Political Science Commons^™

Strategic Auditing In A Political Hierarchy: An Informational Model Of The Supreme Court's Certiorari Decisions, Charles M. Cameron, Jeffrey A. Segal, Donald Songer

Faculty Publications

We examine how the Supreme Court uses signals and indices from lower courts to determine which cases to review. In our game theoretic model, a higher court cues from publicly observable case facts, the known preferences of a lower court and its derision. The lower court attempts to enforce its own preferences, exploiting ambiguity in cases' fact patterns. In equilibrium, a conservative higher court declines to review conservative decisions from lower courts regardless of the facts of die case or the relative ideology of the judges. But a conservative higher court probabilistically reviews liberal decisions, with the "audit rate" tied …

Free Speech In Pauline Political Theology, David E. Fredrickson

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Majority Rule Or Minority Will: Adherence To Precedent On The Us Supreme Court By Harold J. Spaeth And Jeffrey A. Segal, Donald R. Songer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Religious Right In Court: The Decision Making Of Christian Evangelicals In State Supreme Courts, Donald R. Songer, Susan J. Tabrizi

Faculty Publications

Much has been written recently about the emergence of evangelicals and others often labeled the "new Religious Right" in American politics. However, little attention has been paid to whether officials who have been socialized in the denominations characterized as being part of this Religious Right actually behave differently in office from those brought up in other religious traditions. The present study begins such an inquiry by examining differences in the voting behavior of state supreme court justices in three issue areas. Evangelical justices were found to be significantly more conservative than mainline Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish justices in death penalty, …

Law And Politics In Judicial Oversight Of Federal Administrative Agencies, Martha Anne Humphries, Donald R. Songer

Faculty Publications

Administrative agencies play a substantial role in the formulation and implementation of national policy Central to this role is their exercise of discretion. A normative consensus exists that such discretion should be constrained by administrative deference to the rule of law. The courts of appeals are expected to insure that such discretion is constrained. The analysis reported below examines how effectively they fulfill that expectation The findings suggest that agency success is related to political considerations, with agencies being successful when their decisions are consistent with the policy preferences of the judges. However, variables that captured elements of the legal …

Call Screening - Is It Really A Problem For Survey Research?, Michael W. Link, Robert W. Oldendick

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Foreign Affairs Power -- The Massachusetts Burma Law Is Found To Encroach On The Federal Government's Exclusive Constitutional Authority To Regulate Foreign Affairs. -- National Foreign Trade Council V. Baker, 26 F. Supp. 2d 287 (D. Mass. 1998), Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Bearing False Witness: The Clinton Impeachment And The Future Of Academic Freedom, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Pareto Optimality And The Rule Of Law, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

In 1959, James M. Buchanan criticized the collectivist misuse of Pareto optimality by the "new welfare economists" and made a first attempt to extend that individualist concept into the political realm. Over the following three decades he further developed his political application of Pareto’s insight to buttress an essentially economic analysis of political exchange that would justify the processes of constitutional democracy in the same way Pareto efficiency justifies free markets. In this paper I will explain why Buchanan’s particular formulations will not work and propose a more comprehensive solution that accomplishes Buchanan’s announced purpose. I will argue that a …

Overcoming Tradition And Modernity: The Search For Islamic Authenticity, By Robert D. Lee, Shahrough Akhavi

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Nephite Kingship Reconsidered, Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

This paper extends and updates previous efforts to understand the political dynamic of the Book of Mormon by looking at four themes or issues that can be developed from the text itself. The first is an expansion of earlier treatments of the contradictory political ideologies of the Nephites and Lamanites, which informed relations between these two groups across their thousand-year history. The second is an exploration of the historical possibility that Nephi may never, in fact, have been anointed as king of the Nephite people, which raises in turn a possible need to reassess the character of Nephite kingship. The …

The Dialectic In Contemporary Egyptian Social Thought: The Scripturalist And Modernist Discourses Of Sayyid Qutb And Hasan Hanafi, Shahrough Akhavi

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Future Information Infrastructure In Economics, William L. Goffe, Robert P. Parks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Post-Uruguay Round Gatt/Wto Dispute Settlement: Substance, Strengths, Weaknesses, And Causes For Concern, Michael Tkacik

Faculty Publications

Dispute settlement under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (“GATT”) has come under increasing strain in recent years. The major powers often ignore GATT dispute settlement decisions which do not comport with their economic interests. This situation undermines the credibility of the GATT and threatens the system's framework. If dispute settlement under the GATT continues to be ineffective as it has been through much of the 1980s and early 1990s, GATT member states (“Members”) may well lose faith in the system, begin reimposing the tariffs that were present before the GATT, thereby risking worldwide trade war and possibly consequences …

On Difference And Equality, Cynthia V. Ward

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Japanese Civil Service And Economic Development: Catalysts Of Change Eds. Hyung-Ki Kim, Michio Muramatsu, And T. J. Pempel, Robert C. Angel

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Contexts Of International Politics, By Gary Goertz, Harvey Starr

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Community And The Economy: The Theory Of Public Cooperation, Mark A. Klinedinst

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Construction And White Attitudes Toward Equal Opportunity And Multiculturalism, Michael W. Link, Robert W. Oldendick

Faculty Publications

As the United States moves from being a predominantly biracial to a multiracial society, racial attitudes continue to become more diverse and more complex. Scholars need to address these changes not only in terms of black and white Americans, but also how these changes involve and affect other racial groups, particularly Asian and Hispanic Americans. This inquiry looks at some of these complexities by examining how social construction differentials in the minds of white Americans affect their attitudes toward the issues of equal opportunity and multiculturalism. The analysis shows that differences in the cognitive images whites hold of minority groups …

An Empirical Test Of The Rational Actor Theory Of Litigation, Donald R. Songer, Charles M. Cameron, Jeffrey A. Segal

Faculty Publications

This article examines the decisions of litigants in criminal cases to appeal decisions from the U.S. Courts of Appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court. Using a random sample of search and seizure cases from 1962 through 1990 and a measure of the likelihood that the appeals court decision will be reversed if cert is granted, we demonstrate that litigants behave as if they rationally consider costs and benefits in their decisions to appeal. Given the extraordinary number of cases decided by lower federal courts vis-g-vis the number of cases the Supreme Court can decide, we argue that such behavior is …

Civil Society And Congregations As Public Moral Companions, Gary M. Simpson

Faculty Publications

In the midst of this morally charged situation might not Christian congregations hear again the call to a public vocation? As we ponder this prospect, two questions will guide our inquiry. First, where might Christian congregations locate a space in which they might attend to the public moral meaning of everyday rage? That public space, which we will explore, is “civil society.” Second, how can this public space of civil society be accessed so that its moral possibilities can be maximized? We will explore “communicative moral practice” as the best model for accessing the moral possibilities of civil society. What …

Islam, The People And The State: Essays On Political Ideas And Movements In The Middle East, By Sami Zubaida, Shahrough Akhavi

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Attention To Candidates And Issues In Newspaper Coverage Of 1992 Presidential Campaign, Gordon Mantler, David Whiteman

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Discordance Between Lmp-Based And Clinically Estimated Gestational Age: Implications For Research, Programs, And Policy, Greg R. Alexander, Mark E. Tompkins, Donna J. Petersen, Thomas C. Hulsey, Joanne Mor

Faculty Publications

This study examines the comparability between the last menstrual period-based and clinically estimated gestational age as collected on certificates of live birth. It explores whether sociodemographic or delivery characteristics influence their agreement and contrasts health status and health care utilization indicators, such as preterm, small for gestational age, and adequacy of prenatal care percentages, produced by each gestational age measure. The 1989-91 South Carolina public use live birth files were used for this analysis. A total of 169,082 single births to resident mothers were selected for investigation.

The clinically estimated gestational age distribution exhibited a higher mean and a tendency …

The Confirmation Mystery, Michael J. Gerhardt

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Thomas Hobbes's "A Discourse Of Laws", Noel B. Reynolds

Faculty Publications

The recent discovery that an anonymously published 1620 essay was an early writing of Thomas Hobbes invites investigation of his early thinking. Hobbes relied on mostly classical sources to advance a basically conventionalist theory of law and to anticipate twentieth century analyses of the principles of rule of law such as that made famous by F. A. Hayek.

The Answering Machine Generation - Who Are They And What Problem Do They Pose For Survey Research, Robert W. Oldendick, Michael W. Link

Faculty Publications

Increased incidence of telephone answering machines and the use of such devices to screen calls pose a potential threat to the representativeness of samples in telephone surveys. Using data from nine statewide surveys, this analysis examines the extent to which answering machines are used to screen calls and the demographic characteristics associated with answering machine use and call screening. Results show that at most two to three percent of households use answering machines to screen calls, and that such screening is more likely to take place in households with higher family incomes, outside rural areas, and which include individuals who …

Computer Network Resources For Economists, William L. Goffe

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Reappraisal Of Diversification In The Federal Courts: Gender Effects In The Courts Of Appeals, Donald R. Songer, Sue Davis, Susan Haire

Faculty Publications

Prior scholarship on the effect of the increasing number of female judges leads to three contrasting sets of expectations. Early writings and views of affirmative-action activists suggested that female judges would be more liberal than male judges. On the other hand, a series of empirical studies suggest that we should expect no gender differences. In contrast to both of these perspectives, several feminist scholars suggest that women will be more liberal only when that position expresses support for full participation in the community. These contrasting expectations were tested by analyzing the votes of appeals court decisions in three issue areas. …

Morality And American Foreign Policy By Robert W. Mcelroy Traditions And Values In Politics And Diplomacy By Kenneth W. Thompson, William P. Kreml

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.