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In Bobby Seale's Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton, first published in 1970, in the chapter on 'Pigs, Problems, Politics, and Panthers,' [...]

Based on cross-time-section series data collected from Wall Street Journal (WSJ), this article suggests that the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 60 countries/regions published by Transparency International is highly correlated [...]

Application of set theory, for analyzing spatial model of electoral behavior of voters and candidates, is described.

Students of legislative behavior are divided over the extent to which all electoral connection existed in the early United States. In this article, we offer a test of the electoral connection in early American politics by investigating the electoral aftershocks of the disputed presidential election of 1824. Using newly available county-level presidential voting data, along with the unique circumstances associated with the presidential contest, we examine the connection between representative behavior, district public opinion, and electoral outcomes. We find that representatives who voted for John Quincy Adams in the House contest, yet were from districts supporting Andrew Jackson, were targeted for ouster and suffered a substantial vote-loss in the subsequent midterm election. We also find that the entry of a quality challenger had a sizeable impact on the fortunes of incumbent legislators. These results serve to confirm that representatives could be held accountable for their behavior in office during the antebellum era.

Almost one-fourth of the members of the lower house in Italy, the Chamber of Deputies, switched parties at least once between 1996 and 2001. Why would a legislator abandon one party and enter another during a legislative term? Starting from the basic assumption that politicians are ambitious, we examine electoral and partisan motivations for members of parliament (MPs) who switch parties. We conclude that party switching most likely is motivated by party labels that provide little information about policy goals and that pit copartisans against each other in the effort to serve constituent needs. Switching is especially frequent when ambitious politicians operate under heightened uncertainty.

This paper studies to what extent economic integration, or globalization, influences the accountability of politicians. Assuming that politicians are controlled by the voters through reelection rules, we analyze to what extent economic integration affects the form of those rules and the efforts made by politicians. We define economic integration by the existence of policies and shocks interdependences between countries. Then, from a political point of view, this integration is shown to be a two-sided phenomenon. Shock-interdependence allows yardstick comparison, increases political accountability and therefore efforts while policy-interdependence induces a lack of responsibility and harms the extent to which politicians can be controlled. JEL classification: D72; D82; D84; P45 Keywords: Political economy; Asymmetric information; Economic integration; Yardstick competition

The conventional wisdom and congressional scholarship find that members of Congress use their public authority to facilitate their reelections (Aldrich 1995; Moe 1990; Parker 1992; Weingast and Marshall 1988). The adoption of the Pendleton Act of 1883 has been cited as another in a long line of examples in which members have 'stacked the deck' in their own self-interests (Johnson and Libecap 1994a). I challenge these pervasive views by presenting evidence that public pressure was an important and frequently overlooked factor in explaining the adoption of civil service reform in the late nineteenth century. More generally, I argue that members of Congress will enact reforms that diminish their power or restrict their authority only when the public is attentive and united; otherwise, they will establish governing structures and rules that facilitate their own reelections. This insight sheds light, more broadly, on the relationship between the represented and their representatives.

Many of the congress members neglected the oversight functions due to lack of adequate incentives. But recent evidence demonstrates that congress continues to oversee actively, but neglects one important venue for oversight that it previously used for the great effect.

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt has been a Democratic Party leader since 1989 but some analysts note indications he is considering leaving the House of Representatives after the Nov, 2002, elections. Gephardt may be planning a presidential campaign for 2004.

Introduction ON 20 FEBRUARY 1932, Communist Party of Canada (CPC) general secretary Tim Buck and six political bureau colleagues -- Sam Carr, Malcolm Bruce, Tom Ewan, A.T. Hill, John Boychuk, [...]

Photographs of Germany's foreign minister Joseph 'Joschka' Fischer demonstrating in the 1970s have brought back memories of the past especially the 1960s. The people's acceptance of his past marks a change in German politics and its redefinition as a country.

This article discusses reforms undertaken by the Russian monarchy in the 1860s and 1870s to renovate the sociopolitical structures of the country and introduce modernization from above, but also created social tensions, and ended with the assassination of reformist Tsar Alexander II in 1881. The author focuses on political reformer Konstantin Petrovich Polunov's break with the course of reform following the tsar's death and his suggestions of an alternative route for development which were followed by Alexander III and Nicholas II, and also influenced government policy, leading to many people blaming him for the revolution.

This article discusses the financial activities of Oliver Cromwell's counselor, General-Major John Lambert, focusing on elements of kinship in his assistance of Catholics and royalists, which was reciprocated during his post-Restoration imprisonment. The author also asserts that his flamboyant image undermined the army's unity, examines his religious and political outlook and concludes that revolution was limited at that time.

In recent years interactive decision making has become quite popular in The Netherlands, especially at the level of local government. It involves new forms of participation of citizens, consumers of public services and interest groups in the process of policy formation. Workshops, panels, internet discussions and a lot of other techniques are used to arrive at innovative and supported solutions for existing problems. The ambitions are high: these new forms of participation should result in better government both in the sense of providing better policies, but also in bridging the democratic gap between local government and citizens. However, these new forms of participation in local government are not without problems. Recent experiences suggest that one of the major problems is the challenge interactive decision making constitutes for the existing practice of representative politics. On the basis of two cases- the decision-making process concerning the expansion of the Rotterdam Harbour and the discussion about a new administrative structure for the Rotterdam region- this article illustrates that one of the barriers that stands in the way of the success of such processes is the ambiguous attitude of elected politicians. Although politicians often initiate interactive decision-making processes, they do not actively support these processes when they are in progress. The outcomes of interactive decision-making progress are often not used in the formal political procedures that follow. Because elected politicians fear that these new forms of participation threaten their political primacy, they find it hard to play a constructive role in these processes. In this paper we suggest that if politicians are serious about interactive decision making, they should reflect on their own role in it. Building upon empirical insights of the cases and on a discussion of two possible approaches to democracy, we suggest alternative roles for politicians. The prevailing substantive definition of primacy of politics should be redefined in order to allow politicians to fulfil the role of catalyst and facilitator of the public debate. In this way the eroded role of politicians in societal decision making may gain a new meaning.

Few television and print journalists gave George Wallace much credence as a legitimate presidential candidate when the fiery politician launched his third-party campaign for the presidency in 1967. Yet Wallace had, by 1968, forced the media to take notice by winning public support against all odds. The politician understood only too well that media thrived on confrontation and came perilously close to the presidency were it not for his disastrous error of unveiling his vice-presidential candidate on national television.

This article analyzes data on incumbent turnover in 103 provincial elections in Canada from 1960 to 1997. The author examines total turnover and the proportions attributable to retirement and electoral defeat. He notes that the overall rate of turnover in the provincial legislative assemblies is similar to that of the Canadian House of Commons. Further, voluntary retirement and electoral defeat comprise equal proportions of the total turnover. There are, however, important differences in the turnover rate and in its makeup, both by province and by time period. The author tests several models in an attempt to determine the correlates of turnover in Canadian provincial legislatures.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan manifested political brilliance during the 1960s and 1970 as part of the presidential cabinets of Pres Kennedy, Pres Johnson and Pres Nixon. Moynihan conceptualized the US policy on architecture of federal buildings as well as the Presidential Medal of Freedom., From time to time a professional intellectual wanders into high elective office in the United States; there also have been politicians who take late-life flyers at intellectual pursuits. Rarely, however, [...]

Leon Blum was one of France's greatest political leaders of the Third Republic after the end of World War II (WWII). He was a lawyer, writer and politician who upheld Socialist ideals and served as one of the country's most important and well-supported policy maker. He instituted several policies such as the 40-hour workweek, occupation of the Ruhr valley and alliance with Poland. However, he was blamed for the defeat of France during WWII and was charged with betrayal of his responsibilities as the prewar premier and vice premier.

Political scientists have long been interested in the occupational decisions of politicians. Two events prior to the 1992 congressional elections brought journalists and the broader public into emotion-rich but data-poor discussions of how and why to achieve greater turnover in Congress. The House banking scandal gave rise to standard arguments that voters should 'throw the bums out.' An initially obscure provision in the Federal Election Campaign Act, which allowed certain grandfathered members personally to pocket their campaign war chests, gave rise to somewhat more sophisticated assertions about 'buying the bums out.' Using preelection data on incumbents' decisions to retire or seek reelection, we estimate the effects of these special features of the 1992 election while improving upon prior estimates of strategic retirements more generally. By embedding an explicit occupational choice model into a maximum-likelihood equation, we find strong evidence of strategic retirements, and we quantify precisely the turnover that can be attributed to rubber checks and golden parachutes.