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Objectives: Questions of attitude stability for appointed decisionmakers are vital to our understanding of democracy. I test the assumption of bureaucratic preference stability that is widespread in formal and empirical analyses of the U.S. executive branch. Methods: The study presents a qualitative analysis of quantitative voting data for members of the National Labor Relations Board from 1948 to 1988 Results: Analysis reveals a few clear cases of permanent and important preference change and some evidence of change at the very beginning or very end of a few board members' careers. But overall there is remarkable stability in the relative levels of support for labor exhibited by board members as their careers unfold. Conclusions: With some notable exceptions, an independent regulatory board member's revealed preferences tend to remain stable and consistent with the expectations that any observer would have had at the time of their initial appointment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the relationship between stressful life events, drug use, and self-reported violence perpetration among 293 Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Filipino adolescents. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with students in three high schools in Hawai'i. Stressful life events were delineated into three categories: transitions, discrete events, and victimization. Samoans reported more stressful life events than Native Hawaiians and/or Filipinos, depending on the subscale, but there were no sex differences in the stressful life events total scale or subscales. There were sex differences on several stressful life events items, including boys reporting more physical victimization and more life threatening illnesses and injuries than girls. Stressful life events were related to higher rates of violence perpetration for all groups, though specific types of events were significant for some groups but not others. Drug use moderated the influence of transitions on violent behaviors for boys and Samoan adolescents and also of discrete events on violence perpetration for Samoan adolescents. Additional research is needed to examine other risk factors, as well as types of protective factors that may moderate the relationship between life stressors and engaging in violent behaviors. (Contains 4 tables and 5 notes.)

Designed survey to capture information useful in developing typical college-recruiter profile. Findings from 934 recruiters revealed that most were White (92 percent) and male (75 percent). Concludes that, after decade of affirmative action and growing numbers of women in the work force, profile of typical recruiter has not changed. (NB)

If judges are politically strategic, they may try to retire at times that maximize the chances that an ideologically compatible successor will be appointed. Using biographical data on all appellate judges who have retired since 1892, a heteroscedastic panel probit model is used to examine retirement timing as a function of personal and political factors. We determine whether retirement from the bench can be explained exclusively by personal factors such as salary, pension, and workload, or if political considerations enter into the decision. The data reveal that retirement decisions are affected primarily by nonpolitical considerations, but presidential elections may factor into a judge's decision. The only important strategic political consideration in evidence is whether a judge contemplating retirement faces an opposing party president and how far off that president's next election is.

This study examined the relationship between stressful life events, drug use, and self-reported violence perpetration among 293 Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Filipino adolescents. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with students in three high schools in Hawai'i. Stressful life events were delineated into three categories: transitions, discrete events, and victimization. Samoans reported more stressful life events than Native Hawaiians and/or Filipinos, depending on the subscale, but there were no sex differences in the stressful life events total scale or subscales. There were sex differences on several stressful life events items, including boys reporting more physical victimization and more life threatening illnesses and injuries than girls. Stressful life events were related to higher rates of violence perpetration for all groups, though specific types of events were significant for some groups but not others. Drug use moderated the influence of transitions on violent behaviors for boys and Samoan adolescents and also of discrete events on violence perpetration for Samoan adolescents. Additional research is needed to examine other risk factors, as well as types of protective factors that may moderate the relationship between life stressors and engaging in violent behaviors.

Supreme Court confirmation is an exhaustively studied phenomenon, but lower court confirmation is less well understood, in part because lower court nominees are very rarely rejected, and the Senate fails even to hold a recorded vote for most appointees. However, the length of time it takes to fill a judicial vacancy serves as alternate evidence of conflict between the president and the Senate. We present an empirical assessment of appellate vacancy conflict, based on a continuous time-proportional hazard model of vacancy duration. Our results demonstrate that female and minority candidates are confirmed only after unusually long vacancies, and this has nothing to do with the qualifications of the nominees. Our results also demonstrate that institutional and partisan conflict between the Senate and the White House drive the confirmation process for the federal appeals courts, but delay tactics employed by the Senate are only partially strategic, r

Despite the importance of political appointees in U.S. politics, most of what we know about bureaucratic appointment centers on institutional conflict between the separate legislative and executive branches, and ignores personal qualities of nominees that so often seem pivotal to the selection debate. Using data drawn from every appointment to four U.S. independent regulatory agencies, I present empirical evidence that perceived property rights relating to party, race, and gender of appointees powerfully structure appointment process and outcomes. A new model of race and gender of appointees demonstrates that race and gender of an appointee's predecessor is a significant predictor of who gets selected. A separate model of appointment duration demonstrates that partisan factors significantly contribute to delay, but that race and gender considerations do not significantly extend vacancies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If judges are politically strategic, they may try to retire at times that maximize the chances that an ideologically compatible successor will be appointed. Using biographical data on all appellate judges who have retired since 1892, a heteroscedastic panel probit model is used to examine retirement timing as a function of personal and political factors. We determine whether retirement from the bench can be explained exclusively by personal factors such as salary, pension, and workload, or if political considerations enter into the decision. The data reveal that retirement decisions are affected pnmarily by nonpolitical considerations, but presidential elections may factor into a judge's decision. The only important strategic political consideration in evidence is whether a judge contemplating retirement faces an opposing party president and how far off that president's next election is. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]