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The article discusses the actions of U.S. politician Paul V. McNutt (1891-1955), as U.S. high commissioner of the Philippines, in arranging for hundreds of Jewish refugees to be brought from Nazi Germany to Manila in 1938-1939. McNutt's motivations in providing a haven for Jews rejected by the United States and other countries are discussed. His background in Indiana is discussed, including his opposition to the Ku Klux Klan and religious and racial bigotry. His political career in the Democratic Party is also discussed, including his time as governor of Indiana and his positions in the federal government.

The article reviews the web site The Dick Thornburgh Papers, available at www.library.pitt.edu/thornburgh/index.html.

This paper focuses on the content and emotive features of four politicians' posts that were published on their official Twitter accounts during the three-month period of the russian invasion of Ukraine. We selected two British politicians - Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister of the UK, and Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP and Shadow Home Secretary of the State for the Home Department - as well as two American politicians, President of the USA Joe Biden and Republican senator Marco Rubio. In the first phase, we constructed a dataset containing the tweets of the four politicians, which were selected with regard to the topic of war in Ukraine. To be considered approved, the tweets were supposed to contain such words as Ukraine, russia, war, putin, invasion, spotted in one context. In the second phase, we identified the most frequent lexical tokens used by the politicians to inform the world community about the war in Ukraine. For this purpose, we used Voyant Tools, a web-based application for text analysis. These tokens were divided into three groups according to the level of their frequency into most frequent, second most frequent and third most frequent lexical tokens. Additionally, we measured the distribution of the most frequent lexical tokens across the three-month time span to explore how their frequency fluctuated over the study period. In the third phase, we analysed the context of the identified lexical tokens, thereby outlining the subject of the tweets. To do this, we extracted collocations using the Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) library. During the final phase of the research, we performed topic modelling using the Gibbs Sampling algorithm for the Dirichlet Multinomial Mixture model (GSDMM) and emotion analysis using the NRC Lexicon library. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a non-partisan rationale for intergovernmental transfers: transfers are generated by electoral dynamics and term limits. We formally study re-election concerned politicians in a federal setting with term limits. The theory presented highlights an important aspect of federalism, that voters participate in elections for office holders at multiple levels of government. We augment a standard model of political career concerns to allow for multilevel governance, and to provide a central office holder with the ability to make transfers to a local politician. We find that when elections are staggered, an equilibrium exists with positive transfers. These transfers are made to sabotage political challengers. These transfers are non-partisan and are an artifact of the electoral dynamics as generated by the electoral calendar and politicians' career concerns. We test the implications of the theory using data on transfer receipts of U.S. governors, confirming the importance of election timing and term limits as determinants of transfers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues cynicism toward elected officials colors how individuals in the mass public interpret information about political scandals. Specifically, citizens rely on prior levels of cynicism toward elected officials when assessing new information about potential political malfeasance. Drawing on panel data surrounding two prominent political scandals, this paper demonstrates prior levels of cynicism shape individuals' interpretations of information about scandals, but cynicism does not affect the amount of attention individuals pay to scandals. Ultimately, the results shed light on individual-level variation in response to scandals, and suggest expressed cynicism toward politicians is a politically consequential individual-level attitude that affects whether or not political leaders can survive ethical transgressions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I develop a survey-based measure of district ideology for the House of Representatives. I use this index to document and study ways in which patterns of candidate positioning depart from perfect representation. These findings help distinguish between competing theories of candidate positioning. My findings present evidence against theories that attribute divergence to the preferences of voters and the locations of primary constituencies. My findings are potentially consistent with the policy-motivation and resource theories, which attribute divergence to the polarization of political elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper analyzes the effect of race on deliberations inside congressional committees. It investigates whether black representatives are more or less likely to use liberal policy frames and mention marginalized groups during committee debates. The results suggest that black legislators are more likely than whites to present liberal policy frames for black interest bills and they often take a more active role during committee debates. However, black legislators are no more likely than white Democrats to mention blacks and other marginalized groups during committee deliberations. When it comes to mentioning marginalized groups during committee deliberations, party is the most important explanatory factor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work attempts to present the selected aspects of investigation whose main goal is the analysis of different ways of implementing values into a text, which in turn, are to gain political support and to gather interest from the public. Some concepts have been touched upon to account for various forms of verbal realizations from the discourse perspective (Chruszczewski 2002; Van Dijk 1997a; Puzynina 1991; Tyszka 1993; KŁoskowska 1980; Graber 1993; Grabias 2001). In addition to the above, this paper highlights basic American values, which are essential components of the American society. It is to be observed that the aforementioned values are commonly used by politicians delivering public speeches to unite the nation, which in case of American society, is characterized by multiplicity of ethical groups. The analysis tries to shed a little light on the choice of linguistic means included in President George W. Bush?s speeches to the nation able to unite Americans and make them work towards the common goal, namely the struggle against global terror. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents evidence that American political elites think and behave in an ideological way. Factor analyses of individual questionnaire items drawn from elite studies in 1958 and 1972 show only marginal evidence of the type of structuring implied by the concept of ideology. However, similar analyses of a priori, multi-item scales constructed from the 1972 surveys clearly show evidence of structure for the elite sample, particularly as compared to a parallel mass sample; this raises serious questions about the use of single item scales in past analyses of political ideology. Further evidence of elite ideology is found in an analysis of interest group ratings of U.S. Representatives in 1970 and 1974. These findings provide strong support for the argument that ideology plays an important role in the perceptions and behavior of American political elites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new explanation for Democratic dominance in the House of Representatives: the greater propensity of Republicans to retire. A higher rate of retirement means that Republicans sacrifice the advantages of incumbency and thereby reduce the probability that the party will retain a seat after the election. This factor depresses Republican strength in the House by an amount we estimate at between 5 and 15 seats. In this paper we document the phenomenon of early retirement among Republicans and explain the relationship between retirement and party strength in legislatures. We then develop a mathematical model to estimate a steady state or equilibrium partisan balance in the House, based on long-term rates of retirement, open-seat victories, and incumbent defeats. This model allows us to estimate the overall impact of early Republican retirement and other factors on partisan strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although balanced budget rules are widely used throughout the world, there is considerable debate on whether and how they impact fiscal outcomes. Existing research shows that states with strict balanced budget rules address deficits by raising taxes and curbing expenditures. However, little is known about whether politicians can meet budget rules by shifting resources inter-temporally or by transferring revenues from funds not subject to balanced budget rules into funds that are required to meet a balanced budget. We show that, in addition to increasing taxes and cutting expenditures, states with strict balanced budget rules sell public assets and transfer resources across government funds to close the budget shortfall. Our findings suggest that current budget deficits not only influence the current-period taxpayers, but also impact future taxpayers and other funds within the government. The results complement existing research by expanding our understanding of the effects of balanced budget restrictions on politicians' fiscal actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evaluation of the costs and benefits of limiting human activity through regulation is at the core of our government. When the activity that would be restricted is commercial, many have a bias against regulation. They assume that restricting activity reduces productivity in the economy to the detriment of wealth creation. When a politician says that a rule is "unduly burdensome," he or she means that the discernible benefits do not outweigh the wealth that would be created if the rule did not exist. Today, the most sophisticated and powerful articulation of this point of view concerns the regulation of the -financial markets through -financial markets reform under existing and potential future legislation. This Article describes how this debate suffers from preconceptions that rely on unfounded economic theory and misconceptions based on the sheer complexity of modern-finance. It identifies the first step: defining how to measure the value to society of a market structure that is bounded by a given set of regulations. The primary function of financial markets in this context is the intermediation of capital investment. Efficiency can be measured by cost. If the economic rent extracted by the financial sector for facilitating capital intermediation in a market construct is proportionate to the value added by this activity, efficiency of the market structure is demonstrated. This Article postulates that this has not been the case in recent years. In doing so, it rejects the predominant approach to measuring efficiency that emphasizes the cost of individual-financial transactions. The predominant approach implicitly assumes that capital intermediation can be viewed as a linear path of a unit of investment from an investor to a productive use. In this view, the costs of individual transactions along the way determine the cost of the capital intermediation process. This Article makes the case that this is naive or intentionally misleading. Modern capital and derivatives markets are exceedingly complex and involve multiple methods for extraction of value by the financial sector that must be paid for by the productive economy. This Article postulates that the amount extracted is demonstrably far higher than historic data and reasoned analysis suggest could possibly be reasonable. Therefore, the rents extracted by the financial sector for intermediating capital investment are inefficiently high. Finally, this Article asserts that the costs and benefits of financial market regulation should not be biased by the assumption that the restriction of activities is a burden that must be offset by legitimate benefits such as safety and soundness of the system or even price transparency. Under the proposed approach, regulations that reduce complexity or market power do not by definition burden the financial system in providing its essential social function but very likely enhance the efficiency of that process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Fox Television Network program 24 a fictional counterterrorism agent named Jack Bauer uses extreme measures, including torture, to save the United States from catastrophic terrorist attacks. Bauer uses torture even though its efficacy is in question and it is illegal. Political leaders, including President George Bush, have endorsed the use of torture and Bauer's fictional success has reinforced that the idea these methods are both necessary and effective in obtaining actionable intelligence. This paper examines existing literature on military interrogations in the context of 24 and reviews empirical and descriptive evidence about existing practices. While researchers cannot ethically or legally test torture's effectiveness, more research is needed to study methods currently in use by the military. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We expect more responsiveness to the public in a more competitive political system. This paper focuses on the careers of members of the lower houses of six state legislatures to see how states differ in the competition that legislators typically experience over a career. On many of the measures, states differ as we might expect given previous research on political party competition. All six states lose experienced legislators quickly; few legislators stay beyond 12 years in office. More leave voluntarily than because of electoral defeat. These findings raise the question who is less responsive: the legislator willing to retire voluntarily or the secure incumbent? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author comments on an article published in the May 19, 2009 issue of the "New York Times" in which the conclusion represents a misunderstanding of the role of U.S. chief executive officers (CEOs). He says the paper claimed that being flexible, team-oriented and empathetic are unnecessary traits for effective CEOs. He cites that the conclusion is based on the study "Which CEO Characteristics and Abilities Matter?," by S. N. Kaplan et al. He notes the apparent suggestion of the periodical that politicians cannot be successful CEOs and vice versa.

The author reflects on the relationship between physicists and politicians in the U.S. He argues that scientists lay no claim to a national monopoly in beauty, truth and wisdom. He emphasized the possibility of national sovereignty delusion due to the atomic age. It is stated that the physicist's naivety is his greatest professional asset but is his greatest limitation as a potential politician.

The article focuses on the effect of the politics of law and order in the U.S. Topics discussed include adoption of the politics of law and order as a response to urban unrest and to crime by the American politicians; an account of Watts Rebellion and its impact on the federal and state governments; and an account of Ferguson unrest.