Models and Methods Commons^™

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.

Nothing But The Truth? Experiments On Adversarial Competition, Expert Testimony, And Decision Making, Cheryl Boudreau, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

Many scholars debate whether a competition between experts in legal, political, or economic contexts elicits truthful information and, in turn, enables people to make informed decisions. Thus, we analyze experimentally the conditions under which competition between experts induces the experts to make truthful statements and enables jurors listening to these statements to improve their decisions. Our results demonstrate that, contrary to game theoretic predictions and contrary to critics of our adversarial legal system, competition induces enough truth telling to allow jurors to improve their decisions. Then, when we impose additional institutions (such as penalties for lying or the threat of …

For Whom The Tel Tolls: Can State Tax And Expenditure Limits Effectively Reduce Spending?, Thad Kousser, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Ellen Moule

Faculty Scholarship

Can voters stop state governments from spending at high rates through the enactment of tax and expenditure limits (TELs), or do these laws become dead letters? We draw upon the principal-agent literature to theorize that TELs – one of the most frequent uses of the initiative process across the country – may be circumvented by the sorts of elected officials who would inspire their passage.

In order to investigate our claim, we conduct an event study. First, we test for the effectiveness of TELs across states using a differences-in-differences model. Second, we dissect our treatment variable using different legal provisions …

When Voters Make Laws: How Direct Democracy Is Shaping American Cities, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Agenda Power In The Italian Chamber Of Deputies, 1988-2000, Gary W. Cox, William B. Heller, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

We find strong evidence that governing coalitions in Italy exercise significant negative agenda powers. First, governing parties have a roll rate that is nearly zero, and their roll rate is lower than opposition parties’ roll rates, which average about 20% on all final passage votes. Second, we find that, controlling for distance from the floor median, opposition parties have higher roll rates than government parties. These results strongly suggest that governing parties in Italy are able to control the legislative agenda to their benefit. We also document significantly higher opposition roll rates on decree-conversion bills and budget bills that on …

Breaking The Law! Conditions For And Perception Of Civil Disobedience By Democratic Citizens, Adam Stanley

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper examines actions of civil disobedience and the laws relevant to those actions. Each case study was tested against an operational definition of civil disobedience to see if these actions could be considered a legitimate expression of civil disobedience. The legitimacy of the laws was assessed through the use of two competing legal philosophies of H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Then, the public’s opinion of civil disobedience was measured through the use of polls and survey data. The results showed that the three cases did follow the guidelines of civil disobedience established by the literature, but the …

What Are We Fighting For? An Analysis Of The Sociopolitical Non-Fiction Of Herbert George Wells, Jason Edward Sloan

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

The legacy of H. G. Wells’ should not be limited to that of a British fiction writer. Wells advocated universal human rights and supported the engagement of broad public policy debate, and he often commented on the British government. His country had lived through World War I, the supposed “war to end all wars.” The roaring 1920’s arrived next, offering hope after World War I’s devastation. World War II was then thrust upon Britain. Wells was incensed that a thirty-year period had elapsed and, despite numerous promises by the British government, no social reform had emerged. For more than a …

The Dual Path Initiative Framework, Elizabeth Garrett, Mathew D. Mccubbins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Reviewed Work: Understanding Institutional Diversity By Elinor Ostrom, Jonathan G.S. Koppell

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

No abstract provided.

The Limits Of U.S. Governmental Power In Times Of Crisis, Adam M. Goldwater

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Government’s Emergency Power Throughout the History of the United States This paper reviews the use of power by the United States government during times of crisis. This paper analyzes both the arguments from Thomas Hobbes and John Locke regarding how limited both believe government should be. Throughout this debate John Locke believes that in leaving a state of nature we must enter into civil society through a social contract with each other. Hobbes’ view of the state of nature is such that he believes that there should be virtually no limitations on the power of government in eliminating citizens from …

When Does Deliberating Improve Decisionmaking?, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Daniel B. Rodriguez

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Whatever Happened To The State?: A Preliminary Analysis Of The Role Of State And Civil Society In Development Discourse, Corrie Blankenbeckler

Archived Theses and Dissertations

The basic research problem of this thesis lies in the conflicting nature of the policies of the international financial system and of non-government organizations with regard to the state. Contemporary discourse in the international aid community manifests a deep mistrust of state institutions' ability to effectively manage developments reforms, but lacks the theoretical foundations and organizational methodologies that would be necessary to develop strategies to build up the state so that it might better perform its duties and minimize corruption.

Autonomy, Domination, And The Republican Challenge To Liberalism, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Like Sunstein and other advocates of 'republican' or 'civic' liberalism, I believe that it is historically unsound and politically unwise to insist on a sharp distinction between liberalism and republicanism. Others disagree, however, and there is much to be learned from their position even if, ultimately, we should not adopt it. Those who take this more radical neo-republican view advance two main lines of argument: first, that the liberal emphasis on neutrality and procedural fairness is fundamentally at odds with the republican commitment to promoting civic virtue; and, second, that republicans and liberals conceive of liberty or freedom in incompatible …

Satellite Televisions In Lebanon: Agents Of Change Or Reinforcing The Status Quo?, Yara Youssef

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been a noted interest in the new technologies of the nineties, those that have expanded the realm of traditional mass media and the traditional means of communication that people were previously used to. With the start of globalization and the world becoming what some have called “global village,” the act of distributing information to the four comers of the world has become less complicated than it used to be, and boundaries are seen as constantly being eroded by the new pressures of modernization and liberalization. The internet and satellite televisions increased in importance in this realm, and so …

The Effects Of Ballot Position On Election Outcomes, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jennifer A. Steen

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

This article presents evidence of name-order effects in balloting from a study of the 1998 Democratic primary in New York City, in which the order of candidates' names was rotated by precinct. In 71 of 79 individual nominating contests, candidates received a greater proportion of the vote when listed first than when listed in any other position. In seven of those 71 contests, the advantage to first position exceeded the winner's margin of victory, suggesting that ballot position would have determined the election outcomes if one candidate had held the top spot in all precincts.

Who's The Safer Sex? Testing Barbara Burrell's Theory Of Campaign Contributions In Arkansas State Legislative Elections, Emily Adair Neff-Sharum

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

At the very heart of American politics and government is democracy. Debates abound about the nature of American democracy, and especially ways to improve symbolic representation, substantive representation and/or participation by groups typically considered in the political minority (Moss-Kanter 1977; Pipert-High and Comer 1988; Saint-Germaine 1989; Seldon 1997; Thomas 1997). One focus of this literature is on the outputs of bureaucratic agencies or legislative agendas. If advocates of representative democracy hope to create legislatures on both the state and the national levels that contain an adequate presence of female representatives in order to fully represent women, they must begin with …

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 …

Wanted: New Methodologies For Peace, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes problems with common methodological approaches to developing knowledge that will prevent war and attain peace.

Latent Resistance, Deena Magdy Abul Fottouh

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Kenya's 1997 Elections: Making Sense Of The Transition Process, Rok Ajulu

New England Journal of Public Policy

The transition process in Kenya appears to be getting nowhere. Six years after the opening of democratic space, politics, political institutions, and governance remain predominantly stuck in the authoritarian quagmire of the past. Lack of broader participation in decision-making processes and absence of consensus around important issues of governance appear to be the norm rather than the exception. Indeed, Kenya's democracy experiment appears to defy conventional democratization models and discourse. It refuses to comply with prescriptive models developed by various Western scholars as the so-called liberal democratic values stubbornly refuse to take root in the country. This article attempts to …

Turnout And Partisanship In Tennessee Elections, Lillard E. Richardson Jr., Grant W. Neeley

Political Science Faculty Publications

To understand the forces shaping current Tennessee politics, we discuss two fundamental concepts of Tennessee's electoral system: voting turnout and partisanship. These two concepts are easily illustrated by two questions. First, how many people participate in elections in the state? Second, whom do Tennesseans elect to represent them? While we use a historical perspective to inform the analysis, we are generally more interested in the forces shaping politics in Tennessee today.

Early Voting In Tennessee: Removing Barriers To Participation, Grant W. Neeley, Lillard E. Richardson Jr.

Political Science Faculty Publications

In 1994. the Tennessee General Assembly mandated a new early voting system that allowed voters to cast a ballot in a two-week period prior to any election. Unlike absentee balloting, which requires registrants to justify why they cannot participate on election day, early voting is available to any registered voter who chooses to do so.

By enacting early voting in Tennessee, the state legislature hoped to achieve increased turnout and easier access for citizens unable to vote at a regular polling site on election day. The purpose of this chapter is to ascertain whether the program was able to increase …

Trends In Public Opinion, 1989-1996, John M. Scheb Ii, William Lyons, Grant W. Neeley

Political Science Faculty Publications

In this chapter, we examine the party identifications and ideological orientations of Tennesseans from 1989 through 1996, as revealed through survey research. We also look at Tennesseans' positions on several issues of public policy that have been salient in state politics during this period. Our intent is to isolate any trends in the partisan and ideological character of the state while examining citizens' positions on key issues.

As A Matter Of Factions: The Budgetary Implications Of Shifting Factional Control In Japan’S Ldp, Mathew D. Mccubbins, Michael F. Thies

Faculty Scholarship

For 38 years, the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) maintained single-party control over the Japanese government. This lack of partisan turnover in government has frustrated attempts to explain Japanese government policy changes using political variables. In this paper, we look for intraparty changes that may have led to changes in Japanese budgetary policy. Using a simple model of agenda-setting, we hypothesize that changes in which intraparty factions “control” the LDP affect the party’s decisions over spending priorities systematically. This runs contrary to the received wisdom in the voluminous literature on LDP factions, which asserts that factions, whatever their raison d’être, do …

Implementation Of Early Voting, Lillard E. Richardson Jr., Grant W. Neeley

Political Science Faculty Publications

We examine the early voting process in Tennessee during the election of 1994. By conducting a mail survey of all 95 county registrars, we ascertained the methods and costs of early voting implementation. Generally, the survey reveals a strong belief that early voting encourages greater participation by voters, with turnout data supporting this belief. We find that the ballot type and location of early voting sites play an important role in determining both the costs of early voting and the rate of voter participation.

Computers, Cables, And Citizenship: On The Desirability Of Instant Direct Democracy, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Mulford Sibley is not the sort of scholar who makes a career of elaborating variations on a theme. There are recurring themes in his work, however, and I want to sound two of them, participatory democracy and technology, in this essay. These themes may be joined in a number of ways, but here I shall take up only one - the possibility that advances in communications technology may actually promote democracy by extending and enhancing opportunities for political participation.

Methods Of Support Used In The Senate Debate On The Seating Of Reed Smoot: A Content Analysis, Beverly Alice Berry

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine how methods of support functioned in the senate debate on the seating of Reed Smoot. In order to clarify the directions of the study, answers to the following questions were sought:
1. How extensively were methods of support used by each side?
2. What was the frequency of supports per assertion by each side?
3. How was the use of support materials distributed among the speakers?
4. How many different methods of support were used by each side?
5. What were the most frequently used methods of support by each side?
6. …