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Informal Influences in Selecting Female Political Candidates

Cheng, C., Tavits, M. — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:45:32 PST

The authors argue that the gender composition of party gatekeepers—those responsible for candidate recruitment— plays a crucial role in either encouraging or discouraging women candidates to run for office. Using an original data set that includes constituency-level information for all parties and candidates in the 2004 and 2006 Canadian national elections, the authors find support for this proposition. Women candidates are more likely to be nominated when the gatekeeper—the local party president—is a woman rather than a man. The results underline the importance of informal factors for understanding women’s political underrepresentation.

Electoral Systems: Assessing the Cross-Sectional Time-Series Data Sources

Teorell, J., Lindstedt, C. — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:27:18 PST

This article compares and assesses four freely available cross-sectional time-series data sets in terms of their information on ballot structure, district structure, and formula of the electoral system in use for lower house and, if relevant, upper house and presidential elections. The authors find that the choice of data source matters for conclusions drawn on the consequences of electoral systems for both party systems and corruption, but that no source can be given prominence over the other on methodological grounds. Students of electoral systems must thus, in the future, make their results sensitive to the choice of data source.

Ballot Question Readability and Roll-Off: The Impact of Language Complexity

Reilly, S., Richey, S. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:45:42 PDT

Ballot questions often feature obscure and legalistic language that is difficult to comprehend. Because the language of ballot questions is often unclear, the authors hypothesize that questions with lower readability will have higher roll-off because voters will not answer questions they do not understand.The authors use an objective measure of readability to code readability scores for 1,211 state-level ballot questions from 1997 to 2007. Using hierarchical linear regression models of state-level data, the authors find that increased complexity leads to more roll-off. The authors further analyze some possible influences on readability by examining whether it is affected by the question topic.

Rethinking Democracy: Legal Challenges to Pornography and Sex Inequality in Canada and the United States

Waltman, M. — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:45:42 PDT

Why are democracies unresponsive to well-documented injuries in the production and by the consumption of pornography? Legal challenges to pornography in Canada and the United States in which sexual subordination, not moral notions of "obscenity," were the driving rationale, show democracies inadequately recognizing gender-specific harms. Changes in Canadian obscenity doctrines to account for harm and inequality, in contrast with the U.S. reign of "free speech," did not deliver a corresponding change on the ground. Developments in democratic theory, international law, and the particular U.S.–Canadian legal trajectory, and consideration of the void of institutions articulating the interests of those victimized in and by pornography, suggest the need to adopt empowering civil remedies.

Political Pluralism and the Information Search: Determinants of Group Opinionation

Djupe, P. A. — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:17:05 PDT

It is a necessary condition that people have an opinion about groups before they can use groups to help make sense of the political world. Beyond individual resources and motivation, the strength of social ties and amount of agreement within networks situated within more or less supportive social contexts affect whether individuals seek out and receive information about groups sufficient to form an opinion of them. The author tests this argument with a sample of Republican primary voters in order to address the implications for the place of interest groups in society and the study of social interaction.

The Resilience of Affirmative Action in the 1980s: Innovation, Isomorphism, and Institutionalization in University Admissions

Lipson, D. N. — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:17:05 PDT

This article applies neoinstitutional organization theory to uncover the central role of university officials in institutionalizing aggressive, race-based affirmative admissions procedures at three selective public universities from the late 1970s until the early 1990s. During this second stage of affirmative action, admissions and diversity officials at the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Wisconsin–Madison began to increasingly emphasize the diversity rationale and the method of individualized review. At a time of increasing judicial and executive scrutiny and skepticism of affirmative action, university officials defended and transformed raceconscious admissions in innovative ways when they could have instead chosen to contribute to its demise.

Generational Status and Mexican American Political Participation: The Benefits and Limitations of Assimilation

Santoro, W. A., Segura, G. M. — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:17:04 PDT

The authors investigate self-reported voter turnout and ethnic political activity across four-plus generations of Mexican Americans. Using a 1999 national survey, multivariate results indicate that the likelihood of Mexican American voting increases largely in a monotonic manner across generations while participation in ethnic political activity begins to decline after having one parent born in the United States. These results raise the question of whether disadvantaged ethnic populations necessarily benefit politically from assimilating given that gains in voting that accrue across generations are accompanied by declines in ethnic political activity among later generations.

A Different Kind of Representation: Black and Latino Descriptive Representation and the Role of Ideological Cuing

Preuhs, R. R., Hero, R. E. — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 14:17:04 PDT

Most scholarship on minority descriptive representation focuses on whether minority legislators are "more" supportive of minority concerns than white legislators but does not address how descriptive representatives differ in the use of decision-making cues when advocating for minority interests. Drawing on data from four Congresses and comparing two sets of minority group representatives with their white counterparts and each other, the authors show that an important effect of descriptive representation is that racial/ethnic minority representatives are uniquely influenced in their advocacy of minority interests by cues that stand apart from the conventional liberal/conservative political ideological frame.

Measuring the Rule of Law

Skaaning, S.-E. — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:27:25 PDT

This article offers a comparative review of seven rule of law measures. It demonstrates that the measures differ in both form and appropriateness and that the differences have consequences for the empirical results. The shortcomings are, among others, restrictions in scope and availability of disaggregate data, insufficient codebooks, and unjustified aggregation procedures. In most cases, the task of conceptualization is not grounded in theory, and key principles of the rule of law are left out while more inappropriate elements are included. These findings suggest that more precaution is required in the construction and employment of rule of law measures.

Explaining Media and Congressional Attention to Global Climate Change, 1969-2005: An Empirical Test of Agenda-Setting Theory

Liu, X., Lindquist, E., Vedlitz, A. — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 15:40:40 PDT

Agenda theories suggest that problem indicator, focusing event, and information feedback enhance issue attention. However, few studies have systematically tested this. This study, using time series data and vector autoregression (VAR), examines how climate problem indicator, high-profile international event, and climate science feedback influence media and congressional attention to global warming and climate change. The findings confirm that these attention grabbing factors indeed generally promote issue salience, but these factors may work differently across agenda venues. Attention inertia, interagenda interaction, and partisan advantage on agenda setting are also included and analyzed in the VAR modeling. Implications of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed in conclusion.

Unpacking Agenda Control in Congress: Individual Roll Rates and the Republican Revolution

Carson, J. L., Monroe, N. W., Robinson, G. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 12:56:06 PDT

The twelve years following the Republican revolution provide ideal ground to test existing theories of congressional behavior and organization.The authors examine the incidence of individual roll rates in the U.S. House to "unpack" the degree to which the 1994 election produced a change in agenda control and examine how it affected roll rates.Then,to understand differences in agenda control, we compare majority and minority party roll rates before and after the election. The results confirm majority party influence over the House agenda and show that the Republican leadership exhibited remarkably similar behavior to the Democrats prior to 1995.

The Politics of Requesting Appointments: Congressional Requests in the Appointment and Nomination Process

Rottinghaus, B., Bergan, D. E. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:35:49 PDT

There is persistent debate about who most influences the federal appointment process, especially whether the executive branch staffs the federal bureaucracy with individuals loyal to the White House or relies on the process as an accommodation to important political players, especially members of Congress.Yet, people still know little about the role members of Congress play in the process of shaping the prenomination environment. In this article, the authors address this debate by using unique archival data from the Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford Presidential Libraries to identify which legislators contacted the president about a specific nomination or appointment request and under what conditions these requests were successful. The authors find that legislator resources, Senate membership, and those closer ideologically to the president are related both to the number of requests made and to the number of successful appointment or nomination requests granted.The results suggest that the president relies on members of Congress for credible information about staffing administrative positions, but they appoint or nominate individuals that are in their own interest, not necessarily to accommodate Congress.

Congressional and Presidential Effects on the Demand for Lobbying

Baumgartner, F. R., Larsen-Price, H. A., Leech, B. L., Rutledge, P. — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 09:35:49 PDT

The authors show that the number of lobbyists active in a given issue area is driven not only by social mobilizations and economic trends but also by government activity.The effect of government spending is smaller than that of congressional interest as reflected in the number of hearings. Much lobbying is in response to regulations, not budgets. The authors augment their analysis by considering indicators of presidential activities. In areas where the president is traditionally active, presidential activity is shown to divert lobbying away from Congress,reducing overall lobbying levels.The authors find strong support for the congressional demand model of lobbying.

YouTube on Masculinity and the Founding Fathers: Constitutionalism 2.0

Burgess, S. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:57:16 PDT

While it may be tempting to dismiss the broad humor and downright inaccuracies of politically oriented YouTube videos such as Brad Neely’s animated short on George Washington, this article argues it would be a mistake. The campy exaggerations and absurd claims contained therein may offer new sources of populist resistance to dominant understandings of masculinity as played out in the relation between the founding fathers and contemporary constitutional politics.This article explores two parodies of masculinity and paternity,suggesting ways in which YouTube may be used to integrate or converge scholarly and popular understandings into a new discourse, called Constitutionalism 2.0.

Gender, Context, and Television Advertising: A Comprehensive Analysis of 2000 and 2002 House Races

Sapiro, V., Walsh, K. C., Strach, P., Hennings, V. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:57:15 PDT

Are men and women portrayed differently in campaigns? Much scholarship and commentary expects that this is so, yet previous studies provide ambiguous evidence on the extent of gender difference.The authors provide a comprehensive analysis of gender differences in television advertisements in congressional races in 2000 and 2002 with data that allow them to take into account the frequency of airings, the sponsorship of the advertisements, partisanship, and competitiveness of the race. Although some gender differences emerge, the analysis reveals undeniable similarity in the presentation of male and female candidates in television advertisements.

Why People Decide to Participate in State Politics

McAtee, A., Wolak, J. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:57:15 PDT

Many have investigated who participates in politics and why they choose to do so. Here, the authors consider where people choose to participate. Using survey data from the American Citizen Participation Study, the authors investigate why people choose to participate in state politics versus local or national venues. If the decision of where to participate is resource driven, then people will engage in state politics for the same reasons they participate in politics generally. But if participatory choices reflect one’s motivation and incentives for action, then the reasons to engage in state politics will be unique, connected to individual interest and political environments.

Political Integration through Ethnic or Nonethnic Voluntary Associations?

Stromblad, P., Adman, P. — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:28:23 PDT

This article challenges previous findings suggesting that ethnic associations promote political participation among immigrants. Analyzing recent survey data from Sweden, the authors find that political activity among immigrants is encouraged by associational involvement in general but not by associations based on ethnic origin. To explain this difference, the authors examine important causal mechanisms between associational involvement and political participation. They conclude that while ethnic associations induce the development of civic skills, they do not create enough opportunities for mobilization through networks of political recruitment. Hence, compared to associations in which both mechanisms operate, ethnic associations tend to provide less politically stimulating environments.

Cable News, Public Opinion, and the 2004 Party Conventions

Morris, J. S., Francia, P. L. — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:28:22 PDT

In this study, the authors test for the presence of bias during Fox News and CNN’s coverage of the 2004 national party conventions. The content analysis demonstrates that Fox News’s coverage was more favorable to the Republican Party than it was to the Democratic Party, while CNN’s coverage was more impartial. The authors also use panel data from the National Annenberg Election Survey to show how opinion change toward the 2004 presidential candidates was associated with exposure to cable television coverage of the national party conventions. These findings highlight the evolving role of the cable news media in presidential campaigns and elections.

Are African Americans Effectively Represented in Congress?

Griffin, J. D., Keane, M. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:37:28 PDT

The authors relate the racial composition of districts to five measures of legislative activity and position in the 101st to 106th Congresses: bill introduction, colleague cosponsorship, bill passage, committee portfolio, and party leadership. The authors find that African American constituents generally are represented by less active and less well-positioned legislators on four of the five measures. They also explore the origin of these disparities. Two of the disparities (bill passage and party leadership) are partly explained by the tendency of districts with larger African American populations to be less electorally competitive. A third disparity (committee portfolio) is accounted for by the tendency of larger African American populations to be represented by African American members of Congress.

Rights Variation within a Federalist System: The Importance of Mobility

Francis, J. G., Francis, L. P. — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 12:37:28 PDT

Cosmopolitanism at the international level—the recognition of an international human rights regime—has been much defended of late. Little attention has been paid, however, to the federalist analogue: should there be insistence on a national rights regime? Or should variation in the recognition of rights be tolerated at the subnational level, as a necessary concession to moral disagreement, as an effort to contain problematic experiments, or as a way to generate progress about rights? This article argues that subnational variation in the recognition of rights represents a second-best solution to the problem of deep moral disagreement about rights. However, federalism provides a second-best solution only on the condition that citizens are able to move from one subnational jurisdiction to another. To the extent that citizens are able to move to rights regimes that are more favorable to them, intranational variation in the recognition of rights may have advantages over international variation, where national borders may pose barriers to migration. However, in the United States, despite the privileges and immunities of national citizenship, there remain impressive legal barriers to such mobility in the case of contested rights. Given these barriers, federalism as it exists in the United States today does not fully realize the advantages of a second-best solution to deep moral disagreements about rights.

Does Political Decentralization Exacerbate or Ameliorate Ethno-political Mobilization? A Test of Contesting Propositions

Miodownik, D., Cartrite, B. — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 15:50:05 PDT

This article presents the results of an experiment that attempted the reconciliation of opposite expectations regarding the effectiveness of political decentralization on ethno-political mobilization. An agent-based model was run thousands of times to explore the effect of decentralization. The experiments suggest that the impact is nonlinear: weak and medium levels of decentralization increase the likelihood of ethno-political mobilization, while strong decentralization decreases it. The explanation derives from how minority control of political institutions affects the dynamic of minority identity ascription and the realization of the goal or the frustration of ethnic members seeking more complete political dominance of the regional ideational space.

Serving Two Masters: Redistricting and Voting in the U.S. House of Representatives

Crespin, M. H. — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 10:58:13 PDT

This article explores the consequences for representation after a redistricting by reexamining the finding that members of Congress will alter their voting behavior to fit their new district. Specifically, it applies partisan theories of congressional organization to test if members are changing their behavior on all or just some votes. The results indicate that representatives adjust their roll call behavior to fit their new districts on votes that are visible to their constituents. However, when it comes to votes that are important to the party for controlling the agenda (i.e., procedural votes), members do not respond to changes in the district.

Beyond Supply and Demand: A Feminist-institutionalist Theory of Candidate Selection

Krook, M. L. — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:25:36 PDT

Dynamics of candidate selection are central to political representation. The dominant model used to study the case of women focuses on the supply of and demand for female aspirants. This article develops a critique of this approach, by drawing on two sets of theoretical tools: institutionalism and feminism. It subsequently elaborates an alternative perspective on candidate selection based on configurations of three kinds of gendered institutions: systemic, practical, and normative. The utility of this approach is then explored through three paired comparisons of cases in which quota policies have been introduced, disrupting some but not necessarily all aspects of gendered institutional configurations.

Assessing the Impact of State Judicial Structures on Citizen Litigiousness

Yates, J., Tankersley, H., Brace, P. — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 12:14:22 PDT

Some researchers argue over the existence of a "litigation explosion," while others seek to understand the causes of variation in citizen legal mobilization and rates of litigation among states. Existing studies have provided important insight into citizens’ propensity to invoke the state courts to settle disputes; however, there remain unresolved questions concerning state litigation rates. The authors argue that the structural aspects of state judicial systems, specifically the professionalism of the courts and method of judicial selection, have important implications for litigiousness. They further suggest that the effects of these institutional structural characteristics are conditioned on the political environment of the state in which they operate. The authors consider tort litigation rates in ten states over twenty years to assess the proposition that these institutional structural characteristics of state court systems affect state citizen legal mobilization, expressed as litigation rates.

Symbolic versus Blind Patriotism: Distinction without Difference?

Parker, C. S. — Fri, 29 May 2009 09:56:02 PDT

Patriotism is an important predictor of political attitudes and preferences. Nevertheless, the complexity of patriotism remains unresolved, especially as it pertains to blind and symbolic patriotism. Symbolic patriotism represents a relatively abstract, affective attachment to the nation and its core values. Blind patriotism, in contrast, is more concrete, indexing uncritical support for national policies and practices. While the concepts appear analytically distinct, their political consequences are often similar, leading one to question whether the distinction is real. The results offer some support for maintaining conceptual differences between blind and symbolic patriotism.

Changing Lanes or Stuck in the Middle: Why Are Anocracies More Prone to Civil Wars?

Regan, P. M., Bell, S. R. — Wed, 20 May 2009 10:54:57 PDT

Past research on regime type and civil war points to anocratic regimes as having a high probability of civil war onset. The specific characteristics of anocratic regimes that lead to their predisposition for civil war have been left unexplained. In this article, the authors examine how the transitional characteristics of anocracy explain the enhanced risk of civil war onset. The results point to three important conclusions. First, anocratic regimes are most likely to experience civil war in the first few years of their duration. Second, transitions into anocracy from democracy leave states at a higher risk of civil war. Third, the probability of civil war onset increases with the magnitude of a transition into anocracy.

Candidate Gender and Voter Choice: Analysis from a Multimember Preferential Voting System

McElroy, G., Marsh, M. — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:57:50 PDT

Women are greatly underrepresented in elected office. A large literature on the subject has considerably advanced our understanding of this phenomenon, but many questions remain unanswered. Using original aggregate and individual-level data, the authors explore the interplay of candidate gender, partisanship, incumbency, and campaign spending in a multimember preferential voting system. This setting allows unparalleled exploration of the heterogeneous nature of voter decision making. The authors find little evidence for an independent effect of candidate gender on voter choice. Voters do not discriminate against women even in an electoral environment that affords them this opportunity without any cost to their partisan preferences.

Campaign Effects on the Accessibility of Party Identification

Grant, J. T., Mockabee, S. T., Monson, J. Q. — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:57:49 PDT

This study uses response latency, the time required for a survey respondent to formulate an answer upon hearing a question, to examine the accessibility of partisan self-identifications over the course of a political campaign season. Although the aggregate distribution of partisanship remains fairly stable during the campaign, party identifications become more accessible to individuals with weaker party identifications as the election approaches. Consistent with theoretical expectations, the authors find that partisan orientations are more useful in forming political judgments when those orientations are more accessible to the voter. The effect of partisanship on vote choice is a third greater for voters with highly accessible party identifications than for those with less accessible party identifications.

Outside Options and Burden Sharing in Nonbinding Alliances

Fang, S., Ramsay, K. W. — Fri, 15 May 2009 09:57:50 PDT

The authors develop a model of alliances with outside options to study burden sharing in nonbinding alliance agreements. The analysis provides an explanation for the variation in ally contributions to NATO over time and why the post–Cold War period has seen an increase in the use of coalitions of the willing. Additionally, the analysis reveals something of an initiator’s disadvantage in burden sharing—the initiator of an alliance action pays a disproportionate cost of the military burden. The authors’ argument provides an alternative explanation for why the United States has been consistently the largest contributor to NATO.

All Terrorism Is Local: Resources, Nested Institutions, and Governance for Urban Homeland Security in the American Federal System

Chenoweth, E., Clarke, S. E. — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:15:43 PDT

This article examines the conditions under which local jurisdictions make effective use of U.S. homeland security resources. It analyzes how resources, institutional context, and governance influence local performance on one homeland security policy dimension—communications interoperability. Governance maturity, nested institutions, and the existence of formal rules are key variables affecting the relationship between resources and performance at the local level. Cities with advanced, multilevel, and formal governance arrangements are more effective at using Urban Area Security Initiative funds to improve their interoperability performance. But current policy approaches slight corresponding demands for shared leadership and cross-sector collaborations.

The Relationship between Defense Spending and Economic Growth in the United States

Heo, U. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:35:40 PDT

Recent increases in U.S. defense spending have renewed interest in the defense–growth nexus. The Feder-Ram–based models have traditionally been used in examining this relationship, but Dunn, Smith, and Willenbockel recommend the augmented Solow model because of several weaknesses inherent in the Feder-Ram model (including its static nature, simultaneity bias, and multicollinearity issues). The augmented Solow model addresses these issues, but it has weaknesses too. Thus, by employing both the Feder-Ram and augmented Solow models, the author tests the defense– growth nexus in the United States for 1954 through 2005. The results indicate that defense spending does not significantly affect the U.S. economy.

A Systematic Approach to Institutional Analysis: Applying Crawford and Ostrom's Grammar

Basurto, X., Kingsley, G., McQueen, K., Smith, M., Weible, C. M. — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 09:35:39 PDT

In 1995, Crawford and Ostrom proposed a grammatical syntax for examining institutional statements (i.e., rules, norms, and strategies) as part of the institutional analysis and development framework. This article constitutes the first attempt at applying the grammatical syntax to code institutional statements using two pieces of U.S. legislation. The authors illustrate how the grammatical syntax can serve as a basis for collecting, presenting, and analyzing data in a way that is reliable and conveys valid and substantive meaning for the researcher. The article concludes by describing some implementation challenges and ideas for future theoretical and field research.

Exporting Air Pollution? Regulatory Enforcement and Environmental Free Riding in the United States

Konisky, D. M., Woods, N. D. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:09:50 PDT

Political jurisdictions have incentives to promote pollution spillovers to capture the benefits of economic production within their borders while exporting the environmental costs to their neighbors. The authors examine the extent to which U.S. states engage in this type of free-riding behavior. Studying enforcement of the federal Clean Air Act from 1990 through 2000, the authors employ zero-inflated negative binomial regression to predict the number of state-initiated enforcement actions conducted in counties bordering other jurisdictions. They find that states perform fewer enforcement actions in counties adjacent to international borders but no evidence that states conduct less enforcement in counties that border other states.

Governors, Legislatures, and State Budgets across Time

Dometrius, N. C., Wright, D. S. — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 12:09:49 PDT

Prior research by Abney and Lauth concluded that governors were losing ground to legislatures in shaping the state budget. Goodman examined Abney and Lauth’s explanations for this change and found empirical support for some but not others. This article’s findings reveal that governors, as a group, have not declined in budgetary influence, although some have gained and others lost during recent decades. The longitudinal analysis arrives at two major conclusions: (1) executive–legislative influence changes that take place stem primarily from political rather than structural changes, and (2) budgetary influence is not unidimensional as governors and legislatures compete in a non-zero-sum game in pursuit of different budgetary outcomes.

Morality, Equality, or Locality: Analyzing the Determinants of Support for Same-sex Marriage

Gaines, N. S., Garand, J. C. — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 16:05:35 PDT

In this article, the authors develop a model in which they depict individuals’ support for same-sex marriage as a function of several clusters of independent variables, including symbolic politics, moral and religious attitudes and attachments, feelings toward gays and lesbians, women’s rights and gender roles, concern for minority and civil rights, demographic attributes, and the local context. Using data from the 2004 American National Election Studies survey and the U.S. Census, the authors find that attitudes toward same-sex marriage are a function of moral and religious considerations, attitudes toward gays and lesbians, and gender roles. They find little evidence that attitudes toward women’s rights and civil rights for African Americans affect attitudes toward same-sex marriage. Finally, they find that contextual effects are limited only to those respondents who reside in counties with a very high percentage of same-sex partnered couples.

Does Presidential Primary and Caucus Order Affect Policy? Evidence from Federal Procurement Spending

Taylor, A. J. — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 11:18:09 PDT

This article examines the contention that states with early presidential primaries or caucuses receive disproportionate distributive policy benefits. The basic theory is that presidential candidates pledge more federal spending per capita to these states because doing well in their contests is critical to capturing the nomination. Candidates then deliver on these promises if they win the White House. Using by-state procurement per capita data from 1984 to 2004, four conditional hypotheses derived from this thinking are tested. The results show that primary or caucus order matters only during competitive nominations when the ultimately victorious presidential candidate won the state’s contest.

Take One for the Team? Limits of Shared Ethnicity and Candidate Preferences

Manzano, S., Sanchez, G. R. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:40:31 PDT

This study tests the theory of politicized ethnic identity’s shaping Latino political behavior. The authors consider whether candidate quality moderates the effects of political ethnic attachments on co-ethnic candidate preferences. Ordered logistic regression models are developed to predict Latino voter preferences for co-ethnic candidates with varied degrees of qualification. Candidate quality significantly mitigates collective ethnic political behavior, yet the authors find Latinos with strong ethnic attachments remain inclined to prefer a co-ethnic even when less qualified than a non-Latino candidate. Political ethnic identity theory is useful in explaining minority political behavior, but there are boundaries to collective identity’s shaping political preferences.

The Changing Regional Subcultures of the American States and the Utility of a New Cultural Measure

Lieske, J. — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:34:38 PDT

This study analyzes changes in the regional subcultures of the United States using 2000 census and religious survey data. The results suggest a remarkable degree of continuity with those the authors identified in an earlier study. In addition, they demonstrate that a new multidimensional measure of state culture does a much better job in predicting social and political behavior than other frequently used indicators. Finally, they show how their new measure of state culture significantly reduces and often eliminates the problem of spatial autocorrelation in many state-level indicators that cannot be explained by differences in economic development and racial–ethnic diversity.

If You Can't Join 'Em, Beat 'Em: The Gender Gap in Individual Donations to Congressional Candidates

Crespin, M. H., Deitz, J. L. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:25:39 PDT

The authors revisit the gender gap in campaign finance and find an advantage for women candidates in earning donations from individual donors due to the activities of female donor networks and the changing congressional donor pool. Women supported by these networks, especially Democratic women, receive a boost in campaign fund-raising compared to their male counterparts, whereas women not supported by these networks receive significantly less. The ideological leanings of congressional donors also advantage Democratic women. Substantial partisan gender differences in this area of campaign finance persist, and this fund-raising gap may contribute to the growing partisan gender gap in Congress.

Ignoring Advice and Consent? The Uses of Judicial Recess Appointments

Graves, S. E., Howard, R. M. — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 12:25:38 PDT

The authors seek to answer the questions of why presidents use the power to temporarily seat federal court judges during recesses of the Senate. The use of the recess power can upset the carefully calculated separation of powers envisioned by the framers, shifting power away from one branch of government toward another. Examining every judicial recess appointment from 1789 to 2004, the authors discover that presidents are conditionally strategic in their use of the unilateral authority to appoint federal court judges during Senate recesses but that the use of this power is careful and spare, especially in the modern era.

Do Political Institutions Affect Foreign Direct Investment? A Survey of U.S. Corporations in Latin America

Biglaiser, G., Staats, J. — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 14:34:29 PST

The political economy literature investigates the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) based largely on aggregate data, ignoring the actual decision makers. The authors conduct a survey of U.S. chief executive officers—the actual decision makers—of corporations that have investments in Latin America to understand FDI inflows. The authors find that investment risk related to property-rights protection, adherence to rule of law, and an effective court system weighed most heavily in U.S. firm preferences. The results suggest that rather than stress democracy itself as a determining factor, researchers might better focus on the institutions found within democracies.

Political Distrust and Conservative Voting in Ballot Measure Elections

Dyck, J. J. — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 09:41:11 PST

Over the past thirty years, the cumulative effects of direct democracy have served to decrease both levels of taxation and spending in the American states. Yet conservative budgetary policy measures passed during this time period were likely to occur in liberal states. Using data on over thirty separate ballot issues, the author offers a solution to this puzzle, demonstrating that distrusting government serves as a consistently robust predictor of conservative policy choice. The implication of this finding is that citizens often choose conservative policy outcomes because they believe that government is functionally incapable of giving them what they want.

The Dynamics of Agenda Convergence and the Paradox of Competitiveness in Presidential Campaigns

Hayes, D. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:35:33 PST

The mass media’s representation of campaign discourse influences whether voters have the opportunity to scrutinize the candidates’ issue priorities and policy proposals. But it is not clear whether candidate and media issue emphases are more or less similar at an election’s most consequential moments—when it is competitive. In a study of the 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, the author finds that as the polls narrow, the media are less likely to reflect candidate discourse. Paradoxically, voters are deprived of an accurate representation of candidate dialogue when they need it most, with media behavior making it difficult for citizens to cast informed ballots in close contests. The results also show that whether the media serve as a conduit for, or filter of, candidate messages depends on a variety of factors, especially electoral context.

Episodic Frames, HIV/AIDS, and African American Public Opinion

Spence, L. K. — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:41:41 PST

How are African American political attitudes influenced by the mass media? Cathy Cohen’s theory of marginalization suggests that media narratives about African Americans influence their public opinion about HIV/AIDS, behaviors associated with it, and populations associated with it. However, this has gone untested. Using an innovative experimental design involving four hundred African American participants, I find that episodic framing of HIV/AIDS not only activates negative attitudes toward behaviors associated with the disease and toward black men who engage in them; it also stimulates positive attitudes toward political mobilization and regressive policy solutions.

Carving Voters Out: Redistricting's Influence on Political Information, Turnout, and Voting Behavior

Winburn, J., Wagner, M. — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 10:41:41 PST

This article examines how the splitting of counties into multiple congressional districts affects citizens’ abilities to recall House candidates, turnout, roll off their congressional vote, and cast straight-ticket ballots. We demonstrate that while voters living in the "short end of the split" are less likely to recall their House candidates, they do behave similarly at the ballot box to voters drawn into districts containing their natural community of interest. Our results suggest the Supreme Court’s traditional focus on population equality across congressional districts might be more appropriately administered in concert with respect for natural communities of interest such as counties.

The Position-taking Value of Bill Sponsorship in Congress

Rocca, M. S., Gordon, S. B. — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:49:03 PST

What is the value of non–roll call position taking in Congress? The authors argue that non–roll call positions are used by interest groups to acquire information about the direction and intensity of legislators’ preferences. Legislators, in turn, use them to attract campaign contributions from potential donors. Examining bill sponsorship in the 103rd and 104th Congresses, the authors find a relationship between campaign contributions from labor and gun control political action committees and the positions House Democrats take through bill sponsorship. These results suggest that non–roll call position taking indeed matters.

The Rise of the Choral Court: Use of Concurrence in the Burger and Rehnquist Courts

Maveety, N., Turner, C. C., Way, L. B. — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:25:42 PST

Justices’ goals when writing concurrences continue to elude scholars. This project extends Baum’s contention that justices’ goals are bifurcated. The authors argue that justices use concurrences as means to both speak about their legal policy preferences and win by being members of the majority voting coalition. An analysis of the Burger and Rehnquist Courts’ concurring behavior illustrates that members of the Court are both authoring and joining concurrences in ways previously undocumented. Specifically, justices have become comfortable not only authoring concurrences but regularly joining others’ separate opinions as well—a trend the authors call choral-Court decision making.

The Impact of Descriptive Representation on Women's Political Engagement: Does Party Matter?

Reingold, B., Harrell, J. — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 15:39:03 PST

Recent research raises doubts about whether the presence of women contesting or occupying prominent public office enhances women’s political engagement. Taking into account both gender and party congruence between politicians and constituents, the authors find that it is primarily female candidates of the same party who enhance women’s interest in politics. The stronger impact of party-congruent (over party-incongruent) female candidates can be attributed to either greater visibility or agreement on substantive issues. Party matters, but rather than obscuring the role of gender in electoral politics, it enhances our understanding of how, or under what conditions, it works.

An Islamic Language of Toleration: Rumi's Criticism of Religious Persecution

Masroori, C. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:08:48 PST

Persian Sufi and poet Muhammad Jalal al-Din Balkhi, 1207–73 (also known as Rumi) presents one of the most extensive and vigorous Islamic theories of toleration.¹ This article examines Rumi’s theory by placing it in its historical context, and examining its various arguments. It suggests that toleration, not only as a policy but also as a language, preceded liberalism. It also provides evidence that Rumi’s defense is by far more inclusive than most early modern theories of toleration.

The Electoral Benefits of Distributive Spending

Lazarus, J., Reilly, S. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:08:48 PST

Prior studies search for evidence that distributive spending influences Congress members’ vote shares but find limited evidence. The authors argue that Democratic and Republican members each benefit from different types of distributive projects. Democrats benefit from delivering spending projects (what most people think of as "pork") to their constituents, while many Republican members benefit from delivering contingent liabilities (in which the federal treasury underwrites a private entity’s financial risk). Empirical tests using data from U.S. House elections between 1984 and 2002 generally confirm these hypotheses, with one exception: only Republicans in relatively conservative districts gain from contingent liabilities. This result is further explored in the text.

Gender and the Perception of Knowledge in Political Discussion

Mendez, J. M., Osborn, T. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 10:08:48 PST

Differences in knowledge about politics between men and women have the potential to affect political discussion. We examine differences in the perception of political knowledge between men and women and the effects these differences have on how often men and women talk about politics. We find both men and women perceive women to be less knowledgeable about politics and men to be more knowledgeable, regardless of the actual level of knowledge each discussion partner holds. This perceptual knowledge gap could have ramifications for discussion as political participation, since people turn to those they perceive to be experts to gather political information.

Membership Has Its Privileges: How Voluntary Groups Exacerbate the Participatory Bias

Miller, M. K. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:50:35 PST

It is well established that individuals who belong to voluntary associations are more likely to participate in democratic politics. This article examines the possibility that the participation-promoting aspects of America’s nonpolitical voluntary organizations are not experienced equally by all members. Not only are privileged Americans more likely to join nonpolitical voluntary organizations, but they are more likely to benefit from their membership after the point of joining. The participation-promoting benefits of membership accrue disproportionately to white, male, wealthy, and well-educated members, thus reinforcing participatory stratification. Evidence suggests that stratification results from both member and leader choices and behaviors.

Taking Late Night Comedy Seriously: How Candidate Appearances on Late Night Television Can Engage Viewers

Parkin, M. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 11:50:36 PST

Candidate appearances on entertainment television have become a staple of recent presidential campaigns, yet little is known about their effect on voters. Many assume that they leave viewers uninformed and focused on the candidate’s personal image. In this article, the author investigates this idea with an experiment using John Kerry’s 2004 appearance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He finds that—contrary to popular expectations—late night interviews have particular features that can, at times, engage otherwise politically disinterested viewers, causing them to process and recall substantive policy information.

From Consent to Advice and Consent: Cyclical Constraints within the District Court Appoinment Process

Hendershot, M. E. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:34:37 PST

This study seeks to understand long-standing structural changes within the executive–Senate relationships that govern the judicial appointment process. Utilizing a new source of data that comprises district court appointments from 1901 through 2006, the analysis models the duration of selection and confirmation events to find evidence of interbranch constraint. Temporal variance and heteroskedasticity in these measures suggest that the last century of appointment activity can be divided into four distinct regimes that reflect a repeating cycle of executive independence and senatorial constraint, which in turn helps integrate existing accounts of change and conflict within the appointment process of federal judges.

Governors Turn Pro: Separation of Powers and the Institutionalization of the American Governorship

Bowman, A. OM., Woods, N. D., Stark, M. R. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:34:37 PST

This study examines the institutional development of governors’ offices. Pooled analyses from 1983 to 2004 indicate that government growth and workload foster institutionalization, as does rivalry with the legislature. Bargaining relationships with external actors appear to have more limited impact. The authors also find that the dispersion of authority within the executive branch plays a significant role in explaining the development of institutionalized staff structures. Overall, the results indicate that separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches affects gubernatorial institutionalization but that researchers should also consider the intercurrencies that exist within the executive branch.

Changing Mass Attitudes and Democratic Deepening

Fails, M. D., Pierce, H. N. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:34:37 PST

A large literature evaluates the correlates of mass attitudes toward democracy because such attitudes are regarded as critical for the stability and depth of democratic regimes. This article uses cross-national public opinion surveys to conduct the first comprehensive test of this conventional wisdom. The authors examine whether aggregate levels of democratic legitimacy are related to the level, stability, and deepening of democracy and find no empirical support for these theoretical expectations. Rather, the authors find evidence that legitimacy attitudes are significantly shaped by the prior institutionalization of democracy, suggesting that the existing literature may have reversed the direction of the causal arrow.

Deracialization and Latino Politics: The Case of the Salazar Brothers in Colorado

Gonzalez Juenke, E., Sampaio, A. C. — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 09:34:36 PST

Deracialization literature has a rich history, but it has generally focused on local-level black candidates in nonpartisan environments. This article extends the deracialization literature to a competitive statewide context and focuses on Latino candidates, offering a broader partisan environment where established deracialization theory and voter response are tested at the individual level. Both John Salazar’s and Ken Salazar’s successful 2004 campaigns for national office are explored using qualitative and quantitative data. The combined approaches yield evidence that Latinos in competitive partisan environments are influenced to deracialize their campaigns and that conservative non-Latino voters are positively and significantly influenced by these nonracial messages.

Balance or Dominance? Party Competition in Congressional Politics

Robbins, S. M., Norpoth, H. — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 11:48:07 PST

With a pioneering application of probability models in political science, Stokes and Iversen established "the existence of forces restoring party competition." Whatever the margin of victory in a given election, the partisan vote subsequently tends to return to the point of equal division. The authors introduce an expanded test of electoral equilibrium that allows for effects of major realignments and regional differences, using congressional elections since 1828. They find that the vote division gravitates to the mean but that the mean vote, in most periods of American history and in several regions, departs significantly from the point of equal division and in some instances is prone to a pronounced drift. Hence, during much of their lifetime, many Americans do not experience, in congressional elections, party competition that gives the opposition much of a chance to win.

Reducing the Costs of Participation: Are States Getting a Return on Early Voting?

Giammo, J. D., Brox, B. J. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:15:39 PST

The authors address the puzzle of why governments have implemented methods of early voting when those methods appear not to have an effect on turnout. Using an aggregate analysis, the authors find that early voting seems to produce a short-lived increase in turnout that disappears by the second presidential election in which it is available. They also address whether the additional costs to government are worth the negligible increase in participation. They conclude that these reforms merely offer additional convenience for those already likely to vote.

"Pretty Prudent" or Rhetorically Responsive? The American Public's Support for Military Action

Drury, A. C., Overby, L. M., Ang, A., Li, Y. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 10:15:39 PST

In the United States, public support can play a crucial role in the decisions to initiate and terminate military action. Some scholars argue that the public holds "prudent" opinions regarding the use of the military—supporting efforts to stop aggression but not to engage in nation building. We argue that what seems like a "prudent" opinion may be driven more by the White House’s rhetoric. Experimental tests show that the rhetorical complexity has a more powerful impact on the respondent’s support for military action than the actual policy goal, although this result is substantially tempered by political awareness.

Campaigning on Fruit, Nuts, and Wine

Jorgensen, P. D. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:37:00 PST

Explaining strategies of political action committee (PAC) contributions to candidates takes two forms. Scholars emphasize either PAC or candidate characteristics as having more explanatory power over variation in PAC contributions, and this choice results in different expectations for PAC contribution patterns. Using California fruit, nut, and wine PACs, this research revisits a much-debated question, why do PACs give to some candidates and not others? The findings indicate a mediated model best explains PAC contributions, as these PACs contribute money according to legislator characteristics but predominantly within the state of California.

Substitutable Protections: Credible Commitment Devices and Socioeconomic Insulation

Staton, J. K., Reenock, C. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:36:59 PST

Scholars have argued that credible commitment institutions have important impacts on political outcomes as diverse as economic growth and social order. If commitment institutions function as theorized, then their effects should vary across individuals, groups, or states, based on their respective vulnerability to promise breaking. Yet existing empirical studies never pursue this implication. The failure to do so risks a number of inferential errors and can lead to suboptimal policy prescriptions for institutional reform. In this article, the authors develop and provide empirical evidence for these claims within the context of a commitment problem that scholars believe undermines social order.

States' Compliance with International Requirements: Gender Equality in EU Enlargement Countries

Avdeyeva, O. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:36:59 PST

The article explores government compliance with international pressures measured as policy adoption and institutional reform. The findings reveal that government compliance is determined by the domestic political system and depends on the configuration of political actors mobilized in support of reform. Legislative reform is facilitated by a strong women’s movement and mobilized female parliamentarians. Institutional reform depends on the strength of the women’s movement and its ability to form coalitions with political actors within government elites, most importantly governing parties. Finally, the effect of women’s movements’ actors on the institutional reform is moderated by the ideology of political parties in power.

Substantive Religious Representation in the U.S. Senate: Voting Alignment with the Family Research Council

Smith, L. E., Olson, L. R., Fine, J. A. — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:36:58 PST

Studies of representation are widespread in the congressional literature, with recent work focusing on both descriptive and substantive representation of various minority groups. The authors focus on religious representation in Congress, examining the extent to which senators’ own religious affiliation and the relative size of their religious constituencies affect substantive representation of Religious Right interests. The authors find that Christian senators (evangelical Protestants, conservative Catholics, and Mormons alike) provide better representation of the Religious Right, as do senators from states with larger Christian constituencies. The findings demonstrate that substantive representation is the product of characteristics of both the representatives and the represented.

The Consequences of Multiracial Contexts on Public Attitudes toward Immigration

Ha, S. E. — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 11:53:29 PDT

This study examines how racial contexts relate to Americans’ opinion toward immigration. Survey data analysis reveals that racial surroundings correspond to public attitudes differently, depending on race and geographic unit. For non-Hispanic white Americans, proximity to Asians correlates with positive attitudes toward immigrants, whereas those living with Hispanics are more likely to harbor negative stereotypes. Conversely, African Americans living with Asians are more likely to be prejudiced against immigrants. Furthermore, the positive effects of racial contexts are more salient in the neighborhoods than in larger areas. These findings suggest the significance of racial integration in alleviating interethnic tension.

Measuring Issue Salience in British Elections: Competing Interpretations of "Most Important Issue"

Johns, R. — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 13:46:08 PDT

This article is about responses to the "most important issue" question used in numerous election polls and surveys. Following Wlezien’s work, two interpretations of the question can be sketched: (1) personal (the issue most important to the respondent) and (2) contextual (the issue that respondents perceive as topping the national political agenda). Using British Election Study data from 2005, the author shows that issues prominent in that campaign were often cited as most important by respondents who were neither particularly knowledgeable about those issues nor particularly influenced by them when voting. In sum, the contextual interpretation predominates. Hence, whatever else it is, "most important issue" is not an accurate gauge of salience effects in models of vote choice.

Incumbent and Challenger Campaign Spending Effects in Proportional Electoral Systems: The Irish Elections of 2002

Benoit, K., Marsh, M. — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 11:19:25 PDT

Positive effects of campaign spending on electoral outcomes have been found in several comparative, multiparty contexts, but very few of these systems use proportional representation. The few studies examining spending effects in multiparty elections have found that incumbent spending is no less effective than challenger spending, contrary to the vast bulk of empirical literature drawn from single-member district contexts. This study reexamines incumbent–challenger differences in spending effects under the single transferable vote. Examining the Irish general elections of 2002, the authors find a positive and statistically significant relationship between spending and votes. Candidates that spend more win more votes, and outspending one’s rivals means winning more of the vote share. Spending more also directly increases a candidate’s chance of winning a seat. Finally, incumbent spending is considerably less effective than spending by challengers from other parties but no less effective than spending by challengers from a candidate’s own party.

Legislation, Political Context, and Interest Group Behavior

Dusso, A. — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 15:39:58 PDT

It is well documented that the number of interest groups lobbying a piece of legislation in Congress varies greatly. While most legislation generates little to no activity, the number of groups interested in a bill can grow into the hundreds. The challenge for scholars is to explain these behavioral differences. Using a population ecology approach to explain interest-group populations, it is argued that the number of groups lobbying a bill is influenced by the political context. Using data generated by the Lobbying Disclosure Act, this article demonstrates how the actions of members of Congress can both stimulate and suppress lobbying activity.

Losing Fewer Votes: The Impact of Changing Voting Systems on Residual Votes

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:38:09 PDT

Problems in the 2000 presidential election, especially in Florida, initiated a large-scale shift toward new voting technology. Using cross-sectional and longitudinal data, we report on the effects of changes in voting systems in Florida and Michigan. The variety of initial conditions and the numerous changes make these excellent case studies. We find that reforms succeeded in reducing the residual vote. Every change from old to new technology resulted in a decline in residual votes that was significantly greater than in areas that did not change voting equipment. The percentage of residual votes in the 2004 presidential race in localities that changed voting systems was well under 1 percent, representing a 90 percent reduction in error in Florida and a 35 percent reduction in Michigan. We run these analyses separately for undervotes and overvotes. Using ecological-inference techniques, we investigate the persistence of residual votes when technology changed and find very little persistence.