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The article presents information on a paper presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Conference in Boston, Massachusetts from November 11-13, 2010. The paper investigates the political behavior theories developed in the U.S. and their degree of applicability in Asia. It further discusses the features and degree of political participation in several Asian countries while accounting for the patterns of participation.

The article reports on a research by the author in which she intends to study the issues related to the stability of democratic government. The research is based upon a detailed listing of all the qualities that make up a working democracy and examines the theories of democratic transition and consolidation. Finally she addresses the democratic deficit that has begun to emerge in the U.S.

The article focuses on the Federalist Papers' theory of institutional power in the United States. It mentions that public views institutional power as the dynamic relationship between and among formal constitutional powers, institutional organization, and constituency. It discusses the strengths and weaknesses in the theory. It adds that the theory relates with American political science to study each institution separately instead of as a system.

A significant number of Muhlenberg College International Studies majors over the past decade have gone on to work as program analysts for various federal agencies The paper will address the way in which for the past five years policy analysis papers in my American Foreign Policy class and the International Studies senior seminar have served as both exercises in critical thinking and a mechanism to prompt senior level students to apply knowledge gained in past courses within their concentration within the International Studies major to a practical real world setting. In particular, the paper will examine the way in which carefully framed policy analyses can provide opportunities for students to develop meaningful evidence both to critique a relatively narrow area of current US foreign policy and develop meaningful alternatives to that policy. Later stages of the policy paper format prompt the student to apply critical thinking in analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the proposed alternatives before arguing in favor of a particular policy option. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a conference paper on impact of initiative and effect of public opinion on policy in the U.S. The paper used regression analysis indicating that policy in initiative states may or may not be more responsive to public opinion. It states that the citizen initiative is a political institution which allows them to put bills on the ballot and if it receives more then half votes cast it becomes a law.

In recent years, judicial scholars have recognized the significance of strategic, or outcome-prediction, voting in the US Supreme Court’s certiorari process (Caldeira, Wright, and Zorn 1999; Benesh, Brenner, and Spaeth 1998). However, the traditional strategic model has left both theoretical and empirical gaps in the study of justices? individual cert voting. This paper evaluates the existence of conformity voting in justices’ cert votes by examining votes cast on the Vinson, Warren, and Burger Courts, 1944-1986. First, I discuss three empirical problems with our current understanding of justices cert voting. Second, I propose a formal model of individual certiorari voting (the Public-Private Game) to solve the three problems. Finally, I present empirical support for the formal model. Using a binary logistic regression, this paper finds an effect that appears to be conformity voting, but is best explained as a pooling strategy resulting from a signaling game among justices during cert voting. These findings suggest that the our understanding of individual cert voting should be further scrutinized by game theory models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigration is highly salient in the United States, yet many questions remain unanswered. This paper attempts to grapple with two of those questions. First, why are immigration attitudes and policies so volatile in the United States? Second, what causes this volatility? Building off of Rogers Smith's multiple traditions thesis, I argue that United States immigration policy is one illiberal part of America's political philosophy. I contend that immigration's volatility stems from ascription, one of the central tenants of American political philosophy, and is subject to various shocks. I find ascription more dormant during times of relative stability but more prominent during times of uncertainty (i.e. during economic and/or national security shocks). Broadly, the paper looks at immigration attitudes and policies from the twentieth century onward, with consideration to the ebb and flow of ascription. First, the paper reviews Smith's multiples traditions theory. Second, the paper outlines immigration policy from the 1900s to the 1960s. Third, the paper analyzes the criminalization of immigration beginning in the 1970s through the lens of Juliet Stumpf's crimmigration thesis. Fourth, it highlights immigration policy in the 1980s and 1990s. Fifth, the paper discusses the post 9/11 United States. The concluding section of the paper explores what may move the United States beyond exclusionary policies and considers the potential consequences of a changing American demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a conference paper titled "If you want the rich to pay more tax, let them grow even richer." It mentions about global financial crisis 2008-2009 and recession in the U.S. economy effecting government budgets. It mentions about millionaire's taxes, distinctly democratic tax policy in the contemporary American political economy.

This paper is a portion of a dissertation, exploring if and how political competition impacts the home styles of several U.S. House members in different electoral contexts. To begin to assess this large question, this qualitative paper will examine franked materials collected from the Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives to compare behaviors of subjects who have earned above and below 60 percent of the vote in general elections. The entire sample represents districts whose underlying Partisan Voter Index (PVI) Scores should indicate a safe principal partisan advantage for members of their political party; yet, only one subject has consistently enjoyed election returns over 60 percent. Another subject has never broken 60 percent of the vote, while a third subject has fluctuated above and below this threshold. This paper finds suggestive evidence that the tenor of the franked material produced doesn't fluctuate in the context of perceived competition in an approaching election or following a competitive election, thus suggesting that this medium is essentially not influenced by political competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes and evaluates the emerging issue of rare earth elements (REEs) as a critical component of U.S. foreign policy and a potential source for international conflict. REEs are essential in the production of many high-tech and valuable products, from computers and telecommunications to military equipment and hybrid cars. REEs are in relative short supply for most countries in the world, and China holds a virtual monopoly, producing 97% of REEs. The situation is becoming increasingly sensitive to the U.S. and world as China rises up and becomes more competitive and a potential hostile power in the future. The U.S. government and corporations are declaring very publicly that there must be a major policy effort to obtain and secure large quantities of REEs for the long term. This paper examines the latest efforts by the U.S. to identify, extract, and protect REEs. It reviews briefly the history and basic characteristics of REEs and then brings everything up to date. It highlights the new public relations attempts at informing/warning the public about REEs. And, it analyzes the current trends and future expectations regarding REEs. The paper concludes with a number of policy recommendations and suggestions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on research paper by William Crotty of Northeastern University, Chicago, Illinois which analyses the programmatic effects of the presidency of Barack Obama in the U.S. The paper examines several factors including Obama's campaign for office, the extraordinary nature of his success and the promise contained in the victory. It also offers an insight on the severity of the problems confronting Obama on taking office.

This paper uses data from the Census Bureau Civic Supplements (2008-2010) to assess the effect of Internet use on the civic engagement of younger Americans. The paper argues that the means by which the Internet is both accessed and consumed-especially by younger citizens-necessitates an updating and reassessment of some of the empirical findings of the extant literature. Specifically, we are interested in how the frequency of connecting with friends and family on-line-which would capture use of social networking sites-is an important alternative means of operationalizing the key independent variable "Internet use." Findings suggest that while frequent Internet users were more likely to be engaged across a variety of different dependent variables, even after controlling for other confounding variables, the overall level of civic engagement among the young remains low. The findings do suggest that greater attention be given to the effect of non-political on-line activity on civic engagement, and the ability of such online activity to generate a virtual form of social capital, particularly among younger Americans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides information on research paper presented by Daniel Marien of the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida at 2011 Annual Meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The paper analyses the failure of the cap and trade legislation implemented by the government led by U.S. President Barack Obama. Marien opines that the speculation of health care reforms and climate protection by mass media has led to the failure of the bill.

The article presents information on a research paper presented by Michele DeMary of Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania, at the Annual Meeting of the Northeast Political Science Association in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The paper analyses representation of women as leaders in the judicial branch of state governments in the United States. The research finds that there is less difference between men and women justices.

The article provides information on a research paper by Jessica Curtis of the University of Missouri, St.Louis, Missouri which was presented at the Annual NPSA Conference held from November 17-19, 2011. In the paper, Curtis analyses the reasons behind the underrepresentation of women in government in the U.S. She also opines that women continue to be disproportionally represented in Congress and other elected legislatures in the country.

Why do policymakers disagree on threat? This paper seeks to renew discussion on the theoretical basis for explaining variation in threat identification in international politics. While rational, behavioral, and social theories of threat identification exist and inform empirical studies, they tend to struggle with explaining variations in threat identification among actors operating in similar or identical environments. Thus, a need exists to return to the core concepts of threat and threat identification. This paper proceeds in three parts. After a critique of the current literature, it proposes a novel rule-based identity (RBI) theory that is informed by social psychology and social constructivism. This new approach posits that how individuals subjectively define their identity shapes their perceived population of possible threats, thus creating the possibility for variations in threat identification. After a thorough theoretical exposition, the article concludes with an anecdotal example of how the RBI approach can be used to analyze threat in U.S. foreign policymaking [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to analyze empirically how American linguistic hegemony in the case in the case of Educational Testing Service (ETS) diverged and penetrate American norms and values. Unlike the old days, the international order had reached stability to some extent. Although traditional military powers still consider as crucial element to one nation, military conflicts are more likely to deal with peaceful manners. This paper shows how American hegemony has transformed into cultural hegemony. Among many forms of cultural hegemony, it particularly focuses on American linguistic hegemony. Educational Testing Service (ETS), as the world's largest administrator of standardized test, provides renowned English proficiency tests such as TOEFL, TOEIC and GRE. Although it represents itself as a non-profit organization, this seems unreliable considering tremendous amount of profits it makes every year. Not only economically but also politically, ETS plays an important role to penetrate American norms and values. This paper will mainly analyze how the U.S penetrates American value through language in East Asian countries where English is not their first or second language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various media and academic sources alleged the politicization of United States intelligence leading to the 2003 Iraq War. However, two government bodies tasked to investigate the overall intelligence prior to the Iraq War, the Senate Select Committee and the Silberman-Rob Commission, concluded that intelligence was not politicized prior to the war. These conflicting views create a puzzle. Was intelligence politicized prior to the Iraq War or was it not? This question addresses the larger issue of the nexus between the intelligence community and decision-makers in the U.S. foreign policy-making process. Recognizing the intelligence community as an important actor in foreign policy-making, this paper first examines the meaning of intelligence politicization within the existing academic literature. Building upon Alexander George's framework of trade-off dilemmas in Presidential decision-making, it places existing concepts of intelligence politicization into an adapted framework that accounts for both policy-makers and intelligence professionals. The paper then uses this framework to assess the specific case of the lead-up to the 2003 Iraq War, analyzing the period between the 9/11 attack and the start of the 2003 war. It most specifically scrutinizes the official reports issued by the above investigative bodies and concludes that intelligence politicization did indeed occur prior to the Iraq War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will argue that the differences in the proportion of elected female U.S. state legislators between 1975 and 2007 can largely be attributed to widely-studied institutional, structural, and cultural barriers. Using the case studies of the best and worst nine states in regards to female state representation, I will compare and contrast the effects that different types of government, size of legislatures, partisanship levels, birthrates, GDP per capita, high school graduation rates, female labor force participation, and level of religious affinity are identified as explanatory variables contributing to the "representation gap" amongst state legislatures. This paper concludes that cultural and structural barriers to female representation have a greater effect than institutional variables; with GDP per capita, female labor force participation, and level of religiousness having the greatest influences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes a paper presented at the 42nd annual meeting of the Northeastern Political Science Association. It informs that this paper uncovers the Anti-Federalist's underlying political philosophy in context with the classical republicanism versus liberalism debate over the U.S. founding. It mentions that the political philosophy of the Anti-Federalists to be based on the close examination.

This paper analyzes a proposed model of predicting the results of midterm Congressional elections at the district level. Much of the previous literature (e.g. Jacobson 1983, Campbell 1993) predicts midterm election outcomes in the aggregate: how many seats will be won or lost by the party in power. However predicting the outcomes in individual congressional races has proven more elusive. In large part this is a result of the complex interaction of long- and short-term forces, incumbency effects, and national and local forces at play in each individual race. This paper analyzes a model developed by Art Paulson which focuses on the long-term cyclical effects of presidential coattails, core partisan support, and voter negativity. It applies the model to the 2006 and 2010 midterm elections. Although the model produces a much richer set of data, applying to the congressional district level, its predictive capabilities compete with the simpler national level model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the post-Cold War international system, the primary goal for American foreign policy has been to prevent the emergence of a strategic economic and security competitor. The goal of this paper is to argue that the U.S. perceives its security, economic growth and prosperity, and survival in terms of the global movement of energy within the prevailing international system and explore the complex array of geopolitical and geoeconomic dimensions that shape America's pursuit of energy security. The paper concludes that these dimensions are grounded on two realities: 1- meeting rising domestic consumer and commercial demands for oil and natural gas; and 2- maximizing American power and influence within the international system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the appropriateness of the use of religious language in the American political sphere. The paper will make use of public reason and public discourse theories by John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, and Michael Walzer. Rawls, Habermas' and Walzer's theories have ample overlap despite their many disagreements. Their primary agreement is that the highest levels of government must remain secular, a stance I adopt. However, Habermas and Walzer see religion as a part of general will formation. Religion helps to form morals and values, so completely striping religion from the public sphere would overly restrict who could participate in public debate. I agree with Walzer and Habermas on this point and argue that Rawls' public reason (without his postscript) was overly restrictive and ultimately undemocratic. I then applied my theory to examine three recent examples of religious language in the political sphere: a speech by presidential candidate Mike Huckabee stating that the U.S. Constitution should better adhere to the bible; a statement opposing abortion released by the Society of Jesus; and the Supreme Court case questioning whether "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance was a violation of the Establishment Clause's rules regarding separation of church and state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the effect of the post Cold War structural change of the international system within the scope of security cooperation of Turkey with the United States. In this context, this article argues that the post Cold War period has influenced the security perceptions of Turkey and the US in different ways. In the new world order, American and Turkish national security policies have continued converging on many domains such as NATO enlargement, intervention to the Balkan crisis and energy security issues in the early 1990s. However, both counties clearly diverged in the 2003 Iraq Crisis and failed to co-ordinate their security policies against threats emanating from Iraq. Therefore, this paper suggests that the new international system has exclusively changed the scope of the Turkish-American strategic relations. In global and international settings, Turkey and the United States are successful in coordinating their efforts to tackle with the new threats towards security where they have however failed to settle some prevailing regional problems for Turkey such as the Kurdish issue in Iraq. In this context, this paper hereby introduces the "model partnership" coined by the President Obama, which has been a necessity for the Obama administration rather than a choice in order to continue cooperation with Turkey following the 2003 Iraq Crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent scholarship has gauged the growing significance of political satire in our current political climate (Baumgartner 2007, 2008; Baumgartner and Morris 2006, 2007, 2008; Baym 2005, 2007; Holbert 2007; Prior 2005; Young 2004). This paper is part of a lager project that asks why there are so few conservative satirists in American politics today. There are several possibilities, to include the satirists? inherent liberal nature, the entertainment media?s liberal bias, and the liberal inclinations of the younger viewers who comprise much of satire?s audience. Two more possible explanations are the focus of this paper: That satire is steeped in an anti-establishment tradition; and that satire mirrors the existing political climate, which today is cynical, sarcastic and untrusting of government. This is the second half of an historical examination of political satire. The first half looked at early satire, from the Founding to the post-WWII era. This paper begins with the advent of television and moves to the 1970s. Richard Nixon said "Sock it to me" on Laugh In, which led to President Gerald Ford announcing: "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!" Following that was presidential candidate Bill Clinton on the Arsenio Hall Show, Attorney General Janet Reno?s SNL "Dance Party," and presidential candidate John Edwards announcing his intention to run on The Daily Show. This paper uses historical analysis to show that when society is amenable to political criticism (an inherently liberal notion), satire will flourish and in post-War America the changing nation was indeed amenable. By examining the past we can better understand the present significance of American political satire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to highlight a conceptual difficulty in Washington's perspectives toward China, exploring key grounds of the U.S. thinkers in modern history and today. It compares the views with Beijing's current thoughts and approach in initiating what Beijing once called a "peaceful rise" or "peaceful development." This paper then runs a case study of Beijing's multilateral practice in the context of East Asian regionalism in order to assess what Washington may need to refocus on. The central argument maintains that the difficulty of the U.S. to draw a practical policy toward China is attributed to a conceptual difference between Washington and Beijing in thinking of how leadership is obtained and exercised. It points out a limit on the power-oriented nature of Washington to simplify the complexity surrounding Beijing's approach; it especially highlights the insufficient attention of Washington to China's role and impact on neighboring states in the process of regional integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Voter registration, it is widely argued, raises the costs of voting, thereby decreasing turnout. Studies of turnout across states find that states with later registration dates or election day registration have much higher turnout rates. Eliminating registration barriers altogether is estimated to raise voter participation rates by 5 to 10 percentage points. This paper presents panel estimates of the effects of the introduction of registration that exploits changes in registration laws and turnout within counties. New York imposed registration on all of its counties in 1965; Ohio imposed registration in all of its counties in 1977. We estimate that the imposition of registration on counties that did not have registration in these states decreased participation over the long-term by 3 to 4 percentage points. Though significant, this is lower than estimates of the effects of registration from cross-sectional studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The American fundamentalists of the early 20th Century were concerned with salvation and a return to the origins of their religious beliefs. In that pursuit, they viewed themselves as believers, living an exclusively religious life, apart from the world of politics and secular concerns. In sharp contrast, the contemporary American fundamentalist is as committed to change in the halls of government as he/she is to purity in the pulpit. Christian fundamentalism in 21st century America is politicized and activist, true believers who range from the zealous to the violent. This paper examines the shift of the Religious Right into politics and the implications of this shift for government, policy, and civility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The U.S. Green Party drew dramatically as a result of the 2000 Nader campaign, and consolidated that growth with an increased role in state and local elections over the next three years. However, the 2004 presidential election presents a challenge to the party. Many, who voted Green before, now want to unite behind a Democratic candidate to defeat George Bush, relations between the Greens and Nader have soured, and yet the Greens need to run candidates to maintain the legal existence. This paper will describe the alternative strategies being debated within the Green Party and evaluate the likely outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to American history, between 1860s and 1870s, there were already enormous attempts to organize labor unions. Moreover, nowadays, labor movements and unions` activities are still powerful and exercise great political leverage in the U.S. However, social democratic parties have not been established yet. It is a substantially different result compared with European cases, such as the U.K., Germany, and Italy, where the labor parties play important roles as the first opposition parties against conservative parties in the national party systems. The main goal of this paper is to emphasize and to concentrate on the innate factors of labor unions or movements which have led the absence of labor party in the American political system from similar conditions with the European political environment surrounding labor parties, based on the idea that American labor unions and movements themselves have unique, exceptional characteristics compared with European ones. Most of previous approaches and analyses, especially historical institutionalism - heavily focused on historical events and revolutions which drive big, abrupt changes of labor unions, movements, and political parties. In my opinion, however, these approaches are unbalanced and not enough to clarify the inner factors which provide dynamics of gradual institutional changes. Labor movements and parties are closely connected 'institutions' which are sometimes radically changed by political, economic shocks, but at the same time, 'constantly transformed' by interaction among actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars who study gender and politics have greatly increased our understanding of the impact women have had in the political realm (Swers and Rouse 2011). In the realm of legislative representation, scholars have demonstrated that female lawmakers bring important symbolic and substantive benefits to women voters. Not surprisingly, then, Lawless (2004) demonstrates that female constituents are more likely to approve of their U.S. House members when they are represented by a female House member than when they are represented by a male House member. In this paper, we explore an ideological explanation for the relationship Lawless found. In particular, following McDermott (1997), Koch (2000, 2002) and King and Matland (2003), we argue that gender is a cue that signals the ideological position of an elected official, and that constituents perceive female lawmakers as being more liberal than male lawmakers. We find evidence to support this account. In particular, we find that liberal males and females alike are more likely to approve of their House member when they are represented by a female House member, whereas conservative males and females are less likely to approve of their House member when they are represented by a female member. Moderate males and females are no more or less likely to approve of female House members, which is exactly what the ideological perspective predicts. Moreover, all of these results are more pronounced when a constituent does not share the same party affiliation as her member of Congress, suggesting that gender takes the place of party as an ideological cue when party congruence between the constituent and member is absent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the paper which evaluates the U.S. renewable portfolio standards (RPS) policy for Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions due to the burning of fossil fuels which leads to change in the climate. It discusses the effectiveness of RPS programs in reducing the GHG by correcting the market failures in the electricity sector in the U.S. It mentions that the market failure includes incorporation of negative externality in the cost of electricity, source of fossil fuel and clean energy.

The article presents a conference paper that discusses the reasons of involvement of the immigrants and immigration as the center of the political campaigns at the local, state and national levels in the U.S. It mentions that the groups representing immigrants is a nonprofit group and offers social services, cultural activities and language training. It informs that these groups are shared on the basis of ethnicities, nationalities, and religion.

Research on state legislative elections allows us to understand the factors that influence low-salience elections. Further, we can use state legislative elections as a way to examine state-level variation. In this paper I answer the question: what are the causes of midterm decline in state legislative elections? Following in the footsteps of Bafumi, Erikson and Wlezien (2010), I test several theories of midterm decline including: surge and decline, referendum and balancing. I add to previous research by applying the vertical balancing hypothesis to state legislative elections. I find that state legislative elections are subject to coattails from higher level elections, and that presidential approval is an important factor in state legislative voting. Finally, there is preliminary evidence of a vertical balancing effect in state legislative elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, scholars have plunged back into the issue of authoritarian politics, proposing new concepts such as hybrid regimes, electoral authoritarianism, competitive authoritarianism, and dominant party authoritarian regimes, to demonstrate how authoritarianism can function via ostensibly democratic institutions. This article will review four academic works in order to solve the following questions: Why has the focus of literature shifted from democratization to authoritarian studies? What new concepts have scholars established? What are the similarities and differences across each new concept? What is the boundary between new concepts and the more traditional concepts of democracy and authoritarianism? Why do some electoral authoritarian regimes persist while others collapse? What crucial factors have scholars presented in this regard? This paper yields three findings. Firstly, the trend towards studies of authoritarianism is a reflection upon existing literature on the third wave of democratization. Many regimes have adopted democratic institutions but incumbents continue to employ authoritarian methods to tilt elections in their favor. These regimes should be classified as neither democratic nor conventionally authoritarian, but can instead be considered electoral authoritarianism. Secondly, electoral authoritarianism and hybrid regimes are two interchangeable concepts which overarch competitive authoritarianism. The dominant party authoritarian regime type is relatively narrower in scope. Finally, three factors which may account for regime trajectories have been receiving great attention in academia: (1) international factors (Western leverage and linkage); (2) the authoritarian state/party's characteristics (organizational cohesion, economic control, repression capacity); and (3) the opposition's coalition and strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article povides information on a research paper which analyses the relationship between state revenue diversification and state fiscal health from 1987 to 2009 in the U.S. The study also examines the effect of revenue diversification on state budget gaps which is a secondary indicator of state fiscal health. This study also finds that revenue stabilizing property of diversification is contingent on state economic stability.

This paper examines the question of Japan's development of its own nuclear weapons in both theory and practice. On the one hand, Realists argue that in the post-WWII era, Japan's low-profile posture with regard to its defense policy was a strategy for passing-the-buck or obtaining a free-ride in the U.S.-Japan alliance. Realists have also long held the stance that the anarchical structure of the international system will eventually press Japan to pursue the development of its own nuclear weapons. On the other hand, Constructivists maintain that the culture of anti-militarism, including the "nuclear allergy" among the Japanese people, has played a principal role in restraining Japan from pursuing its independent defense build-up including nuclear armament. In reality, Japan has publicly maintained its Three Non-Nuclear Principles (not possessing, producing, or allowing the entry of nuclear weapons into Japan). Nevertheless, the Japanese government under the LDP consistently argued that the Article 9 of the Constitution would not prohibit Japan's sovereign right to develop nuclear weapons for self-defense. Recently, new evidence has become available regarding the question of Japan's nuclearization, especially in response to China's nuclear explosion of October 1964 and North Korea's nuclear tests in November 2006. In essence, as this study demonstrates, Japan's defense effort (including its debate regarding the nuclear option), together with the maintenance of U.S. bases in Japan were two sides of the same coin; playing a dual role in ensuring the capability for U.S. deterrence in East Asia and containing Japan's independent defense policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pundits, analysts, political scientists, and many political insiders knew that 2010 was shaping up to be a difficult year for Democrats across the country as the 2010 midterm congressional elections approached. Few, however, were able to accurately predict the size of the wave that swept the Democratic Party out of power in the House of Representatives on November 2nd. It was, in the words of President Obama, a real 'shellacking' at the hands of the American electorate as the GOP picked up a net gain of 63 seats in the House, 6 in the Senate, and 6 governorships. This paper examines the effect of independent expenditures in the outcome of the 2010 midterm House elections. I find significant evidence indicating that a red tide of independent expenditures unleashed by the Supreme Court's Citizen's United decision in January added substantially to the number of Democratic Party held seats that flipped to the Republican Party in the midterm House election. Further, the evidence indicates that expenditures will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. In some cases these independent expenditures may dwarf the spending done by the actual candidates for House seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on partisan change in the American electorate has devoted considerable attention to the explaining Republican gains in the South. Less time has been devoted to examining changes outside of the South, where a Democratic majority has persisted-and indeed grown-over the past two decades. The goal of this paper is to examine whether the realignment toward the Republican Party in the South has resulted in move toward the Democratic Party outside the South. Specifically, it is posited that the growing influence of the South within the Republican Party has resulted in a backlash against the GOP. Using data from the American National Election Studies, we examine affect toward southerners as a determinant of the political behavior of non-southerners. Findings indicate that even after controlling for other explanatory variables, affect toward southerners is a significant predictor of how non-southerners evaluate the political parties, as well as vote choice in the 2008 presidential election. While partisanship and ideology remain the best predictors of vote choice among non-southerners, we suggest that anti-southern backlash should not be discounted for the GOP's "Northern problem" in recent elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1967 Robert Bellah noted that while his definition of civil religion entailed an abstract and diffuse notion of God, the idea of God itself remained essential to the concept. Consequently, Bellah questioned whether non-theists could ever reside comfortably amid the sacred language and symbology of civil religion. The primary focus of this paper will be to consider the specific relationship between American nontheists and the concept of civil religion. The purpose of this investigation will be to consider the extent to which it may or may not be possible to envision a form of civil religion that would comfortably mesh with the varied beliefs and practices of American non-theists. In attempting to answer this question, I will consider Bellah's conception of civil religion alongside Richard Rorty's notion of national pride and John Schaar's notion of patriotism. I will also examine the criticisms of religion proposed by John Dewey and George Santayana. I would like to tease out the potential conflicts and points of resonance between these varying perspectives, and in so doing, attempt to formulate a conception of civil religion that does not preclude the participation of non-theists. In varying ways, all of these authors argue that a certain attachment to the concept of the nation can aid in promoting a set of ethical principles in ways similar, though not identical to religious institutions. Insofar as the more prominent and identifiable groupings of non-theists (Secular Humanists, Brights) are avowedly committed to more effectively iterating their fidelity to a clear set of ethical principles, a non-theistic conception of civil religion may be of particular interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sudanese refugees resettled to the United States direct their political activities toward the political, social and economic development of their origin country (or 'transnational' activities). In Australia their political activities are geared toward integration into their resettlement country (or 'domestic' activities). This paper starts from this empirical puzzle. Using the theory of policy feedback, I examine the impact of national refugee settlement policy on the direction of Sudanese refugee political activities. Evidence from semi-structured interviews with refugees, service providers and government officials provides support for this theory: different policy designs beget different refugee politics. I find that the service provider environment, as defined by the character of policy agents doing the daily work of settling refugees, is a critical component of a policy's ability to feedback on politics. Australian settlement policy agents are almost entirely supported by the Australian federal government. They utilize minimal amounts of civil society support and have stronger institutional and financial connections to the state, effectively reducing their autonomy in settlement practices. They cannot directly participate or encourage refugee activities that extend beyond their national borders nor do they have broad social networks that involve potential actors who would. In contrast, U.S. policy agents are required to seek out additional sources of support given the public-private nature of the US refugee settlement system. These agents' social networks, funding streams and mandates expand beyond the purview of the national government. Therefore politically active refugees more often interact with individuals with desires to participate in more diverse political activities, including refugee transnational activities such as building clinics and schools in underdeveloped regions like southern Sudan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Tea Party movement is poised to become a significant political force in the American landscape. In this paper I look closely at the movement through the lens of Rosenstone, Behr and Lazarus' third party model presented in Third Parties in America (1984). I begin by outlining the model, and analyzing other polls that attempt to measure the Tea Party. I then examine data collected in New Jersey via the RutgersEagleton Poll in February, 2010, and discuss what this data adds to an overall understanding the movement. The resulting aggregated survey data gives us a preliminary picture of the Tea Party movement in its first phase, including the demographic makeup of supporters, and the larger political context in which it functions. Findings further lead to the suggestion that the movement should perhaps be regarded not as a third party, but as a social movement seeking reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the media coverage relating to the crisis of the former U.S. presidents including Bill Clinton and George W. Bush in context to the paper from the conference entitled "Northeastern Political Science Association Conference" on November 11, 2010. It mentions the changes of the American media in the last 10 years and highlights the broadcast of the character and psychology of politicians by the media

With state governments taking action on numerous issues ranging from health care to climate change in recent years, debates about how American federalism meshes with the regulatory state have again become prominent. Under the banner of "dynamic federalism" and similar terms, several scholars have recently argued that contemporary American federalism promotes the values of dialogue and pluralism by granting state governments overlapping regulatory authority with the federal government. Despite the many theoretical claims in these recent works, however, it is not entirely clear how "dynamic federalism" works in practice and whether it promotes the values its proponents claim. The recent activities of state attorneys general ("SAGs") provide an excellent lens through which to explore the issues raised by this new literature. While still poorly understood, SAGs have had increasingly significant influence on national regulatory policy through the use of coordinated multistate litigation. This paper explores this new phenomenon in two ways. First, it presents an analysis of an original dataset of multistate SAG litigation in four key policy areas, covering 1980 to the present. Second, it addresses how multistate SAG litigation fits into the broader picture of American intergovernmental relations. While many multistate cases are brought in conjunction with the federal government, the aims of these multistate suits often conflict with the federal government's regulatory enforcement posture. I suggest that while some of the claimed benefits of dynamic federalism are reflected in multistate SAG litigation, the use of multistate litigation to influence national policy has several problematic features as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do individual-level student characteristics affect appreciation for and benefit from the use of student response system technology? This paper will investigate the benefit of in-class electronic student response systems ('classroom clickers'). With these systems, students answer questions posed to them in a PowerPoint presentation through the use of handheld remote control devices. Aggregate results can be immediately displayed and discussed. Though this technology is rapidly gaining use in university classrooms across the nation, most academic research on the use of student response systems focuses on the "nuts and bolts" of using the system or on ways that such systems might be useful to all students in particular courses. Little has been done to assess the ways in which individual-level student characteristics might influence the utility of this technology. We investigate the usefulness of this increasingly common classroom technique to understand if it benefits some college students more than others. Specifically, we investigate whether shyer students benefit more from the use of the student response system, with the expectation that shyer students will appreciate using the system more and consequently make more positive gains in attitudes about the class, knowledge of politics, and political engagement. Utilizing original survey data collected from two, Fall 2009 introductory American Government courses, we find that shyer students show greater attitude improvement over the course of the semester, gain more knowledge about politics, and engage in more outside-of-class political discussions than less shy students. Overall, the findings presented here suggest that, at least marginally, the use of in-class electronic response systems can improve the educational experience of students who are typically isolated by traditional classroom teaching methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper addresses the impact of collective preference on individual vote choice at the United States Supreme Court. Building on the judicial bargaining literature that explores Supreme Court justices as strategic actors (Epstein and Knight 1998; Maltzman, Spriggs, and Wahlbeck 2000), our work examines the voting behavior of individual Supreme Court justices relative to the median ideal point of the other justices serving when a decision is reached. To achieve this analysis, we create an original variable that provides a Court median that is independent of each specific justice?s ideology. Using a panel data set and time series regression, we test the impact of this ideological midpoint on the voting scores of individual Supreme Court justices from 1953 to 2008. We also control for potential influences from the other branches of government. To enhance the robustness of our results, term-by-term voting scores are derived from four sources: the Supreme Court Database, Martin-Quinn ideal points, Michael Bailey ideal points, and Judicial Common Space scores. Our research uncovers evidence of certain case categories where justices alter their behavior to conform to the preferences of other actors on the Court, and other situations where, conversely, justices vote in a direction opposite the other members of the Court. Additionally, we also locate evidence of a relationship between congressional ideology, as measured by the preferences of the Senate?s "filibuster pivot," and judicial voting behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During 1970-2000, U.S. cities underwent a rapid increase in black political representation. Many argue that African-Americans' responsiveness to registration and get-out-the-vote campaigns facilitated this transition. This paper develops a simple model of groupbased electoral competition when one group has a greater capacity to mobilize voters to the polls. Mayoral election results are consistent with the model in the South, where African-Americans historically faced political exclusion, but not in the North. In Southern cities, close black victories were more likely than close black losses, involved higher turnout than close black losses, and were more likely to be followed by subsequent black victories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Past studies of U.S. House redistricting have given relatively short shrift to the question of what differentiates members in terms of their ability to overcome the potentially adverse effects of district boundary change. In this study, we find that veteran incumbents in states finalizing redistricting plans early receive less benefit from having a campaign spending advantage over the challenger. In contrast, however, veterans benefit from their capacity to blunt the threat posed by gaining large numbers of new constituents. Falloff in veterans' vote margins, as the central finding emerging from the analysis, responds much less strongly to growing numbers of constituent newcomers than does falloff in the margins of first-termers. Furthermore, even among veterans themselves, higher levels of seniority help provide insulation against vote losses associated with new constituent addition. The new constituents whose voting decisions are most swayed by member seniority are non-identifiers with the incumbent's party; this is likely a consequence of their susceptibility to elements of the incumbent's "personal vote," which are more readily transferred across district lines by a veteran than by a first-term member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we examine the 2020 United States Senate election in Maine, the only Senate election in that year in which the winner was not running on the ticket of the presidential candidate who won the state. Political scientists have emphasized the nationalization of congressional elections in recent years; Maine defied that trend. Through an examination of the political messaging portrayed on a record amount of media advertising, we find that the conclusion that most congressional elections are run and won or lost on national issues masks significant local variation, variation that is important to an understanding of governing politics in Washington today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that since the presidency of FDR, hierarchies of political leadership have opened to average citizens in key ways, but not in ways conducive to democratic control over government. Following the reforms of the presidential primary system initiated under Woodrow Wilson, the selection of presidential candidates has become more open to the influence of popular opinion, but it has also become more closed to broader participation by everyday citizens; the process itself now requires financing and organization available to few citizens. Consequently, a politics emerges in the United States where ambitious office seekers are increasingly beholden to no enduring political organization for the rise and success of their political careers. Ambition itself appears to be the only necessary qualification for seeking public office. Other than having the finances to pay for a campaign, the only screening out of candidates occurs primarily at the level of an individual?s desire to hold office and willingness to run. As formal and informal processes of peer review for potential political leaders become more plebiscitary in orientation, a more dynamic system emerges, but one tilted to the benefit of the personally wealthy, or those who are beholden to money, and not necessarily better at selecting politicians capable of effectively governing. With the competition for virtually all elected offices becoming ?candidate centered,? those political forms of the party association and nominating convention that once linked local, state and national political organizations and institutions of representative self-government with everyday citizens become irrelevant, or at best, a nuisance. Because of this shift away from established political connections, the candidate centered (and sponsored) nomination process weakens any enduring connection between candidates and voting citizens that provide a continuity and control over public policy issues lasting beyond one or two election cycles. Such a separation, although appearing to foster a direct connection between the people and the president on topical issues, actually undermines a deeper trust between elected officials and their constituents on long term issues, a trust that I see as necessary for strengthening and sustaining democratic self-government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]