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The term transnationalism is now commonly used by a growing cluster of social scientists. However, some authors state that the term is practically useless: it tries to explain everything, and it ends up explaining nothing new, or even worst, its regular users seem not to agree on the definition of the term, and the debates that it generates generally takes social scientists nowhere. The proposed paper deals with this situation from two perspectives. Firstly, we point out the theoretical problems that transnationalism presents as an interdisciplinary concept. We expose the use of the term in several disciplines (political science, sociology, law, economy, migration studies, and anthropology), and emphasize how these disciplines generate different theoretical considerations. Then, we expose how each discipline has dealt with different units of analysis while attempting to build a solid theoretical background, focusing mainly on the individual, the family, organizations, the society, the economy, the polity, cultural practices, and the state. Finally, we argue that the use of the term transnationalism has been transformed to a point in which is practically impossible to sustain the broader sense of the term beyond its generic roots. Terms like political transnationalism, anthropological transnationalism, sociological transnationalism, etc., form a more feasible working frame if the term is to prevail in the neighborhood. Secondly, from an empirical perspective, we develop an analysis of political transnationalism based on the Mexican immigrant experience in American cities. We focus on an organizational analysis of transnational politics, and lay emphasis on the role of the Mexican and American states in the process. In the analysis, we underline several factors that characterize the analysis within a political transnational framework, like: (1) addressing the elite formation among immigrants in the process, (2) the agenda setting process, and (3) underlining the effect that non-electoral politics exert on electoral politics, mostly at local and state levels, within a framework of political mobilization of a immigrant community in an urban setting. Data for this paper was obtained from in-situ historical research, analysis of secondary sources, and more than 50 interviews that took place mostly in Houston and Chicago, between February and July 2002. Interviewees include leaders, activists, organizers, chairmen, and priests within a wide range of organizational backgrounds: community-based organizations, service providers, unions, church-based organizations, chambers of commerce, civic associations, and Mexican state federations. Immigration scholars, officials from the Mexican Consulate and city officials in both cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The R statistical computing environment has become increasingly popular in the social sciences. In this paper I present techniques for plotting data-based ("choropleth") maps using several R add-on packages and freely-available mapping data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources, which may be helpful for researchers who want to integrate cartography into their existing R workflows. ..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]

This paper examines social citizenship in the distinct welfare systems of Denmark and the U.S., 1990-1999. The results demonstrate that both inefficient outcomes and strict emphasis on efficiency in implementation are detrimental. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper articulates the relationship between social science and critical theory in a problem-oriented approach and how that approach can best promote the end of racial democratization in the case of the US. I discuss the role of social science in identifying and constituting the publics to which critique is addressed and the relation of both dominant and subordinate racial groups to the possibility of racial democratization. In particular, I advocate that critical theory should give more attention to the sources of racial hierarchy within white practice and the contradictions experienced by racial elites within that practice. These instabilities within racial hierarchy, as experienced by agents, can provide practical reasons for elites to participate in a politics of racial democratization. This attempts to address the under-theorized questions of how dominant publics relate to critical theory?s practical interest in social change and how stable egalitarian advancements are achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the 1948, when Truman's victory over Dewey surprised the public and the pollsters, public opinion polling faced a legitimacy crisis. As this paper shows, nascent survey researchers played an important role in helping pollsters to survive and prosper. In discussing academics' efforts to preserve polling for social science and democracy, this paper adds to scholarly knowledge about the growing legitimation and use of public opinion polls for measuring public opinion as well as shifts in political science and other social sciences. The paper draws from oral histories of academic survey pioneers and leading pollsters, as well as contemporaneous publications, reports, and unpublished letters and memos. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate and compare the impact of the autism narrative construction on federal autism policy in the United States and Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the course of the last generation, there has been a decline in the proportion of individuals who identify themselves directly with either of the two major political parties in the United States. Rather than seeing tremendous growth in the proportion of individuals who identify as “pure” independents, most of the growth is in those categorized as “independent leaners.” (Keith, et al 1992) Though we have seen this shift in identification, there has not been a corresponding shift in the fundamental beliefs of any large group of society, indicating that there must be another explanation for the shift in party identification. I propose that the decrease in the proportion of individuals who identify with one of the two major parties can be attributed to a decrease in person-to-person contacting on the part of the two major political parties. This contacting serves as a priming mechanism, causing those who are contacted to be more cognizant of the connections between their own political stances and the stances of the political parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theme of motion is prominent throughout Tocqueville’s Democracy in America. In the chapter on the real advantages that American society derives from the government of democracy, Tocqueville makes the following observation: "When one passes from a free country into another that is not, one is struck by a very extraordinary spectacle: there, all is activity and movement; here, all seems calm and immobile." Whether the activity and movement-the motion-of the people be a confused clamor, a thousand voices, a gathering of neighbors, an assembling of citizens, Tocqueville identifies this activity as one of the great benefits of democratic government. "This agitation, constantly reborn, that the government of democracy has introduced into the political world, passes afterwards into civil society. I do not know if, all in all, that is not the greatest advantage of democratic government, and I praise it much more because of what it causes to be done than for what it does" (DA I.2.6). The success of a democracy rests in large part on the motion of the people. Their active participation in township government, political and civil associations, jury service, and commerce provides opportunities for the people to learn to govern themselves and participate in a meaningful way in the governing process. Yet this constant motion of the people also has disadvantages that have an impact on many facets of the lives of those living in a democracy. For example the continual movement of the people breaks or relaxes the bond with prior generations. The individualism that originates in democratic societies can also lead to selfishness. To reflect further on the topic of the challenge that the motion of the people in a democracy presents, I propose first to explain how motion is present in Democracy in America, discuss how the motion of the people makes a positive contribution to democracy, identify the challenges that accompany this agitation in society, consider the ensuing consequences if the motion of the people is threatened, and finally to explore what type of balance can be struck between motion and rest in a democratic society. [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]

By examining the recent rise of Christian fundamentalism in the United States, this paper aims to broaden the liberal perception of religion in politics to demonstrate that liberal principles and comprehensive religious beliefs can be reconciled. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of racial thought in the development of American political science, focusing on the Chicago School and the earliest stages of the behavioral movement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, in conjunction with historical findings of sharp and punctuated policy change, newer findings in gun control and U.S. state tobacco policy have found largely symbolic punctuated changes. What are the implications for future research in Punctuated Equilibrium theory? Since the 1980s, traditional pluralist analysis has evolved to a broader political process theory that examines key historical policy events, why advocacy coalitions cooperate, how advocacy coalitions frame causal stories, policy norms of governmental bodies, degree of influence by a social or public interest group movement and whether state repression of these movements occurred. These various independent variables can gauge the degree and extent that the attempt to punctuate equilibrium resulted in material, limited material or symbolic changes in public policy. Testing this combined policy analysis approach, I conclude that U.S. state tobacco policy making from 1990 to 2005 was characterized by limited material and symbolic punctuation that favored the pro-tobacco advocacy coalition's policy agenda with its framed story that tobacco is a legal product and adult choice. There was no significant state repression of these public interest anti-tobacco coalitions. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on county government in the United States, this study will evaluate a series of hypotheses testing the relationship between social capital (trust, optimism and civic engagement) and government performance. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Political theory deems race epiphenomenal. But race has become a foundation of the U.S. Applying Foucault?s theory, docility/utility and Marx?s theory of worker regulation presents a new discourse with which to understand race and its transformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]