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Whether consciously or not, political theory has traditionally approached Aristotle by way of stark contrasts with his teacher Plato. Whether in terms of a contrast between the particular and the universal, multiple appearances and the singular form, or the empirical and the metaphysical, this distinction has attained the status of presumed truth in much of philosophy and political theory. This paper draws on the work of the philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer in order to cast doubt on this categorical distinction between Aristotle on the one hand and Plato on the other. By drawing our attention to the sense in which both Aristotle and Plato concern themselves with the same problem--the idea of the good--Gadamer uncovers convergences and parallels that are potentially fruitful for political theory. This paper concludes by applying this insight to a particularly fraught segment of the contemporary political theoretical landscape--the appropriation of Aristotle in the philosophy of social science. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How does public opinion respond to the production of major legislation? A central pillar of representative democracy is that elected officials are held accountable for their actions. There is a rich literature exploring the electoral effects for legislators who deviate from their district’s opinions, and there are numerous anecdotal arguments about the consequences of scandals and foibles for both legislators and executives. However, public policy is neither made by individual Members of Congress nor exclusively by executive actions. The most significant policies are enacted through laws passed by Congress and signed by the president. Scholars have very little understanding of how the public assigns credit or blame for the net output of the legislative system. This paper addresses this question directly. As part of a larger project, this paper will examine the impact of the passage of major legislation on congressional approval. Because approval ratings are collected from individuals but legislation is produced over time, the paper employs hierarchical statistical techniques to answer this question. This method has enjoyed some popularity in education and psychological research, but has not seen frequent use in political science. Concurrent research by the author indicates that while presidential approval is responsive to the production of the system, congressional approval is unaffected. Credit and blame for the joint activities of the political system are laid at the feet of the president, not Congress. This has implications for interbranch power dynamics as well as research on public opinion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary political theory there is widespread agreement that we should recognize difference within our societies. However, the philosophical foundation for this recognition remains problematic. Attempts to ground recognition in various, traditional frameworks have been frought with difficulty. Therefore, in this paper, I try to examine what we specifically mean by providing recognition. I do so by considering two closely intertwined issues. First, I consider whether is recognition provided by one individual to another, or whether the state can provide recognitoin by some means. Second, I look at the debate between Fraser and Honneth over the difference between redistribution and recognition. Through this discussion I show that recognition is provided by individuals to one another. Because of this fact, it is difficult to imagine how the state can supply recognition to individuals or require individuals to give recognition to others. Due to these limits, recognition requires clearer moral grounding. The state cannot take simple, traditional actions to provide recognition. Instead, recognition of difference, as theorists like Honneth call for, can only be grounded in broader categories of political obligation than theliterature usually considers. Thus, recognition calls for strong philosophical support to justify fairly intrusive policies. Indeed, we should explore the possibility that the recognition called for by many political theorists requires a committment that is supererogatory in nature. I close my paper by suggesting that responsibility may be a good candidate for providing the strong moral grounding that recognition requires. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What are the effects of governance structures upon research concentration? This paper addresses this issue in the context of public-private R&D collaboration across 39 countries from 1981 to 2005. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What accounts for variation in support for democracy among religious organizations? This paper explores the importance of institutional factors in determining support for democracy among church authorities in Latin America from 1970-2005. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines those factors, both international and domestic, that are most influential in a state’s decision to adopt a legislative gender quota, including diffusion patterns and regime-type. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper shows how to specify and estimate models with spatial cross-unit interdependence of binary-outcome dependent-variables, and how to interpret, evaluate, and present their estimated spatial or spatio-temporally dynamic effects (w/s.e.'s). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades in western democracies new governance patterns have emerged that have challenged prevailing analytical models and generated a diversity of new approaches. What is often missed in both cases is the issue of how the relationship between politics and policy is reconfigured and re-orientated in these new patterns. This paper attempts to first describe how this relationship appears to have changed in terms of a communication systems shift. Second, it will investigate ways of characterizing the difference between older politics-policy forms and more recent policy-politics patterns as a shift from model to modal behaviour. This second aspect draws attention to the emergent qualities of interactive policy formation thus sensitizing political analysis to questions of how open generative modes operate in fluid conditions while nonetheless 'authoritatively allocating value' (Easton). ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Longstanding psychological theories have stressed that individual value preferences are very stable, highly structured and broadly applicable to virtually all situational contexts. But, recent research in political science suggests that value choices may be relatively malleable and susceptible to contextual effects. This paper uses some unique data obtained from an internet survey in order to address the important issues raised by these potentially conflicting perspectives. The method of triads is used to obtain replicated pairwise value choices from respondents, subject to an experimental manipulation which primed particular values and value conflicts. The empirical results show that most people do make consistent pairwise choices among values. Furthermore, most individuals' sets of pairwise choices are fullytransitive, meaning that they can be assembled into hierarchical structures. Finally, value choices are largely impervious to priming effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, liberal polities have seen a marked rise in group-based claims. Given that liberalism is a political theory which traditionally prioritizes the individual over groups, there has been much discussion about how liberalism might respond to multicultural demands. In this paper, I discuss what I take to be the four ways liberalism might respond, showing that liberals cannot be multiculturalists unless they embrace a libertarian form of liberalism. This is an unhappy consequence because it misses that some form of recognition is at the heart of group-based claims. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a paper on contemporary political theory that explores why Wittgenstein has not had much influence on theorizing today and seeks to show the potential of his philosophical insights for a new critical political theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the political agenda vary across time and space? This paper provides evidence that both the number and the nature of the fundamental conflicts that underpin political competition differ in advanced industrial democracies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a new look at principal-agent theory based on a richer definition of information, more realistic structural configurations, and goal conflict. Often principal-agent models in political science are posited using a flat bi-structural assumption. This approach has produced a number of interesting findings, but it fails to capture realistically complicated structures in executive branch relationships. we evalute these principles with a look at a large, complicated, and evolving federal agency, the Department of Homeland Security. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

My paper explores the renewed turn to biology social inquiry. I argue that there are multiple ways that nature can be conceptualized in social inquiry and that a Kantian model offers advantages that political scientists should find appealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I present data from recent experiments using functional brain imagining to argue for a broader view of political cognition rooted in our evolutionary history as social animals applying our values to achieve desired outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the civic potential of community-based energy. Through content analyses and participant surveys, we examine citizens' motivations for joining and participating in such organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the recommendation that knowledge questions be phrased, framed, and administered so as to minimize the frequency of "don't know" (DK) responses. We experimentally manipulate knowledge items put to a national random sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Laments have grown in recent years over the increasingly widespread belief that most policy analysis is now being driven by the service of specific, powerful interests. Three types of responses are apparent: On the right in particular, interest groups have supported the development of "think tanks"; serving particular ideological perspectives, which nurture the development of a cadre of "hired guns"; to develop analytic resources to support established views. A second response is typified by the recent report charted by the minority party in the House, criticizing the politicization of analysis and presumably seeking a return to the world of "neutral expertise". The third response is found in the academic literature, where critics urge the development of a broader discourse (including unrepresented and under-represented groups) and information supporting neglected perspectives and voices (e.g. Hajer, 2003). We can infer a larger critique from these efforts -- that policy analytic tools, and the substantial resources of information and understanding that they represent, are skewing policy deliberation. We argue that these laments offer an incompletely specified response to the defective political process that they have identified. In answer, we offer what we call "the analytic contract" model of policy analysis which we believe offers an approach to analysis that can resolve the concerns that these critics have identified. The model has two important strengths: it prescribes a process that both enhances and focuses policy deliberation; in ways that should enrich participation, and it offers analysts a clearly prescribed role that relies on the strengths of a professional community. Briefly, the model envisages a several stage process. At the outset, an interested party or parties identifies the need for an analysis, perhaps in response to exogenous triggering events, or perhaps not. These interests, together with other interested parties, can then be expected to advertise the need for analysis. This leads to the "contract phase -- in this phase, a "professional analyst" is invited into the process, perhaps with some funding or other support, or perhaps operating on internal resources. The analyst (which may be an individual or may be an organization) then seeks to formulate an "analytic contract". They begin the process by developing a stakeholder survey: this involves the identification of relevant stakeholders (others, e.g. Dunn, 2003, have explored some of these issues, albeit not conclusively), and the development of an understanding of their interests. In this phase, the "policy analyst", operating as a professional, is responsible for identifying relevant stakeholders and incorporating them into the process. We argue that this process offers some hope of overcoming "moblization biases", by charging analysts to operate as professionals, accountable not only to recognized interests, but also to a professional community for their responsibility to identify and incorporate the interests of those interested, but not effectively mobilized. Once this stakeholder community has been identified, the policy analyst then moves to the development of an analytic contract -- but in consultation with the broader stakeholder community that has now been identified. In keeping with Lowi’s insight of many years ago, we argue that the crystallization of this process into a March and Olsen-like "choice opportunity" (as opposed to the more typical evolving soup of policy windows and deeply ambiguous moments of opportunity) improves the chances for the incorporation of poorly mobilized and thinly supported interests. This process is related, in ways to be explored in greater length in the paper, to the literature on democratic discourse and deliberative democracy. The analytic contract that is ultimately negotiated through the facilitation of the professional analysts specifies the questions to be investigated and the data and information resources to be employed (including any relevant research design issues). The analytic contract may, quite plausibly, address multiple and not necessarily commensurate objectives -- it is intended, after all, to "improve the opportunity for the exercise of informed judgement" as E.S Quade said, not to determine policy. Once this contract has been developed, the analysts is then prepared to develop funding for the work envisaged. The analyst remains responsible to the professional community for an appropriate execution of this analytic contract, but this does not preclude the development of support for the work that is more partial and self-serving (so long as the entire contracted exercise is undertaken). This process recognizes that not all analysis will prove "successful", nor will it yield unambiguous results. It seeks to offer "objective analysis"; in an "accountability framework"; (as Landau observed years ago, "objectivity is accountability"; "offering fair controls over assertions, not pristine, unambiguous facts). Analysts are accountable to the community of stakeholders (for the deliberations over the identification and clarification of their sometimes distinctive interests) and to the community of professional analysis for the appropriate development of a fully realized map of the stakeholder universe; for the development of a well articulated analytic contract, in response to their interests; and for the appropriate execution of the terms of this contract. The professional community, then, provides the validation of these analysts -- those operating without this imprimatur, then, are appropriately understood to be engaging in a different enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of political thought, there is a discernible tradition that has long made a distinction between the form and spirit of government. This decisively European (particularly French) tradition is best represented by Montesquieu, but also includes the likes of Hegel, Rousseau and Tocqueville. The central claim of this tradition is that types of governments have both a universal and a particular form. The constitutional (institutional and procedural forms) should be particular to contexts, but should still embody the universal principles that define the form, as that designates the type of government—e.g. a democracy as opposed to a monarchy. Yet, they suggest that for the constitutional form or type to be meaningful and descriptive of the society/country, it is necessary that the principles that underlie this type of government be evident in the mores, manners, and behavior (the spirit) of its people. In other words, the forms are a) only as meaningful and accurate as a description and, more importantly, b) only likely to be successful to the extent that they become embodied in the spirit of the people. In this paper, I will first fully develop the core arguments of this tradition in political thought. As I reconstruct the core content of this tradition, I will trace it through each of theorists cited above. Then, I will argue that this tradition has its orgins in Aristotle, who argued that the legislator should model the educative process after the fact that the sociological evolution of the individual is based first on nature, then on habit, and finally on reason. After having reconstructed this tradition and demonstrated its connection to Aristotelian thought, I will then suggest that the spirit/form tradition is a valuable theoretical tool. I argue that the spirit/form tradition establishes criteria by which a political scientist can: a) Evaluate the stability of a regime type within a country b) Evaluate the legitimacy of a government within a country and c) Suggest what alternative types of government might be better suited for a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entering into coalitions has become a standard tactic for interest groups trying to maximize success while minimizing cost. The strategic conditions underlying decisions to form or join coalitions are beginning to be explored in the political science literature, yet very little is known about the process and criteria through which interest groups select coalition partners. In this paper, I explore the partner selection process by applying a spatial theory of coalition formation (c.f. Laver & Shepsle 1996) to interest group participation on Amicus Curiae briefs from 1999-2003. Using multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques, I demonstrate that the lobbying efforts of groups can be used to generate a general ideological orientation for each group. With captured ideology scores, I generate statistical models of interest group participation before the Supreme Court, both in terms of frequency of participation and coalition partner selection. This research demonstrates that the “ideology” scores captured for each group are powerful predictors of both which side of a particular issue a group can be expected to support and also of which other groups are likely to be selected as coalition partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

John Nash, the subject of Nasar?s (1999) A Beautiful Mind, affected political science in important ways. His equilibrium concept and variants of it provide a foundation for many formal models of politics. But do political actors have beautiful minds? We ask this question to focus attention on the relationship between how people think and the underlying cognitive requirements of popular equilibrium concepts. Some actors, particularly citizens who are politically engaged, are unlikely to satisfy these requirements in political environments. For such actors and circumstances, we advocate a different equilibrium concept -- Fudenberg and Levine?s (1993) self-confirming equilibrium. It allows modelers to incorporate a far broader range of cognitive styles than more commonly used concepts. We close the paper with two examples that highlight the advantages of this modeling approach. We conclude that political science can increase the range and depth of its contributions by expanding its repertoire of solution concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper proposed as part of panel 031015: Questioning the Applicability of the Natural Science Model to Political Science For over a century, hermeneutic-phenomenological thinkers such as Dilthey, Gadamar and Charles Taylor have been pointing out a critical difference between the natural and social sciences, which renders the methods of the first inappropriate for the latter. Natural objects exist independently of what the researcher thinks about them; they cannot, in Anthony Giddens’s words,answer back to the investigator. In the social sciences, however, the facts may be changed by the desire to change [them]; and this desire, already present in the mind of the investigator, may be extended, as the result of this investigation, to a sufficient number of other human beings to make it effective. The purpose is not, as in the physical sciences, irrelevant to the investigation and separable from it: it is itself one of the facts (E. H. Carr). The mainstream of American political science ignored this hermeneutic critique and had increasingly become committed to a positivist epistemology patterned after the model of the natural sciences. Interestingly, the discipline’s continuing aspiration to become a science coincides with a growing aspiration to become relevant to public debates and policymaking. For example, recent APSA president Robert Putnam launched an initiative to enhance the public presence of political science. The putative contradiction between these aspirations -- to be detached from the politics we study while seeking to influence these politics -- is rarely discussed. I seek to (re)open such a discussion through a critique of three important books in IR: Jack Snyder’s Myths of Empire, Yuen Foong Khong’s Analogies at War, and Fareed Zakaria’s From Wealth to Power. All three books were written in the idiom of science, and all of them offer generalizations claimed to apply across time and space. All three books empirically observe a pathology in the international body politic; and all of them have normative implications that, if acted upon by their readers, would cure the pathology. Herein lies the tension: if the policymakers to whom the books are partly addressed were to modify their behavior according to the lessons implicit the books, the empirical generalizations elaborated in these studies would cease to be valid. For example, if national leaders learned that the belief in security through expansion is a dangerous myth (Snyder), they might avoid expansionary policies in the future. If they do so, the empirical regularity documented by Snyder’s analysis -- the striking proclivity of great powers for over-expansion -- would no longer hold. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an assessment of Karl Popper’s controversial interpretation of Plato’s Republic in The Open Society and Its Enemies. Contrary to positions that have recently resurfaced in the literature, I argue that his interpretations of the Republic and liberalism are problematic on many counts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper notes that conventional modeling strategies for ordinal categorical response variables in social sciences frequently belie properties and assumptions of standard cumulative link models like the proportional odds model. In this paper, we ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper develops a game theoretic model of institutional change, which confirms the political theory of endogenous institutional change outlined in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Confucius has been quoted as saying, “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand.” This has become a mantra for many of us in the disciplines of social science to engage students in innovative techniques for our classrooms. Political scientists, like their colleagues in other disciplines, have begun to move beyond the traditional lectures, which we argue still has an important role in the undergraduate classroom, to use different forms of media to engage students. Some resourceful educators and dynamic campuses have begun to give students “hands-on” experiences to help them understand the dynamics of modern day politics. While hearing, seeing and doing may help students better understand politics, there are activities that we, professionals and society at large, would prefer that student did not engage in. Most people do not want to see students “doing” genocide in order to have a better understanding of the dynamics that lead to genocide. This paper reviews the importance of engaged-learners when discussing issues of civil and political rights. The authors have sought new and innovative ways to have students think critically about human rights and social justice. This paper is a preliminary report on how their students have received techniques such as films, role-playing, research, and observation. While the authors come from different sub-fields (American politics and international relations), they have been seeking out other professionals and have had a running dialogue between themselves and other professionals on new techniques and methods. Our conclusions suggest that students are “entertained” in classrooms that employ such methods, which is not necessarily a benefit although students are engaged, but they also have a better understanding of how to critically think about the issues and understand the plight of others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If presidents share their power by forming a coalition (which usually includes positions in the cabinet) whenever they need support to maintain power, why sometimes minority presidents do not form coalitions? This paper explores the instances in which presidents will not form coalitions, and how do presidents choose alternative ways of strengthening their political position. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the context of the public goods model, this paper evaluates the theory of hegemonic stability for the post World War II period using quantitative methods. The results support the theory of a benevolent hegemon. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests the argument that SNTV is subproportional. This test is superior to previous tests because the data are from a country not previously examined and include multiple parties and a change in government. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tests whether brokers are more likely to find support for their collaborative proposals. In addition, it also explores how tie strength in ego-networks conditions the previous relationship. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the treatment in Plato's Protagoras of the question Is Virtue One? It attempts to make sense of the perplexing discussion, give an answer to the question, and explain why this question and answer are of such great importance. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between tragedy, self-knowledge, and friendship in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, concluding that Aristotle addresses the tension inherent between our identities as individuals and our political nature. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the configuration of natural beauty as a category of alterity in Adorno's "Äesthetische Theorie," and the implications of such a configuration for political practice. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws on the Adornian non-identical and the Lacanian Real, to propose a “theoretical outline of the subject.” Although we cannot completely grasp the subject, it argues we need a subject to advance changes in the socio-political sphere. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the increasing diversity of the advanced degrees of faculty who teach political science. The author notes strengths and weaknesses, particularly placing this into the context of the integration of political science programs. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers recent reinterpretations of Thomas Aquinas that advance a principled distinction between public and private acts. Aquinas's divergence from Aristotle and compatibility with modern political theory are considered. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper advances a theory of party coordination that accounts for patterns of nationalization and de-nationalization of politics across national and subnational electoral arenas. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper uses HAMLET as a focus on political leadership, focusing on the players and Polonius's admonition: "To thine own self be true/And it must follow as night the day/Thou canst not then be false to any man." ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper emphasizes need to increase communication and dialogue among diverse types of political theorists ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite facing similar environmental threats, environmental conservation efforts in Taiwan, Japan, and China vary greatly. In my paper, I argue that this is best explained by examining differences in institutional structure and domestic politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Candidacies do not emerge randomly across the nation or within states. Our paper is a contemporary examination of candidate origins, focusing on structural biases that make some locations better launching pads for strong political bids than others. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using public opinion and macroeconomic data for Western Europe from 1973 to 2001, the paper examines the effect of economic performance on popular political satisfaction. Results from bivariate and multivariate regressions show that measures of economic performance such as growth in real GDP and rising unemployment are estimated to have statistically significant and noteworthy effects on mean aggregate political satisfaction. However, evidence is also found that suggests that the relationship between economic performance and political satisfaction changes as a function of governments' social spending commitments. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores possible alternative uses for the role of luck in theorizing democracy and explores how the potentially fortune friendly use of probability theory in the social sciences has been misrepresented to highlight an imaginary predictability of political life that leads many theorists to shy away from its use. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proponents of metropolitan fragmentation argue that greater inter-city competition compels local governments to better match the services they provide to the needs of their residents, and to supply those services more efficiently. On the other hand, a number of authors have argued that metropolitan fragmentation leads to a socio-economic "sorting," in which some cities, often outlying suburban municipalities, became middle- and upper-class enclaves, while other cities, often the older ones that form the central core of a metropolitan region, become repositories of the lower class. Both sides of this debate treat metropolitan fragmentation in temporally static terms of the equity or efficiency of local service delivery. Building on research from the New York metropolitan region, my paper instead makes use of historical institutionalist models to understand metropolitan fragmentation as an intermediary process in which urban services are not merely conceived of as things that might be provided efficiently or inefficiently in an equitable or inequitable manner, but also as evolutionary processes that transform the context in which they were formulated. Understanding metropolitan fragmentation as an evolutionary process is an extension of the classic urban ecological model while it also provides a new vantage point for viewing institutional constraints to the local policy process. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The broadest meaning of governance is the regulation of social activities utilizing a variety of modes and mechanism of societal regulation. These range from collectively binding decisions to uncoordinated individual action guided by social norms and rationality principles. In the political science literature of the 1950s and 1960s this theoretical problem was treated in terms of "control" and "regulation" by variants of system theory. However, during the 1980s this systematic perspective was crowded out by individualist approaches - above all rational choice - and a macro perspective of societal regulation was lost. Although governance theory tries to speak to these questions, its foundation in general social theories is rather weak. This paper argues that various streams of complexity theory offer a broader and deeper theoretical foundation for theories of gov-ernance and regulation than other existing approaches.Complexity theory was initially developed in the physical and biological sciences. However, social scientists rapidly recognized its potential in formulating dynamic theories of the evolution of social systems. Whereas the various approaches differ in detail, they share common elements. These include the explicit modeling of multiple positive and negative feedbacks among the agents in a system, the introduction of learning and adaptation at the level of purposive agents, and the recogni-tion of the multi-layer nature of social systems, in which phenomena at higher levels emerge from (but are not necessarily fully determined by) interactions at lower levels. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the political factors that lead a state to reform its method of judicial selection. Focusing on the courts of last resort allows one to isolate political factors which lead a state to adopt a new form of judicial selection. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect that support for the political government and several other political factors have on citizens' attitudes towards police in three Latin American countries and the United States. Traditional views hold that citizens’ attitudes toward the police are driven by local concerns. We contend that the failure to examine the police in a political and comparative context has contributed to a lack of understanding of the role of the police in relation to the overall political system. Using data from Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico and the United States, we test whether citizens’ attitudes toward the police are related to their attitudes toward the national government. We find that attitudes toward the police and the national government are linked, and this linkage is responsive to the influence of national election campaigns in varying degrees. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large literature in political science and communications demonstrates that candidates and the news media can influence the importance voters ascribe to political issues. Little work, however, has sought to compare the agenda-setting influence of each group of actors -- candidates and journalists. Nor do scholars have a good understanding of how their influence varies in campaigns with different issue contexts, such as the extent to which candidates and the media emphasize the same issues. In this paper, I explore these matters using an experiment conducted during the early stages of the 2006 Texas gubernatorial election. I find the media to be more effective than candidates in affecting the salience individuals ascribe to political issues. Not surprisingly, the strongest effects emerge when news reports and campaign communications converge on the same agenda, suggesting the benefit to candidates when the media reflect their issue priorities. The findings point to the continued role of news coverage in shaping public opinion and the value in understanding the relationship between candidates and the media. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on the role of political knowledge and partisanship in the connections citizens make between changes in the environment and their political evaluations. Although this question could be studied in a variety of settings, presidential approval is perhaps the most useful. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the question of why some crises between states are resolved through negotiation while others result in continued conflict. The theoretical model is tested using both experimental and empirical analysis. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]