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This paper will examine how extreme partisanship in the United States Senate has prevented any significant collaborative efforts between the President Obama and Congress. I argue that the United States Senate is undergoing a modern era of disunion. The conditions in the Senate can be directly traced to the concerted efforts of Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to maintain ideological purity among his caucus members for the purposes ensuring that President Obama's has a failed presidency by asserting a Republican agenda that is aimed at undermining the legitimacy of Democratic initiatives. The Constitutional responsibility for shared governance has been severely compromised by conservative factions of the Republican Party. Subsequently, members of Congress who wish to find compromises across party lines are shut out of the political process. I propose that the restoration and continued health of the American democracy is dependent on the members' ability to reassert their influence collectively into the political process through engaging their colleagues and constituencies in the process of deliberative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the failure of the U.S. government in achieving good foreign intelligence that has led to the events of September 11, 2001. It informs that from the starting of the U.S. Republic, the need for good intelligence in wartime has been critical. The U.S. President George Bush mentioned that foreign intelligence forms the basic part of the constitutional authority.

A conference paper about the adoption of school interventions for youth obesity prevention in the U.S. is presented. It utilizes cross-sectional probit analysis and fifty state data through 2007 to analyze the adoption in different categorical school interventions. The findings reveal that the state government is more likely to adopt the school intervention of setting competitive food nutritional standards.

This paper analyzes and contrasts gubernatorial and legislative influence in agency rules and regulations in state administration overtime. In addition, it compares and contrasts the influence overtime of the two institutional oversight actors with state courts, professional associations, and clientele groups. Utilizing data from American State Administrators Project (ASAP) surveys administered in the 1978 to 2004 time-period, we describe and assess the level and pattern of influence of these policy actors in this central administrative function. Who is minding the store? Who has access to the store? We find remarkable stability in the extent and patterns of influence of these actors on agency rules and regulations. A partial answer to the question we pose is that the governor may have more of an oversight role in this area than is commonly credited to him. The remainder of the paper considers the impact of gubernatorial and legislative control, agency size, agency head tenure, and agency type on the influence of these institutional and non-institutional actors on administrative rule making. Our most prominent finding is that who is minding the store and how wide open for access the door is very much a function of the type of agency in question. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It has become fashionable in recent years for party scholars to complain how the Supreme Court has treated political parties. Party scholars have especially complained that the Supreme Court has ignored important political science literature in their decision in Timmons v. Twin Cities Area New Party (1997) (banning fusion candidacies) and the two political party-related campaign finance cases, Colorado I (1996) and Colorado II (2001). Yet rarely is this criticism coupled with any analysis of whether political science has been reaching the Court in the form of party and amicus briefs. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to take a step back from this popular criticism to describe the role that political science materials have played in the Supreme Court?s jurisprudence relating to political parties. I examine twenty cases, stretching over four issue areas ? ballot access, internal party governance, party patronage, and campaign finance ? to see what role, if any, political science materials played in the party and amicus briefs presented to the Court. Since the Supreme Court relies primarily on the litigants and interested parties for information, it is imperative that before we criticize the Court for not using political science, we must first determine if political science is reaching the Court and, if not, what can be done to improve the situation. This paper is divided into four parts. Part I examines the literature from political scientists on the Supreme Court?s political party jurisprudence. Part II is devoted to explaining case selection and the methodology behind determining the role that political science played in the briefs. The longest section of the paper, Part III, dissects the twenty cases to determine the role political science played in the cases. Part IV serves as the conclusion, with words on where political science stands with the Supreme Court on cases involving political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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

In this paper, we synthesize and extend theoretical accounts of the solicitor general's (SG) influence on the votes of Supreme Court justices. In particular, we argue that the level of politicization exhibited by the SG can affect both the foundation of political support the SG enjoys from ideologically proximate justices and the strength of "outlier signals" offered in particular cases. When the SG exhibits increased politicization, outlier signals are likely to be especially useful to ideologically distant justices and, therefore, predictive of their behavior. When the SG is less politicized, outlier signal briefs should be more equivalent to mainstream briefs, and, therefore, relatively less informative. Analyzing justices' votes in civil liberties and civil rights cases, we find empirical support for our theoretical claims. In particular, we find that the effects of politicization in the Office of the Solicitor General and outlier signals contained in individual case briefs are conditional on one another and on the degree of ideological divergence between each justice and the SG. This study offers a more complete account of the ways that political dynamics shape executive branch litigation and linkages between the president and the Supreme Court. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to understand the way in which individuals make decisions, we not only need to know characteristics about the individuals but also about the information that they value and receive. In the realm of legislative politics, the weight that representatives place on the value of information - from personal sources such as their own experience and legislative staff, collegial sources, and "expert" sources such as lobbyists, the media, and others - can often affect the ways in which legislators proceed with making decisions with regard to policy. While this area of study is important for scholars of politics interested in fully understanding the ways in which representatives make decisions regarding policy, the study of representatives' information valuation has gone largely unexplored by empirical study. In a similar vein, the power that information gathering has in the legislative arena versus the consideration of the peculiar political environment that legislators are espoused in has not garnered sufficient attention in academic literature. Utilizing the cross-sectional 2002 State Legislative Survey (Carey et al, 2002), which surveys individual state legislators about various factors related to their jobs including their perceived importance of different sources of information, this paper examines fluctuations in and support for varying types of information with regard to representatives' decision making. The results show that information is a highly important factor in the individual legislator's decision making process when compared to the political context in which legislator's make decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 32 years, many U.S. representatives have tried to make the journey from the House floor to the Senate chambers. Previous research depicts representatives as the most frequent type of senatorial candidate (Copeland 1989; Brace 1994). However, our understanding of the motives behind these progressively ambitious representatives is relatively unknown. Application of ambition and strategic politician theories to lower-level races finds candidates are facing increased costs or liabilities are less likely to emerge as a candidate for higher office. This paper applies these theories across a longer range of elections than any previous study, and it evaluates factors that increase their probability of winning--i.e., ones increasing visibility and attractiveness as a senatorial candidate. Additionally, I analyze both sitting and former representatives to better understand the effects of representative status. This research design should help us improve our understanding of why some representatives run for the U.S. Senate, while most representatives do not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the causes of midterm decline in US elections is an important area of study in political science. Though there has been a lot of work on midterm decline at the national level, there has not been a lot of research about how theories of midterm decline can be applied to the US federal system. This paper focuses on establishing a relationship between the president's party and gubernatorial elections using longitudinal hierarchical linear modeling. I find that the evaluations of the president can impact elections, and that there is an important effect of presidential punishment. These results indicate the need for more research about how theories of midterm decline specifically impact state level voting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reexamines civil theology, a venerable concept in the field of political science, and how this concept is symbolized in contemporary political practice. Civil theology forms both the basis and the underlying reality for any political society, informing the myth structure of society and how a society interprets itself within the structure of reality. It is during periods of moral crisis, however, when both the myth structure and society's understanding of itself comes into question, that civil theology as a political phenomenon presents itself as a particularly salient topic for both analysis and speculation. In the United States, contemporary civil theological manifestation reveals two related, yet functionally different civil theologies: one representing an older, venerable tradition, and which functioned, in Tocquevillian terms, in an organic way to engender civic mindedness; the other a recent contrivance whose function is largely a restorative program, initiated by conservative intellectuals to offset a perceived crisis and decline in American hegemony—a decline involving a number of variables, including the moral, strategic, economic, cultural, and so forth. Building on the work of such notable political theorists as Leo Strauss, these thinkers sought to arrest American decline in the wake of "modernity" by revitalizing the spiritual core of America's public sphere and breathing life into what can be conceived as the "myth" of America. The effort amounts to a civil theological contrivance much in the manner of both Plato and Hobbes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Redistricting is the most nakedly partisan activity in American politics. Political science research and the courts generally acknowledge that redistricting undertaken in a partisan environment where one party completely controls the legislative process results in a perpetuation of the majority at the cost of the minority. The 2001 Georgia redistricting did precisely that, perpetuating a legislative majority that was a popular minority. The rejection of those maps by the federal courts in 2004 led to a politically-uncontrolled redistricting of the state legislature. In this paper, we examine the effect of changing legislative boundaries by court order on the political outcomes of the Georgia House of Representatives in 2004. By examining the changing partisan structure of the districts, the altered racial structure, and the treatment and placement of incumbents, we develop a multivariate analysis of the changing structure of seat possession in the Georgia House of Representatives. Our analysis indicates that there are significant political effects due to the unexpected redistricting. These changes were sufficient to change the control of the chamber, based on the assumption that the same relationships between predictor variables remained constant from 2002 to 2004. We also find, however, that there are changes in the relationship between predictor variables and the political outcomes, indicating that the remap alone does not explain the magnitude of political gains by the Georgia Republicans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing rivalries between China and U.S. starting from economic issues, diffusing to political and military dimensions, reassure the rational solutions presumed by power transition theory. By examining the combined effects of international systemic structure, international context, the impact of Chinese democratization, the changing share of national capability, Chinese nationalism, and domestic politics, the paper builds an empirical model to analyze how these factors shape the patterns of Sino-American Conflict over time. The model identifies a new pattern of conflict due to the increasing interdependence of economy and specifies that comprehensive engagement enhances rather than threats to U.S. leading power. Therefore the model predicts more cooperation than confrontation in Sino-U.S. relations in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will explore some of the conceptual difficulties associated with explaining individual participation in extremist politics. Policymakers and scholars interested in the mo-tivating factors behind terrorism and extremism need to move beyond the limited assump-tions associated with traditional analyses that all too frequently presume that individuals are engaged in a constant struggle to accrue the greatest number of material goods. Certainly individuals do strive for pecuniary gain. Still, such a framework may be better apt to describe the employee who changes one workplace for a higher paying substitute or even the astute politician altering their party?s platform in a bid to appeal to the electorate?s sway. Conjec-tures that all people seek to improve their material lot fail to explain the sacrifices made while engaging in other activities, particularly politics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we look again at the distinction between independent voters "leaners" and partisans. We find some important similarities between "pure" independents and independents classified as "leaners." We argue that although independent leaners may be similar to partisans on some measures, they are behaviorally and attitudinally distinct from partisans in important ways. Even more importantly, the behavioral similarity between partisans and leaners changes when there are more than two candidates on offer. The behavioral similarity of leaners to partisans emphasized in previous studies can thus be understood as a product of the forced choice between the two parties that typifies the American political system. When more options are available, independent leaners take advantage of those options and do not remain loyal to the two big parties in the same measure as partisans. The position of independent leaners in the US is thus loosely analogous to the position tactical voters in multi-party systems in that they are compelled by the party system to choose between the lesser of two evils. Our argument suggests that earlier results and interpretations of independents reflected the specific two party choice settings of the 1950s through the 1980s. Furthermore, even assuming a behavioral similarity to partisans, leaners have distinct attitudes towards politics and the political system that put them far away from being standard Michigan model-type voters. We begin by presenting a brief review of the sizable literature on this topic. From here we present some simple evidence that supports an alternative interpretation of leaners as neither partisans nor "pure" independents, but as "critical citizens." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the evolution of the reconciliation process as a technical component of the enactment of budget by the U.S. Congress in the period 1980-2015. Also examined are the provision of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 on the reconciliation process, the procedure in developing legislation to comply with reconciliation instructions, and the special rules from the House of Representatives Rules Committee that govern the creation of reconciliation laws.

This paper argues that a central paradox of liberal constitutionalism can be found by closely examining the freedom of association. Freedom of association includes the right not to associate; thus a regime of individual rights facilitates the creation of marginalized individuals and groups. These groups then seek social recognition, which liberal constitutionalism cannot easily grant, unless the state itself becomes complicit in discriminatory action. The existence and protection of a sphere of civil society is thus a key mechanism of both freedom and inequality. The paper uses American case law to explore this paradox, and to examine the status and likely strategy of societal pariah groups, and also examines the manner in which liberal political theory (Hannah Arendt, Nancy Rosenblum, Amy Gutmann, Iris Marion Young) address related questions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional survey course in Western policy theory remains generally popular with students, nonetheless students often fail to appreciate the relevance of political theory to the rest of their curriculum and to contemporary politics. This paper discusses how the instructor enhances the teaching of Western political theory by incorporating brief examples from the education and political thought of the American Founding Fathers. Among the examples used are Benjamin Franklin on Xenophon's Socrates, Alexander Hamilton on the justification of for independence in natural law, George Washington's use of the inspiration of Cato, Classical references in the Federalist Papers, and Thomas Jefferson on Aristotle's moderate democracy and Epicureanism, as well as the widespread influence of the writings and orations of Cicero. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question of American exceptionalism has perplexed historians and social scientists for a century. Not only does vigorous debate on the causes of American exceptionalism persist, but there is also a vocal segment of scholars that deny the claim outright. This paper seeks to outline the main problems with the manner in which American exceptionalism is usually addressed by examining the claims of some leading social scientists. The paper will show that the widespread confusion is partly due to the comparative posture taken in addressing the question, which cannot appreciate the phenomenon for what it is. Indeed, here there seems to be another instance of the method driving the results. This calls for an alternate method, which is developed in the latter half of the paper with an emphasis on America's heritage of political and religious thought. This new lens opens up the topic to exploration by political theorists, and initial inquiry reveals that the phenomenon of American exceptionalism is as old as the footprints of European colonists on American shores. By showing the special pitfalls of the comparative, scientific approach and suggesting a new way forward through political theory, this paper seeks to begin a conversation that will settle some of the disputes on the question of American exceptionalism and throw others into sharper relief. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Democracy has a boundary problem: the boundaries of democratic communities have not been and in all likelihood cannot be democratically legitimated. This problem is occasionally noted but generally avoided: since it is a seemingly intractable problem for democratic legitimacy, democratic theorists prefer to focus on the nature of legitimate political institutions, rather than the legitimate boundaries of democratic communities. This paper argues that the strategy of avoiding the legitimation challenge presented by borders is a mistake, and one productive way to engage the challenge is through normative evaluation of immigration and border control policy in democratic states. To that end, I survey several arguments about the ethics of border control and immigration policy, ranging from a defense of highly restrictive border policies (David Miller) to a defense of open borders (Joseph Carens). Despite important policy differences, the normative literature on immigration shares two errors: first, this literature fails to consider the unintended consequences of border policy, especially with regard to the impact on the social and political life of borderlands. Second, the literature fails to acknowledge the potential democratic agency of the excluded would-be border-crossers. For a political theory of immigration to help us address the legitimation challenge presented by borders, these issues must be addressed. The paper concludes with a sketch of what a political theory of immigration that overcomes these two shortcomings might look like, with help from Seyla Benhabib's conception of 'democratic iterations' and Bonnie Honig's conception of 'democratic takings.' ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study of political minorities is one of the most pressing questions in political science. For the most part, the literature has focused on women and racial minorities, finding that, in general, the same characteristics and attitudes that lead to discrimination against women also lead to discrimination against African-Americans. In this paper, however, I examine attitudes toward homosexuals. Specifically, is the hostility directed to the gay community the same as the hostility directed to other outgroups - African-Americans, in particular? Using data from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, this paper explores whether those who report an unwillingness to vote for gay candidates are guided by their values, their religious beliefs, a general prejudicial disposition, or a targeted homophobic disposition. Results indicate that neither religious belief nor a generalized prejudicial disposition account for intolerance of gay candidates or the gay community at-large. Rather, results indicate that a targeted homophobic disposition leads to such reluctance to vote for gay candidates, having several implications for the larger democratic context and the way in which intolerance of gays is conceptualized. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most recent discussions of executive war powers are rooted in the imperial presidency thesis, which holds that post-World War II U.S. Presidents have usurped Congress' constitutional war powers, causing an unhealthy imbalance in the Constitutional framework. However, imperial presidency scholars have failed to connect their analysis of the recent growth of presidential war powers to progressivism's open challenge to the Constitutional principle of the separation of powers and the progressive conception of the president as statesman and party leader (Note Wilson quote in title). This paper analyzes the connection between progressivism and the growth of presidential war powers, and argues that the progressive conception of the Presidency has distorted the original Constitutional design for the executive in times of war and crises. Drawing from progressive theoretical writings as well as the decisions taken by progressive war presidents, this paper summarizes progressive political thought with respect to the President's role in war and foreign affairs. It then details how progressive ideas of parliamentary government, their critique of the Constitutional separation of powers, their advocacy of party government, and their overall conception of the presidency and statesmanship has significant implications for the role and perception of the executive in times of war and crisis. The progressive departure from the Constitution is accentuated with a comparison of key tenets of the progressive understanding of executive war powers and those originally outlined by the framers of the U.S. Constitution. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American politics and policy have traditionally strong ties to the geography of the nation. Alexis de Tocqueville described the impact of the vastness of the American continent and its resources on the American political psyche. Both V. O. Key and Daniel Elazar discussed the importance of geography to American politics and opinion. The complexity of the current policy environment requires the use of techniques that capture systemic characteristics of the environment. Geographic information systems (GIS) software and spatial techniques allow researchers to develop a policy framework to incorporate issues of space and proximity as variables in policy models. These variables are often ignored in conventional research. Their inclusion can result in more accurate, realistic, and comprehensive policy models. This paper examines the potential for systematic incorporation in political and policy analyses of geographic and spatial characteristics. It explores how these geographic and spatial factors have been incorporated into theoretical frameworks of various political science and public policy theorists. It also examines how contemporary theorists have included GIS software and spatial techniques into political science and public policy research questions. This paper finds that the limited application of these GIS and spatial techniques to research questions in political science and public policy has excluded the important variable of location from theoretical consideration. This limitation offers the researcher the opportunity to apply these techniques to questions of location and proximity. Finally, this paper demonstrates the potential for insight gained from the application of GIS and spatial techniques to the public policy environment. The paper engages the specific policy challenge of developing biomass as an alternative fuel considering spatial variation of political characteristics. Using data on members of Congress, their ideological records, party membership, and special interest group ratings of these members the paper demonstrates how research can use these techniques to develop a more complete picture of a specific policy environment. In doing so it acts to bridge the gap between spatial analysis and conventional analytic techniques. The paper will be of interest to scholars and policy makers since it establishes a dialogue of both theoretical and application-based relevance to the field. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to scholars and the media, second term presidents, often known during their second term as lame ducks, are less successful in policymaking than earlier in their term. While political scientists and the media speak of second term presidents negatively referring to them as "lame ducks", no empirical evidence has been done to test whether the statements commonly made above are actually supported. This paper explores the theory that second term presidents are not as successful by looking at the president's relationship with the House of Representatives. President's relationship with Congress is important to his overall success, and thus this paper looks at whether time affects relations between the president and the House. Using multivariate analysis, three hypotheses are tested to look at such relations over time. Suggested in this paper is that the longer the president is in office, the more likely that the House of Representative support scores of the president will decline. The second and third hypotheses are based on party support; the longer a president is in office, the more likely that Democrat and Republican support scores of the president will decline. Regression analysis shows that the amount of time a president holds office does not explain the decline in relations; only be looking at how other variables affect time can the "lame duck jinx" be explained. These variables include party identification of both the members of the House and the President, public approval ratings, control of the house, congressional investigations, and number of administrative changes. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political scientists have long studied the relationship between the federal government and the states and how changes in that relationship affect American politics and policy. During the last decade the federal government has adopted a more coercive posture toward the states, and states in turn have become increasingly willing to challenge federal law and policy, even under threat of reproach. This paper analyzes the state of American federalism through the lens of three policy areas: drug control, education, and homeland security. Measures permitting the medical use of marijuana in eleven states; the backlash against the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act; and criticisms of the cost and content of efforts to safeguard national security represent formidable state-level challenges to federal policy. The federal government historically has used grants-in-aid as the primary means of encouraging states to adopt its goals. But new conditions, including the rise of direct democracy, support for devolution, state budget surpluses and growth in tax revenues, and increasing responsiveness to public opinion, have made states less dependent on federal funds, less attentive to federal priorities, and less willing to accede to federal dictates that come with strings attached. In a shift from previous decades, the public's greater confidence in state and local governments than in the federal government may further contribute to state policymakers' willingness to advance their own agendas. This paper offers findings from three policy areas that shed light on the causes and consequences of the turn toward "coercive federalism" and the states' activist response. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration has emerged as one of the most important policy debates in contemporary America. What shapes citizens attitudes towards immigration policy? Of particular interest is the role played by religion and nationalism - two other important emerging forces in American politics - in determining these attitudes. In previous research (Nooruddin and McDaniel 2006), we show that higher levels of nationalism are associated with more exclusionary definitions of American citizenship. In this paper, we deepen the causal chain by including religion in the analysis. On the one hand, scholars have argued that American nationalism is rooted in religious beliefs, which would suggest that more religious citizens should have higher levels of nationalistic fervor and therefore favor less inclusionary immigration policy. On the other, some religious elites have emphasized the principles of tolerance and compassion in their faith in arguing that members of their congregation should be open-minded and accepting of increased immigration. This paper uses survey data to discriminate between these arguments, and seeks to contribute thereby to the larger debates about the evolving nature of contemporary US politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Should religious ideas be equally included among secular ideas in the study of political science? The author argues that the answer is "yes," especially regarding government ethics. As one example, this paper examines the thinking of Oxford scholar C.S. Lewis regarding the unintentional co-mingling of two secular ideas and their impact on government policy and planning. Focusing on his work, The Abolition of Man, the author argues that Lewis implied that opposing ideas do combine in the world of practice in ways unintended by its proponents. Specifically, Lewis argued that scientific thought and moral relativism can be put into practice by government planners with devastating effects on citizens. In this paper, the author updates this approach by arguing that positivist methods combined with post-modernist ideas in practice can result in what Lewis calls the "omni-competent" state. In such a state, social planning results in a progression of weaker and weaker citizens until the "abolition" of human kind is achieved. In contrast, Lewis proposes a foundational approach, which he calls the "Tao," acknowledging common foundational absolutes that prevent such an omni-competent state from forming. The author argues that while Lewis' idea of the Tao lacks specificity, it is close to John Rawls' idea of an overlapping consensus required among adherents of different comprehensive doctrines in a just society. Thus, since religious and secular comprehensive doctrines are part of the Tao, this illustrates the need to include religious ideas as equals among secular doctrines when studying political science. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 21st century, political theorists trained in continental and analytical traditions in western thought should not be parochial. Political theorists are trying to avoid parochialism by wrestling with questions of global relevance or using methods that engage with texts and ideas that have been marginalized in the cannon of western political thought. These two approaches to intellectual isolationism might seem incompatible because the first is question-driven and the second is methodology-driven. In fact globalizing both the questions of political theory and the theoretical traditions that inform political theory are important directions for 21st century political theory, and they ought to be pursued simultaneously and in collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author reflects on U.S. conservatism along with the conservatism policy in accordance with the U.S. Constitution. Topics discussed include conservative approach to political life, the principle of constitutionalism and assessment of relationship between of post-World War II American conservatives and American constitutionalism.

Although executive authority is a critical element in separation of powers systems, an excessive amount is not conducive for responsible policymaking behavior because it lowers executives' transaction costs to make policies that are compatible with their short-term electoral incentives at the expense of long-term prudence. We test this proposition by analyzing the relationship between unilateral executive control over fiscal policymaking and fiscal spending growth in the American states. The statistical evidence reveals that the level of unilateral executive control over fiscal policymaking represents a critical institutional source of per capita real general expenditure growth by U.S. state governments. These findings indicate that vesting concentrated policymaking authority with a unitary elected executive promotes fiscal profligacy. This study underscores the benefits associated with limiting unilateral executive control through shared policymaking authority arrangements in separation of powers systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that the American political and social history are often attempted to organize histories of the particular professions and philosophical disciplines through stated missions including religious denominations, political parties and labor unions in the U.S. It informs that this categorization not only view the American political development as a directional progression but it also sees the development of numerous and disconnected fields.

The article informs about an exploratory study which has which has been conducted to understand the ongoing debate related to the influence of the municipal government on policy outcomes and the managerial performance of mayors and professional municipal managers. It informs that the relative efficiency of two forms of government including mayor-council and council manager is a topic interest for scholars in economics, political science and public administration.

The article focuses on party polarization including recognitive polarization, strategic polarization, and behavioral polarization in the politics of the U.S. It examines two factors for polarization of party politics including ideological distribution of voters and interest groups and internal organization of parties. It also discusses strategic polarization in Japan.

The article offers information on biofuels which is a common alternative fuel in the U.S. It discusses the influence of exogenous forces including public opinion, dramatic events and the state of the economy on the media's, the president's and Congress' issue frames. It mentions that the political issues can be framed in several ways due to their complexity.

Strategic modeling of court decisions at all levels is an important piece of understanding judicial behavior. A next step in the strategic literature involves systematicaly testing for different types of cases. Also important is the idea that justices in competitive electoral retention systems and elite reappointment systems may act strategically in certain types of cases. For instance, it is plausible that a governor may not retain an appointed justice that votes for extremely large civil suit payouts while voters in retention elections may not care much about this issue. Therefore, different types of cases may have more salience to certain retention systems.My theory posits that cases with relatively low salience, such as property crimes, will not compel strategic behavior by justices on a state supreme court, regardless of the preferences of other actors. On other issues, such as murder, and torts cases, the adoption of policy positions that diverge from the preferences of decision makers in the selection process may reduce the likelihood of a state supreme court justice remaining on a court. For this analysis, I examine murder, property crime, and torts cases, looking at criminal v. civil and low v. high salience.To test the theory, I use the Hall and Brace judge level dataset from 1995-1998 to find justice votes in each category from 1995-1998. I code for additional variables at the state level such as judicial ideology, state level ideology, etc, and use a logit model with the justice vote as the dependent variable. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of those articles that have been written about African-Americans running for governor or the U.S. Senate, there is a shift away from the focus on race and the use of racial cues, and a greater interest in other qualities of the candidate, such as the African-American's ideology. But until now, few have been able to test such a proposition, due to the dearth of available information on the subject, and the limited number of African-Americans choosing to run in such contests.I seek to overcome both problems in my conference submission "The Role Of Ideology For African American Candidates In Statewide Elections" by focusing on African-Americans who served in the House of Representatives before they ran for higher political office. Though they only represent a subset of all such candidates, data exists for them on their ideology based upon voting scores coded by the American Conservative Union (ACU). In this way, we can conduct a test on the role of ideology upon elections.Evidence shows that when an African American congressional candidate runs for governor or senator, he or she is likely to have a much closer contest if his or her ideology is closer to the political center, confirming the results of several speculative studies. Candidates with a more liberal voting record are more likely to be targeted for their past position on the issues as contests become a little more "post-racial," as some traditional attempts at cues are thankfully beginning to backfire. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the "Two Faces of Issue Voting" (1980), Carmines and Stimson argue that some issues are inherently "easy" and are understood by the public at an emotional, "gut" level, while other issues are intrinsically "hard" and require greater political sophistication and interest to process. This theory is intuitively appealing and widely cited in the American political behavior literature. Yet "easy" issues have been interpreted differently by various scholars, so how can we tell which are "easy" issues? Using survey data over time, I explore different measures of easiness, beginning with a traditional measure (connection to the vote) and then moving to other potential indicators of easy issues, examining the role of core values and group affect in conditioning issue easiness. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research attempts to resituate our understanding of congressional conference committees in a perspective consistent with thier organizational purpose as facilitators of bicameral cooperation. Armed an original dataset covering the 107th through 110th Congresses, it is shown that the strategic selection of conferees (presumed to promote partisan outcomes) advances cooperation in conference first and foremost. Additional tests of the overarching theory reveal that cooperation at the conference stage produces centrist (both non-partisan and inter-cameral) outcomes. The implications extend beyond conference committees, suggesting alternative ways of thinking about extant notions of partisanship and the institutionalization of cooperation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present research attempts to resituate our understanding of congressional conference committees in a perspective consistent with thier organizational purpose as facilitators of bicameral cooperation. Armed an original dataset covering the 107th through 110th Congresses, it is shown that the strategic selection of conferees (presumed to promote partisan outcomes) advances cooperation in conference first and foremost. Additional tests of the overarching theory reveal that cooperation at the conference stage produces centrist (both non-partisan and inter-cameral) outcomes. The implications extend beyond conference committees, suggesting alternative ways of thinking about extant notions of partisanship and the institutionalization of cooperation. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most treaty studies address issues of compliance (Morrow, 2007; Kelley, 2007). This is often a fruitful research agenda when we can determine a useful definition of compliance and when there is variance in compliant behavior. However, in the case of extradition treaties, a good definition of compliance is hard to come by, and given what is probably the most intuitive definition (i.e. extraditing pursuant to a request), states over comply. Furthermore, before we can begin to understand compliance, we need to understand commitment. Accordingly, I take a step back and seek to determine those factors, which influence the decision to commit. I analyze the decision to commit by looking at whether states sign bilateral extradition treaties. I draw upon the legal and political science literature to develop a comprehensive model of states' decisions to sign. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In state policy making, governors are the only political actors that represent an entire state rather than a legislative subdivision. Governors, with their power of initiation, hold a significant advantage over the state legislatures in setting the policy agenda (Jewell and Morehouse 2001). Despite this key role governors play in shaping policy, the study of what factors influence governors' policy agendas has received little attention in the scholarly literature. What research that has been done on state policy agendas focuses only on governors in several states (Morehouse 1998; Van Assendelft 1997) or on other inputs to the policy making process. In this latter regard, state policy has been found to be reflective of both electoral (legislatures) (Erikson, Wright, and McIver 1993) and party activist coalitions (Morehouse 1998). The representational bond, as analyzed by Erikson, Wright and McIver (1993), appears strongest between aggregated opinion of the mass electorate and elected officials. Owing to "measurement considerations, rather than a disregard for the governor's role in the legislative process," the role of the governor is not included in these models of policy representation (Erikson, Wright and McIver 1993, 126). Morehouse (1998), however, suggests that the policy process frequently begins with the governor. We propose to examine the factors that affect the ideological directions of governors' agendas by first developing a reliable way to systematically measure those dispositions. We then consider the state level indicators that shape the political bent of governors' agendas.Since a governor's "state of the state" address outlines the main political priorities he or she wants enacted, they provide the best insight into the governor's political agenda (Coffey 2005). We conduct a content analysis of state of the state speeches from 1991 through 1993 and 2000 through 2002 to measure the ideology of governors' legislative agendas. We then use data from the mass electorate, party activists, state legislatures, and state-level contextual data to test hypotheses about how governors' policy agendas respond ideologically to both elite and mass constituents, political actors in the legislature, and the nature of their states. To develop measures of governor ideology, we rely on content analytic techniques developed by Laver and Benoit (2003) and Laver, Benoit, and Garry (2003). We employ the 1992 and 2000 Convention Delegate Studies to measure elite attitudes ideology as well as data from 1992 and 2000 exit polls to measure the ideology of mass partisans. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A generally accepted political science maxim is that all politics are local. With the exception of the 1980s Party Transformation Study, little research has been done on V.O. Key's party-as-organization role with respect to local (county) political parties. The emergence of the Internet as a key political tool provides an opportunity for research on organizational strengths of county political parties through evaluations of their respective websites. This research project compares county political party websites in California, Pennsylvania and Texas, using an original website evaluation instrument that measures website characteristics, political organization information, political information content, party transaction and participation services, and interactive, connected links to other websites. The project tests population, income and prior voting record as predictors of respective county political party website evaluations. The results indicate that the Internet (as reflected through county party websites) is still a relatively infrequent political tool at the county political party level. Surprisingly, the Democratic Party has a significant competitive advantage over the Republican Party based on evaluation of these county political party websites. The research project identifies opportunities for further investigation of the use of county political party websites as a metric for county political party organizational strength. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article searches for the roots of the U.S. Supreme Court's latest pronouncements regarding the traditional role of parties within the political process and the deference to be afforded this tradition. It offers a more detailed look at transitions in the court's view from the premodern to the modern to the post modern. It suggests that this last quarter of the 21st century has been a time for the formal constitutionalization of party politics in the U.S.

The article focuses on the realignment theory in U.S. politics. According to public opinion analyst Samuel Lubell and political scientist V. O. Key, critical realignments are periodic and sudden electoral upheavals that transform the nature of American politics. One possible alternative of political realignment, one that abandons the traditional reliance on voter behavior and partisan identification in favor of a focus on political discourse, is outlined.

The article examines the impact of legislative extremism on contestation and vote share in the U.S. Studies indicate that incumbent ideological extremity varies across members. The authors claim that increased incumbent ideological extremity does increase the possibility of contestation and produce smaller vote shares for members coming from moderate districts. However, the increased incumbent ideological extremity decreases the possibility of contestation and increases vote shares for members from ideologically extreme districts.

The article focuses on a study which explored the implications of party culture for modeling voting behavior in the U.S. The study considered member profile, party status and district data in analyzing the partisan contours of legislative behavior. It discovered that the responsiveness of members to personal, district and positional forces is influenced by party affiliation.

The article highlights the disparate causes of inflated survey reports of political participation in the U.S. It uses various National Election Study (NES) data to provide an assessment of the magnitude of the various effect that result in survey overestimates. It discusses several different source of non-random error which affect the estimates of voting participation of NES.

The article examines the role of floor politics of the U.S. Congress in the emergence of cultural issues on the Congressional agenda since the 1970s. The extent to which the timing of elections, presidential politics, leadership style, outside events, and public opinion shape the cultural agenda on the floor of the House and the Senate is analyzed. The function of cultural war as a political tool is also discussed.

In recent decades, a majority of states have instituted some form of early or convenience voting, whether in person or through the mail. With availability of these options, the cost to citizens of participating in elections has invariably declined, which would lead us to expect that turnout should therefore increase. It is still not clear, however, whether the expansion of the opportunity to vote has actually increased participation, and if so, for whom. Using 2004 American National Elections Studies data, as well as information about the activities of the Bush and Kerry campaigns in each state, we examine whether the institution of these alternatives does in fact increase the chances that an individual will turn out to vote in presidential elections, either directly or in combination with activities of the campaigns. Overall, we find no main effect for the availability of any form of early or convenience voting on the probability that an individual will vote. We do, however, find that in person early voting, when combined with television advertising by the campaigns, can increase the chances that individuals who are otherwise least likely to vote will take part in the election. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Policymakers frequently make sweeping generalizations about the positive relationship between the democracy agenda and U.S. national security. These generalizations are buttressed by important assumptions about the effects the spread of democracy has on national security priorities. This study examines the degree to which political science research to date substantiates these assumptions. A content analysis of each official White House National Security Strategy from 1986-2001 reveals four primary assumptions: the spread of democracy decreases interstate conflict and increases stability, human rights, and economic development. A review of the literature finds that several of these assumptions are only justified by mature democracies that have passed through the gray zone of transition to democratic consolidation. In contrast, those democracies that occupy the intermediate or gray zone actually pose a threat to U.S. national security. It is consequently recommended that the democracy agenda prioritize democratic consolidation of the gray zone above all else. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]