indices, this paper concludes that instead of generating ethnic harmony, ethnic secession is more likely to inflame ethnic conflict beyond even pre-partition levels, becoming far more detrimental than it is beneficial. The inherent ambiguity associated with defining ethnicity is a strong contributor here, as is the fallacious perception that any state can even be ethnically homogenous. The experiences of Eritrea and South Sudan underscore this point, demonstrating the need for a more objective basis for secession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the theory of the median voter as an explanatory model on the choices for fiscal design in federal systems. According to this model, local governments support fiscal centralization when this decision corresponds to the preference of its median voter. This model is discussed in connection with the decisions adopted by the Brazilian Constituent Assembly of 1988 on fiscal design. From this discussion, the paper proposes an alternative explanation on the choices for fiscal designs, which takes into account not only the preference of the median voter for levels of taxation, but also the preferences of local government representatives for fiscal designs that involve an increase in revenue for local government and, primarily, do not impose revenue losses or risks of revenue losses related to the status quo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about political theology of philosopher Carl Schmitt is presented. It mentions that Schmitt's theory helps in understanding the Islamists and Hindu Nationalists but has limitation while integrating these new religious political movements into democratic and pluralistic countries such as India and Middle-East. Topics discussed include problem of the modern state, religious political movements, and German philosopher Jürgen Habermas' prospect of post-secularism.

Resource rich countries have a low incentive to join international organizations (IOs) because they do not need IOs as a forum to attract foreign investors or to seek access to foreign markets (Voeten and Ross, 2011). An increasing number of IOs, however, has been created by resource rich countries or have resource rich countries as members. In addition to economic reasons, what explains resource rich countries' behavior to engage in globalization and to enter into IOs? Basing upon the literature on the informational role of IOs, this paper argues that IO membership helps enhance political leaders' survival prospects, particularly in resource rich countries, because IOs can legitimize leaders, act as a scapegoat for leaders, and signal leaders' intention to secure their power to the domestic audience. Drawing upon data on leadership turnover and a discrete-time survival model, this paper finds that membership in intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) leads to longer political tenure, and the effect is stronger when the level of resource rents a country enjoys is higher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about Australia's participation in both World War I and Vietnam war is presented. It discusses death of 60,000 soldiers of the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War as compared to 494 in Vietnam, role of Australian Prime Minister Billy Hughes who was reluctant to push conscription through Parliament and failure of Australian policymakers in reducing the exposure to combat risk. It analyzes the role of Australian Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson in war.

Public opinion polls and survey research have yielded a wealth of data on religion and politics in the last few decades, but the reason for the connection between religious beliefs and political commitments remains underexplored. Political scientists know that belief in doctrines such as Biblical literalism, the virgin birth, the Resurrection, Satan, and Hell are strong proxies for personal piety, and strong predictors of Republican partisan identification. Nevertheless, public opinion researchers have largely demurred from a deeper examination of the symbolic and imaginative narratives in which religious adherents situate these beliefs. This paper argues against mono-causal interpretations of the relationship between religion and politics, specifically against scholarship that assumes religion as exogeneous to political commitments. Rather, this paper provides an epistemological grounding in interpretivism for the idea that religious beliefs and political opinions are endogeneous. Religion and politics are part of a larger cultural system of narratives, mutually shaping and reinforcing one another in individuals' imaginations. This paper offers a hermeneutic framework for the study of religion and politics in public opinion, illustrated by two vignettes of religion and politics research: one that neglects the interpretive puzzle, and one that attends to the underlying symbolic structure of beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about women's issues that were raised during the 112th presidential election and the initiatives taken by the female political candidates during the election is presented. Topics discussed include reproductive rights and contraceptive access, the U.S. Violence Against Women Act, and the Republican Women's Policy Committee. It mentions that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommended women's preventive health care coverage in insurance plans in 2011.

A conference paper about the efficiency of U.S. President Barack Obama in generating public approval of his job performance despite economic conditions that affected his administration is presented. It discusses a study that employed Data Envelopment Analysis and multiple regression model. Topics discussed include comparison of Obama's popularity function during his first term in the White House with 10 previous U.S. presidents, estimation of presidential popularity and Obama's approval.

A conference paper about the impact of polarization on the relationship between macroeconomic fundamentals and outcomes of the U.S. presidential elections is presented. It discusses economic model of presidential election outcomes including gross domestic product (GDP) growth, inflation and measure of the expansiveness of monetary policy. The study concludes that one type of polarization effects relationship between economic context and presidential election results.

A conference paper about the relationship between rhetorical style and public responsiveness in several U.S. governors is presented. Topics discussed include political communication skills of governors to promote their policy, their verbal style and gubernatorial style which consists measures of optimism, certainty and realism. It highlights the variability in verbal style within the speeches of an individual and communication with colleagues.

The article offers information on the program of the 2023 Southern Political Science Association Annual Conference. It includes workshops, panels, roundtable discussions, and presentations on various topics such as converting research into policy change, securing collaborative and international grants, individual and household decision-making during disasters, learning from past elections, and the role of race and ethnicity in politics.

The International Republican Institute (IRI) has conducted political party building programs in developing democracies for twenty-five years. The historic and geographic breadth of the Institute's work in this area gives it a unique perspective, which can yield important lessons about strategies and activities that are most successful in strengthening and democratizing political parties. To identify lessons learned from this experience, IRI's Office of Monitoring and Evaluation undertook case study research of political party programs in eight countries. To frame the research, the team first developed six principles that describe attributes of a mature, fully-functioning political party. The research phase of the project included a desktop review of in-house documents, a review of political conditions on the ground and interviews with in-country partners, as well as IRI staff in Washington, D.C. and in the field. Using the collected data, the team then assessed the extent to which targeted parties had developed, and what role the Institute had played in that development, using the six principles to frame the analysis. Based on the findings of this research, this paper provides an overview of common strategies and activities employed by IRI to promote party development. This paper also makes some initial conclusions regarding how IRI's activities impacted party development in particular political contexts, including why some strategies may have been more effective than others. These conclusions are then distilled into a series of recommendations designed to inform and strengthen future party development efforts. The recommendations are elaborated on throughout the body of the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study seeks to illuminates the dynamics of technological progress and campaign strategy. This paper explores the relationship between a political campaign's identity and its use of internet technologies. Detailed case studies of Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign along with examination of previous online innovators, reveals outsider campaigns with an antipolitics message to have been responsible for many breakthroughs in online politics. This paper argues that such innovation is possible because these campaigns are unconstrained by the conventional wisdom of political consultants. This leads to development of online tactics that maximize the internet's unique capacities for social networking while traditional campaigns remain stuck in the mindset of the TV era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical Social Theory offers interpretations of human behavior, interpretations driven by certain goals. These goals are the identification of unjust social practices and the location of mechanisms for changing these practices for the better. Unfortunately, many contemporary works of social criticism pursue two highly questionable strategies. First, they systematically attribute irrational behavior to those suffering under unjust institutions. Second, they explain the existence of these institutions, as well as the prevalence of irrational behavior, in functionalist terms. These functionalist explanations are unsatisfactory, partially due to their inherent limitations (as detailed in the works of, among others, Jon Elster), but primarily due to the lack of leverage such explanations afford in terms of strategies for social change. The tendency for social critics to rely on explanations that are both functionalist and irrationality-based is not an accident. In this paper, I shall trace ways in which functionalism inevitably enters critical social theory once the assumption that the oppressed are irrationally acquiescing in their oppression is made. As an example of this, I shall investigate in some depth how this happens in Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth (1991). Works such as Wolf's either embrace explanations of injustice that are both functionalist and irrationality-based, or else they deny both functionalism and irrationality by denying the existence of injustice. (I shall explore the latter topic in another paper.) The theories that result foreclose on promising roads for interpretation that recognize both the injustice of certain social arrangements and the basic rationality of those who suffer under them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a formal model of the investigative journalism process. The choice of what to cover is often thought about in terms of the agenda setting power of the media. While fundamentally important, this research often neglects the internal process by which an outlet chooses which issues to investigate. If media outlets provide any oversight of the political process, then the question of what is investigated is central to their monitoring role. The model I develop in this paper analyzes both single and multiple outlet competition and provides general conditions in which competition leads to an under supply of investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the first time since 1992, pundits were dubbing the election cycle as ushering in "The Year of the Woman" in the Summer of 2010. But after the Fall Elections, these same pundits are changing their tune, calling the midterm elections a setback for female candidates. In this paper we explore what happened in the year 2010, what has happened over time, what is happening in the world, and (more importantly) why. Studies look at performances in legislative elections, statewide elections, state legislatures, gender statistics in parliaments of the world, females heads of state and heads of government from other countries, gender quota laws, poll responses, and studies from political scientists about evaluating female candidates for issue preference, ideology and qualifications for political office. The paper concludes with a look toward the future of women in American politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will examine Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan as a civil theological contrivance written as a remedy for the social distress of his time and to compare Hobbes's construction with both Plato's Republic, a work rich in civil theological implications of its own. Moreover, the paper will examine recent trends in the United States that have seen civil theology become a significant factor in contemporary American political thought and practice. This factor can be viewed as an integral part of the conservative political agenda, particularly among a group of conservatives influenced by Leo Strauss, the neoconservatives. A critical question is thus posed: does this religious factor constitute a civil theology in the Hobbesian sense and, if so, to what degree? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do filibusters convey information? In a previous paper we address this question by presenting and testing an incomplete information account of the filibuster. The game-theoretic model produces a discontinuous, non-monotonic hazard rate against which we compare the empirical hazard rate of filibusters. The discontinuity in the predicted hazard results from the presence of different types of filibusters. Existing duration models, however, are unable to account for this heterogeneity when the types are unobserved. In this paper we develop a maximum likelihood estimator that more directly corresponds to the theoretical prediction by modeling the observed duration process as a mixture between related duration processes with different forms of duration dependence. Our estimator differs from related "cure" models since they assume that a subset of observation will never fail; we assume that all observations ultimately fail, but that they exhibit distinct hazards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One rationalist explanation for war points out that leaders and publics may have divergent utility functions. This paper examines the conditions under which leaders may use entry into conict mediation during an ongoing dispute as a signal to domestic audiences that they are not prolonging a conict out of self-interest, but rather due to the continued absence of a bargaining range. The paper demonstrates formally that the public's beliefs in the government's trustworthiness, the costliness of entering into mediation, and the ability of the mediator to obtain information about disputants' preferences determine whether mediation can serve as a signal of trustworthiness to domestic audiences, and when it can be used by dissembling governments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is both a political history as well as a methodological model for understanding the relationship between participation of religious actors and the continued existence of blue laws, which restrict alcohol sales on Sundays, in certain states but not in others. In order to do this, the paper will first review the history of the role of religion and politics in the United States with particular interest in regards to Sabbath laws and alcohol policies. Second, the paper will review the literature in regards to religion and political participation in order to demonstrate the role religious actors have had in regards to public policy. Finally, this paper will propose a model and method by which to explore the association between religious participation and the continuing existence of blue laws in some states but not in others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While considerable attention has been devoted to institutional arrangements as a determinant of citizen coproduction (citizen participation in public services production), much less attention has been given to modeling the theoretically expected individual-level determinants and their interaction with the government initiatives that intentionally try to increase citizen coproduction. This leaves an unclear ground for empirical testing of the effects of both the individual-level factors and government initiatives. This paper proposes a number of theoretical models which combine the various suggested individual-level determinants of citizen coproduction. Moreover, the paper models the interaction of the individual-level determinants with the government initiatives in the explanation of citizen coproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the very beginning of Plato's Republic, Polemarchus and a few associates emerge to interdict the passage of Socrates and Glaucon as the two are returning home to Athens. When Socrates asks if he might persuade his interlocutors to let the two Athenians pass, Polemarchus says that his group simply will not listen, and that Socrates and Glaucon "better make up [their] mind to that (ο?τω διανο∊?σ&thetas;∊)." The present paper seizes upon this highly enigmatic phrase as a point of departure for interrogating the relationship between free thought and political power at the founding of political theory. The paper draws on the history of ancient Greek religious practices and a particular psychoanalytic topology put forward by Jacques Lacan, in order to demonstrate that this enigmatic and overtly politicized opening of the Republic memorializes a dialectical relationship, always present but repressed, between political forces and the "pure thought" of philosophical theory. Along these lines it is shown how Plato situates even the very philosophical high point of the Republic, the theory of forms, in a political topology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars debate the significance of political entrepreneurship at the international and supranational levels, wherein ambitious individual agents are supposed to develop and propose policy in the interstices of traditional, formal governing structures. Although a long stream of scholars have called attention to the increasing prevalence of this practice, others have offered evidence that such political entrepreneurship is only a rare supplement to traditional intergovernmental statecraft. Beyond this, however, there has been little concerted effort to theorize a wide range of outcomes in entrepreneurial efforts at the international level and to specify precisely the conditions under which one of several particular outcomes is most likely. In a modest effort toward filling this gap, the present paper offers a formal model of the relationship between an international political Entrepreneur and a Chief of Government (CoG) and generates a series of hypotheses about how the distribution of information and the relative values for costs and payoffs affect the outcome of their strategic interaction. Hypotheses are considered in light of evidence from the history of the European Communities. The paper demonstrates that strategic interaction and information asymmetries are theoretically and empirically significant components of international political entrepreneurship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although the literature on congressional change has established that both the House and Senate have become increasingly polarized along party lines over time, this conclusion is limited primarily to patterns of voting behavior. An exploration of another legislative practice, bill cosponsorship, reveals that while partisan polarization in the House has increased over time, the same is not necessarily true for the Senate. Using data on bill cosponsorship for the 93rd through 110th Congresses, this paper presents two conclusions. First, over time, House members have become more exclusive in their cosponsorship decisions, associating primarily with members of their own party. Second, and in contrast to this, the cosponsorship ties among senators have become more bipartisan; in recent years, more senators have adopted ?50-50 networks,? or cosponsorship networks composed of equal numbers of members from both parties. These results suggest that the increasing partisan polarization for which this era has become known may not be as prevalent as we have thought. Rather, when we scratch below the surface of roll call behavior and explore the informal relationship-building activities of legislators, we find that differences in the institutional structures of the House and Senate, such as membership size and length of term, may create different behavioral outcomes in each chamber. This paper contributes to our understanding of congressional development by examining the polarization story from a new angle and recognizing that the House and Senate are two unique institutions, each requiring its own theoretical framework to be understood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conference paper about the policies of the former U.S. President George W. Bush in the context of prerogative power is presented. It discusses that the President has been vested prerogative powers to act beyond the narrow range of presidential powers vested by the Constitution. It examines the extraconstitutional presidential power in the context of the American constitutional system.

The article provides information on a research paper by Joshua C. Huder of the University of Florida, Florida which evaluates the U.S. Congress developmental history. This paper analyses public reform attempts in uncovering the larger patterns in congressional development. This paper also uses a content analysis of the articles newspaper "Washington Post" to analyze congressional reform in the public sphere.

The evaluation to voters' competence is controversial topic. Some scholars are very pessimistic, but other scholars retain the hope. The purpose of the paper is to assess the relationship between democratic accountability mechanism and voters' competence by focusing on the swing voting in the 2009 lower house election to cause the historical power shift. This paper displays that swing voting from the LDP to the DPJ contributed to the triumph of the DPJ. Moreover, analyzing the level of political knowledge and political information environment on the Japanese Election Study 4 dataset, this paper indicates that the swing voters are not ideal, but ordinary citizens who followed more knowledgeable side. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liberal scholars have long argued that economic interdependence reduces conflict in bilateral relationships. As states become economically interdependent with one another, they are less likely to enter into militarized conflict, as the binds of economic interaction reduce the payoff for militarized conflict, open passages of communication, and work to merge state interests. This paper extends this literature by asking, does exposure to the international economy reduce military spending? There are substantial reasons to believe that a negative relationship exists between military spending and economic globalization, as interdependence within dyads has been demonstrated to reduce the probability of conflict. The mechanisms that produce that pacific effect, such as signaling, ties, and the overall reduction of conflict, may also work to reduce military spending. Moreover, regional economic interaction may create zones of peace that work to further reduce conflict, and thus the need for military spending. Yet there are clear mechanisms, identified by Realists scholars, that trade should do nothing to shape military spending, or in the very least increase it. This paper examines these arguments, and utilizes pooled time series data to examine the relationship between international trade both on a global and regional scale, and its relationship with military spending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]