American Politics Commons^™

Are They Ready For Their Close-Up? Civil Servants And Their Portrayal In Contemporary American Cinema, Michelle C. Pautz, Laura Roselle

Political Science Faculty Publications

Norma Desmond famously says in Billy Wilder’s Sunset Blvd. (1950), “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my closeup.”1 Since then, this phrase has been uttered countless times to ensure the camera does not start rolling until everyone is ready. But all are not afforded the opportunity to get ready and civil servants fall squarely into this category. We know that government bureaucrats are among those individuals that Americans love to hate and attacks on the civil service come from a plethora of sources.2 And because of the ability of film (as well as other narrative forms) to influence perceptions …

Gender, Human Security And The United Nations: Security Language As A Political Framework For Women, Natalie Florea Hudson

Political Science Faculty Publications

This book examines the relationship between women, gender and the international security agenda, exploring the meaning of security in terms of discourse and practice, as well as the larger goals and strategies of the global women's movement.

Today, many complex global problems are being located within the security logic. From the environment to HIV/AIDS, state and non-state actors have made a practice out of securitizing issues that are not conventionally seen as such. As most prominently demonstrated by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2001), activists for women's rights have increasingly framed women's rights and gender inequality as security issues …

U.S. Standing In The World: Causes, Consequences, And The Future, Jeffrey W. Legro, Peter J. Katzenstein

Political Science Faculty Publications

America’s global standing has become a central concern of U.S. leaders and citizens. U.S. leaders, regardless of party, pledge to “restore U.S. standing” as a central goal of America’s foreign policy agenda. Standing has been the subject of widespread public discussion and intellectual debate.

Yet despite all this attention, three issues fundamental to standing have been relatively ignored:

-What is standing and how has it varied?
-What causes standing to rise and fall?
-What impact does standing have on U.S. foreign policy?

This task force answers these questions by synthesizing what we now know about U.S. standing and/or identifying what …

The Ties That Bind The United States: A Recount (Book Review), Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

Review of the book, World Out of Balance: International Relations and the Challenge of American Primacy by Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlworth. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008.

Why Urbanists Need Religion, Joshua D. Ambrosius

Political Science Faculty Publications

This essay summarizes a conference paper presented at the October 2008 Society for the Scientific Study of Religion meeting in Louisville, Kentucky. The paper was reviewed by several leading scholars.

Response To Book Review (To Lead The World: American Strategy After The Bush Doctrine, Melvyn P. Leffler, Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

Response to Book Review (To Lead the World: American Strategy after the Bush Doctrine)

We want to thank the commentators for their thoughtful and constructive remarks on our book. We think they highlight some of the key attributes of the volume and raise key issues for further reflection.

In order for readers of H-Diplo to understand the comments, we want to reiterate here what we stated in the introduction to the book. We tried to bring together some of the nation’s most renowned scholars and public intellectuals from all sides of the political spectrum to focus on what …

Religious Freedom: Virginia Doesn't Need A New Statute, Ellis M. West

Political Science Faculty Publications

One would think that Virginians would be united and steadfast in their devotion to the Statute for Religious Freedom, written by Thomas Jefferson, adopted by the General Assembly in 1786, and since then praised by liberty-loving persons throughout the world. Currently, however, a group spearheaded by a few professors at Christopher Newport University and by the editor of the Religious Herald, the newspaper of the largest association of Baptists in Virginia, wants to "update" Jefferson's statute so that it guarantees religious people a "right to participate in the public forum, and express their points of view." On Jan. 24, …

The Limits Of Self-Reliance: Emerson, Slavery, And Abolition, James Read

Political Science Faculty Publications

In the 1841 essay “Self-Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emerson presupposed a democratic society of free and equal individuals – an idealized America with a veil drawn over racial slavery. As his own commitment to the antislavery cause deepened over time Emerson sought to reconcile his ideal of self-reliance with organized political action necessary to fight slavery.

Recent scholarship has corrected the previously dominant image of Emerson as detached from politics and indifferent to abolitionism. But even as he participated in it, Emerson saw antislavery activism as a distraction from his own proper work of freeing “imprisoned spirits, imprisoned thoughts, far back …

Entitlements, Daniel Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Entitlements are federal government programs that require payments to any individuals or organizations eligible to receive benefits defined by law. There are many different types of entitlements, though most of the entitlement expenditures of the federal government are distributed to the most vulnerable individuals in society--the poor, disabled, and elderly. Consequently, in addition to providing a legal right to payments for eligible beneficiaries, many entitlements carry a moral obligation to those in need. Moreover, some of the most costly entitlement programs, such as social security and Medicare, are supported in public opinion polls by large majorities of Americans and are …

Dilemmas Of Strategy, Melvyn P. Leffler, Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

America’s crystal ball on strategy is murky. Officials in the next administration will face a complex world, will receive conflicting advice, and will need to mobilize domestic support for their policies. They must nonetheless act, most likely without the convenience of a single threat such as the Soviet Union during the cold war or terrorism in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. In this conclusion, our aims are to highlight the decisive issues of consensus and contention that resonate across the chapters. We seek to delineate the trade-offs involved in making choices, and we hope to illuminate the national …

Introduction, Melvyn P. Leffler, Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

For many Americans, the past decade has been a bewildering era. They have seen their country attacked and their husbands, sons, wives, and daughters sent to war in faraway places. They have read about orange alerts and red alerts. They have waited on long lines at airport security checks. They know that defense expenditures have soared and that Homeland Security has mushroomed. They have seen gruesome daily headlines about the carnage in Iraq, the strife in Afghanistan, and the turmoil in Pakistan. They read about the suicide attacks that were prevented or aborted in Europe, and they know, darkly, that …

Can Deliberative Democracy Work In Hierarchical Organizations?, Jason Pierce, Grant W. Neeley, Jeffrey Budziak

Political Science Faculty Publications

Some measure of equality is necessary for deliberative democracy to work well, yet empirical scholarship consistently points to the deleterious effect that hierarchy and inequalities of epistemological authority have on deliberation. This article tests whether real-world deliberative forums can overcome these challenges. Contrary to skeptics, it concludes that the act of deliberation itself and the presence of trained moderators ameliorate inequalities of epistemological authority, thus rendering deliberative democracy possible, even within hierarchical organizations.

When Church Teachings And Policy Commitments Collide: Perspectives On Catholics In The U.S. House Of Representatives, William E. Hudson, Elizabeth A. Oldmixon

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article investigates the influence of religious values on domestic social policy-making, with a particular focus on Catholics. We analyze roll call votes in the 109^th Congress and find that Catholic identification is associated with support for Catholic Social Teaching, but both younger Catholics and Republican Catholics are found less supportive. In followup interviews with a small sample of Catholic Republicans, we find that they justify voting contrary to Church teaching by seeing its application to domestic social issues as less authoritative than Church moral teachings on issues like abortion.

Evaluating Majority Party Leaders In Congress, Daniel Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Evaluations of majority party leaders come from three main sources: political scientists, media analysts, and members of Congress. Political scientists are the theoreticians. They have defined concepts and developed theories for evaluating leadership style, strategy, and strength. Journalists are the watchdogs. They regularly evaluate leader performance in response to contemporary events. Members of Congress then serve as the judges and juries. They occasionally advise leaders on tactics and strategies, and they ultimately have the ability to sanction or reward leaders.

Review Of One House: The Unicameral's Progressive Vision For Nebraska By Charlyne Berens, James B. Johnson

Political Science Faculty Publications

This is a book that needed to be written-a valuable, though flawed, addition to the literature on Nebraska's unique legislative body. It is the first addition to research on the Nebraska Legislature in some time and presents a new approach to the subject: has the Unicameral lived up to the promises of its founders? The answer is, by and large, yes.

Complying With The Help America Vote Act (Hava): Variations Among The States, Daniel Palazzolo, Sarah F. Liebschutz

Political Science Faculty Publications

Our focus is on both the causes for the variations in state compliance with HAVA and the consequences of HAVA requirements for election administration, with particular emphasis on the experiences of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania in implementing HAVA. We identify administrative, political, and policy-related reasons for variations in HAVA compliance in each state. We also consider the effects of HAVA on state and local government interactions, funding decisions, and policy innovation. We begin by reviewing HAVA compliance requirements, describing how states responded to those requirements, and comparing New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania with the national norms for …

Election Reform In Virginia: Deliberation And Incremental Change, Daniel J. Palazzolo, John T. Whelan, Elizabeth Peiffer

Political Science Faculty Publications

Several key factors explain the incremental approach to election law after the 2000 presidential election. The close election in Florida spurred lawmakers in Virginia to create the Joint Subcommittee Studying Virginia's Election Process and Voting Technologies. This special subcommittee was formed to learn more about the capacity of election administration. Through that process, Virginia officials concluded that the election system was fundamentally sound, though they identified a need for additional resources to increase staff, improve polling place access for disabled voters, and clean up registration rolls. A declining fiscal outlook limited budget resources and constrained the legislature from adopting the …

Election Reform After The 2000 Election, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

The 2000 presidential election, marked by a crisis in the electoral process in the state of Florida and a challenge to the legitimacy of the election of George W. Bush, sparked a national debate on the quality of American democracy. The discussion quickly came to focus on "technical" problems associated with voting practices, including issues related to voter registration, ballot counting, ballot machinery, and election administration. Numerous commissions weighed in on these issues and made recommendations for reforming various aspects of the election system.¹ Congress debated election reform and ultimately passed the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) at the …

Beyond The End Of The Beginning, Daniel J. Palazzolo, Doug Chapin

Political Science Faculty Publications

The chapters in this volume contain detailed analyses of election reform politics in eleven states from 2001 to 2003. Over this three-year period, the states and Congress passed legislation that was designed to address the many serious problems with election administration that came to light during the 2000 presidential election. Each of the case studies revealed important insights about how the individual states responded to the 2000 presidential election and the requirements and incentives of the HAVA. The common framework of nine key factors for analyzing reform politics enables us to compare the results of the individual studies and determine …

Different Regions, Similar Views, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

U.S. regions have had radically different political histories. The South long has been seen as the nation’s most conservative region, while New England has been perceived as the most liberal.

An examination of 40 years of survey data generated by the American National Election Study, however, suggests that differences between the South and New England on social issues tend to be small, are getting smaller, and in some instances have disappeared.

Congressional Leadership, Daniel J. Palazzolo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Congressional leadership takes place within an institution that serves two primary functions: making laws and representing citizens. Leaders play essential roles organizing the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senatethey set the schedule for debating bills and resolutions; formulate proposals to address public problems; represent their party's priorities through the media and in relations with leaders of the opposing party; support or oppose the president's initiatives in the legislative process; and build coalitions to pass legislation. The main challenge of congressional leadership is to advance the collective interests of the nation or of the leader's political party, …

Communitarianism And Republicanism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Communitarianism and republicanism are closely related schools of thought - so closely related that friend and foe alike sometimes conflate them. The relationship is evident in their Latin roots: communitarians are concerned with communitas, the common life of people who form a community, and republicans are devoted to the res publica, the good of the public. Of the two, however, only republicanism traces its lineage as well as its name to ancient Rome. Indeed, scholars often look beyond Rome to the philosophers and city-states of ancient Greece, particularly Aristotle and Sparta, for the origins of republicanism. For the …

Louisiana: Outside New Orleans, Bush Dominates, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

Al Gore's showing in Louisiana rested heavily upon the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), particularly Orleans Parish Gore received 34.4 percent of his total support from the New Orleans MSA, and 17 8 percent of his total vote came from Orleans Parish, which has borders that coincide with the City of New Orleans.

The Decline In Average Weekly Cinema Attendance, 1930-2000, Michelle C. Pautz

Political Science Faculty Publications

Since the beginnings of the motion picture industry, with the one small Edison studio in New Jersey in the early 1900s, America has fallen in love with films. One could argue and debate the reasons, employing everything from sociology to psychology to economics; but one thing is certain: This love affair has changed over the years. This change is perhaps most evident in the decline in the percentage of the United States population that goes to the cinema weekly. One interesting aspect of cinema attendance is that during the Great Depression, which swept the United States in the 1930s, a …

The Christian Right, The South, And State Politics, Gregory A. Petrow, Thad Beyle

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Christian Right arrived on the scene dramatically in 1980, its membership in President Reagan's electoral coalition indicative of a new politicization among religious conservatives. The movement flourished during the 1980s, spearheading campaigns against abortion rights and mobilizing supporters to vote for Republican candidates.

National Survey Shows Half-Century Trend Away From Democrats, Gregory A. Petrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

The partisan realignment in the South is a well-known fact. The 20th century began with the South solidly in the hands of the Democratic Party. This was true because the Southern Democratic Party look positions congruent with the Southern electorate's public policy preferences: namely, a states-centered view of government and an opposition to more egalitarian racial Policy.

Republican Citizenship, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

'Republican' and 'citizen', in fact, are old and intertwined words - so old that some may wonder at their relevance in the brave new world of the twenty-first century, and so intertwined that the phrase 'republican citizenship' seems almost redundant to others. There is no republic without citizens, after all; and, according to the classical republican thinkers, there is no citizenship, in the full sense of the word, except among those who are fortunate enough to inhabit a republic. But this view of citizenship's connection to republicanism no longer seems to prevail. If it did, there would be no need …

Faux Realism: Spin Vs. Substance In The Bush Foreign-Policy Doctrine, Jeffrey W. Legro, Andrew Moravcsik

Political Science Faculty Publications

The Bush administration has coined a foreign-policy doctrine. President George W. Bush, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, and Secretary of State Colin Powell herald "the new realism." Think you know what they are up to? OK, then fill in the blank: The "new realism" is _______. If you find the blank hard to fill, don’t worry; so would most of today's international-relations scholars. Indeed, one fundamental problem with the Bush administration's new doctrine is that "realism" no longer has any real intellectual coherence.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Getting And Keeping A Job At A Private Liberal Arts College, But Your Graduate Advisor Didn’T Tell You, William E. Hudson, Michelle Donaldson Deardorff, Marianne Githens, Glen Halva-Neubauer, Grant Reeher, Ronald Seyb

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Budgeting In Virginia: Power, Politics, And Policy, Daniel Palazzolo, John T. Whelan

Political Science Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we will first sketch out how budget making has evolved from an executive-centered, Democratic dominated process to one in which the executive and the legislature, Democrats and Republicans, share power. Secondly, the makeup of the budget will be analyzed, the major revenue sources and spending programs identified, as well as the trends in those realms. In doing so, we will highlight the constraints and opportunities facing the participants in the budget process. Finally, we will discuss how budgeting during the 1998 session illustrated several institutional and partisan features that had been in place before the session began.