Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

International Terrorism:Role ,Responsibility And Operation Of Media Channles, Ratnesh Dwivedi Mr

Ratnesh Dwivedi

"Terrorism" is a term that cannot be given a stable defintion. Or rather, it can, but to do so forstalls any attempt to examine the major feature of its relation to television in the contemporary world. As the central public arena for organising ways of picturing and talking about social and political life, TV plays a pivotal role in the contest between competing defintions, accounts and explanations of terrorism. Which term is used in any particular context is inextricably tied to judgemements about the legitimacy of the action in question and of the political system against which it is directed. …

Piling On Palin, Hating On Hillary, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

No abstract provided.

Remapping A Nation Without States: Personalized Full Representation For California’S 21st Century, Mark Paul, Micah Weinberg

Mark Paul

California is a state of many distinct regions. To give citizens a voice on regional issues and to reinvigorate California’s Legislature, the state’s central institution of self-government, we propose Personalized Full Representation for the 21st Century (PFR21), a system of representation by means of regionally based legislative elections that will allow the state’s citizens to set the agenda for their regions and for the state as a whole. By reshaping the stage on which legisla- tive politics is played out, California can make state govern- ment more attentive to regional issues and give its citizens a means of holding elected …

Love Your Body Day, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

No abstract provided.

Progressive Republicans And Ron Paul, Craig J. Westover

Craig J Westover

I spent all day and into the evening Tuesday at Ron Paul's Rally for the Republic listening to speakers extolling the virtues of individual freedom and limited government. Wednesday morning I attended the progressive think tank Growth & Justice symposium heralding the contributions to the common good of Minnesota's Progressive Republican Tradition. That's like running out of a sauna and leaping into a lake through a hole in the ice — it can be exhilarating if it doesn't kill you.

At first blush, Ron Paul's libertarian-leaning brand of Republican conservatism seems to have little in common with progressive, left-leaning RINO …

From Libertarian To 'Ron Paul' Republican, Craig J. Westover

Craig J Westover

Amid the footballs and Frisbees and flags flying over the soccer field at the National Sports Center in Blaine; among the young families sitting on blankets, the older couples comfortably ensconced in canvas lawn chairs, the people of all ages decked out in revolutionary-era garb, Ron Paul and anti-war T-shirts, and red, white and blue in a cacophony of fashion statements, a bald head bobbed along the lengthy beer line snaking along what is normally a soccer field sideline. John Cunningham, looking every bit the 52-year-old Republican (alternate) delegate he is in a gray suit and conservative tie, passed out …

The George W. Bush Legacy, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

Book review of The George W. Bush Legacy. Bush will be known for his ideological polarization of the political parties, his expansion of presidential power, and his appointment of a more conservative federal judiciary. The 2006 election was a major turning point for the White House in terms of public opinion and the loss of a Republican majority in Congress, and only time will tell whether the last two years will shift the direction of the Bush legacy.

Chief Legislators And Pet Projects, Donna Hoffman, Alison Howard

Alison Dana Howard

Obama And Mccain: Running For An Office Not In The Constitution, Craig J. Westover

Craig J Westover

Between now and the November elections, Barack Obama and John McCain will each spend millions of dollars to describe his vision to the American people. From ridding the world of evil to making sure our credit card payments are properly recorded, no task is too sublime or too trivial for the candidates' attention — or voter expectations.

And there's the rub.

The claim of expansive presidential capability to solve the ills of mankind is more than simply over-promising and under-delivering. A president of whom great deeds are expected will demand — or seize — great power to tackle those expectations. …

Convention Speeches: 'The World As It Should Be', Craig J. Westover

Craig J Westover

Two emotional speeches at the Democratic National Convention Monday Night – by an ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy and vivacious Michelle Obama – were often interrupted by applause. Camera cuts vividly pictured delegates wiping away or smiling through tears, visibly moved by the speakers. Even watching on television, one was cognizant of the emotions swirling inside the Pepsi Center.

We do not expect (although perhaps we should raise our expectations a little) that politicians today match the eloquence of a Lincoln. And one could argue that with their speeches Sen. Kennedy and Ms. Obama accomplished what Lincoln did not – reaching …

American Muslims And The 2008 Presidential Election: Policy Recommendations, Muqtedar Khan

Muqtedar Khan

This is a Policy Report published by the Institute for Policy and Understanding making recommendations to American Muslims about how to participate in the 2008 elections.

Sustainable Master Planning In Urban Politics And Policy: A Service Learning Project, Shannon Jenkins

Shannon Jenkins

Despite evidence that service learning projects can have positive effects on students’ learning and civic engagement, such projects are not yet widely utilized in political science. This seems to be driven, in part, by the concern that service learning projects may politicize students. In my Urban Politics and Policy class, I implemented a service learning project that sought to avoid the problem of politicization. This project focused on developing a sustainable master plan in a local community. While the experience had some limitations, assessment data demonstrate a positive impact on my students’ understanding of the material covered in class and …

The Ground War 2000-2004: Strategic Targeting In Grassroots Campaigns, Peter Wielhouwer

Peter W. Wielhouwer

This article uses survey data from the National Election Studies to examine personal contacting and grassroots mobilization strategies in presidential election campaigns, focusing on the 2000 and 2004 elections. Consistent with widespread journalistic accounts, we find that respondents overall report higher levels of mobilization in 2004. We also find evidence of strategic targeting and mobilization and report on shifts in targeting strategies between the two election cycles

Clinton And Americorps: Attributes For Success, Donna Hoffman, Alison Howard

Alison Dana Howard

The Effect Of Distance From Central Cities On Partisan Outcomes In Elections, Elizabeth Stiles, Larry Schwab

Elizabeth A. Stiles

No abstract provided.

Entrepreneurs, Organizational Strength And The Pursuit Of Public Goods By Voluntary Organizations, Elizabeth Stiles

Elizabeth A. Stiles

Robert Salisbury has assumed that interest group entrepreneurs are profit-driven and make attempts to procure collective goods to increase their membership and revenue. This article's research question takes the reverse of Salisbury's claim: can interest group entrepreneurs increase the likelihood of procuring collective goods by increasing their organizational strength? Results of a study of statewide Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) organizations show that larger memberships are positively and significantly associated with success in procuring collective goals while increased budgets are significantly but negatively associated. The implications are twofold. First, the assumption that entrepreneurs pursue collective goods for reasons of …

The Effects Of Australian Ballot Rules On Constituent Spending And Committee Assignments In The U.S. House, 1885-1901, Jill Wittrock, Stephen Nemeth, Howard Sanborn, Brian Disarro, Peverill Squire

Howard Sanborn

Katz and Sala linked the development of committee property rights in the late-nineteenth-century U.S. House of Representatives to the introduction of theAustralian ballot. If, as they posited, members sought personal reputations to carry them to reelection in the new electoral environment, the current article argues that behaviors with more imme diate political payoffs also should have changed inways their theory would predict. The article examines whether committee assignments, floor voting behavior, and the distribution of pork barrel projects changed in predicted ways and finds supportive outcomes, but usually only when the office bloc ballot, and not the party bloc ballot, …

Party Influence On Roll Call Voting: A View From The U.S. States, Shannon Jenkins

Shannon Jenkins

Recent studies have documented that parties influence legislative behavior. But such studies have been unable to distinguish between party voting stemming from ideological agreement and true party influence, as most lack independent measures of legislator ideology and have not been tested at the U.S. state level. Using survey data to control for legislator ideology, this analysis looks at how and under what conditions parties influence voting in three sessions of five state legislatures. The results suggest party influence on voting in the states is partly due to the fact that legislators have similar beliefs and represent similar people. Nonetheless, parties …

The Effects Of Australian Ballot Rules On Constituent Spending And Committee Assignments In The U.S. House, 1885-1901, Jill Wittrock, Stephen Nemeth, Howard Sanborn, Brian Disarro, Peverill Squire

Stephen Nemeth

Katz and Sala linked the development of committee property rights in the late-nineteenth-century U.S. House of Representatives to the introduction of theAustralian ballot. If, as they posited, members sought personal reputations to carry them to reelection in the new electoral environment, the current article argues that behaviors with more imme diate political payoffs also should have changed inways their theory would predict. The article examines whether committee assignments, floor voting behavior, and the distribution of pork barrel projects changed in predicted ways and finds supportive outcomes, but usually only when the office bloc ballot, and not the party bloc ballot, …

Developing A Young Professionals Network For The Arts, Thomas Bryer, Kristin Stewart

Thomas A Bryer

The Young Professionals Network for the Arts simulation is an exercise that allows students to think through the process of creating a network from the ground up. The structure of the class session that includes the simulation consists of a lecture on the readings and an 8-Step network building process, followed by the simulation.

Immigration, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Issue Evasion, José Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.

Women And Leadership, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

No abstract provided.

Out-Of-Body Image, Caroline Heldman

Caroline Heldman

On a typical day, you might see ads featuring a naked woman's body tempting viewers to buy an electronic organizer, partially exposed women's breasts being used to sell fishing line, or a woman's rear-wearing only a thong-being used to pitch a new running shoe. [...] Dove beauty products launched a much-lauded advertising campaign that used "real women" (i.e., not super-skinny ones) instead of models, but then Dove's parent company, Unilever, put out hypersexual ads for Axe men's body spray that showed the fragrance driving scantily clad women into orgiastic states.

Is Federalism The Reason For Policy Failure In Hurricane Katrina?, Thomas Birkland, Sarah Waterman

Thomas A Birkland

Governmental responses to Hurricane Katrina are generally cited as policy failures. Media and popular analyses focus on the federal government’s policy failures in hazard preparedness, response, and recovery. Meanwhile, disaster experts realize that disaster response is a shared intergovernmental responsibility.We examine the federal nature of natural disaster policy in the US to consider whether federalism, or other factors, had the greatest influence on the failures in Katrina.We find that some policy failures are related to policy design considerations based in federalism, but that the national focus on ‘‘homeland security’’ and the concomitant reduction in attention to natural hazards and disasters, …

Rebranding America : The Occidental Strategy, Derek Shearer

Derek Shearer

No abstract provided.

Global Governance Organizations: Legitimacy And Authority In Conflict, Jonathan Koppell

Jonathan GS Koppell

Global governance organizations (GGOs) are frequently maligned as both illegitimate and ineffective. With the growing prominence of entities that promulgate global rules governing trade, communications, finance, and transport, these shortcomings take on greater importance. This essay presents a theoretical framework to understand the challenge of legitimacy for GGOs. It argues that GGOs tend to face trade-offs between legitimacy and authority, but that widespread usages of these important terms conflate or confuse them and thus obscure critical issues in GGO politics. Once these terms are more clearly defined, we see more easily that GGOs must sometimes violate democratic norms, sacrificing equality …

Effort, Intensity And Position Taking: Reconsidering Obstruction In The Pre-Cloture Senate, Kathleen Bawn, Gregory Koger

Gregory Koger

Effort is a crucial element of the legislative process — writing bills, forming coalitions, crafting strategies, and debating. We develop a model in which legislative decisions are the product of competitive effort by two teams, one trying to pass new legislation, and the other to block it. Teams choose effort levels based on preferences over the policy outcome, political rewards for effort, and opportunity costs, and the team that produces more effort wins. We apply this model to four cases of major legislation from the pre-cloture Senate: passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, the Ship Purchase Act of …

Filibustering And Majority Rule In The Senate: The Contest Over Judicial Nominations, 2003-2005, Gregory Koger

Gregory Koger

This chapter proves a simple point: the Senate could be a much more majoritarian chamber than it is. Presumably, as in the House, the majority party would benefit from restrictions on filibustering. Howevver, senators have been reluctant to make major reforms, even when they are members of the majority party and their party’s agenda is being thwarted by Senate minorities. The”nuclear option” contest over judicial nominations from 2003 to 2005 illustrates one source of this stability: the minority party may refrain from obstruction in the face of a threat to curtail the right to filibuster.

Twenty-Sixth Amendment, José D. Villalobos

José D. Villalobos

No abstract provided.