Interest Groups (American Politics) Research Papers (original) (raw)

2025

The purpose of this study was to understand variance in state system performance in affordability using variables describing the state political environment and the higher education governance structure. Understanding how the political culture of states affects higher education illuminates agendas, priorities, and motivations of key decision-makers in higher education. The dependent variable was affordability of higher education measured by the National Council on Public Policy in Higher Education Measuring Up (2000) grade. Independent variables were the impact of special interest groups, the state higher education governance structure, legislative professionalization, and the institutional strength of the governor. Pearson product-moment correlations and multiple regression analysis provided the data analysis. v The results of this study indicated that the combination of political culture and governance structure variables contributed 19% to the variance in affordability grades. Each independent variable contributed some unique variance to the prediction of affordability.

2025

2025, Amerika: İnceleme · Gözlem · Yorum

Bu kitabın amacı kamera objektifliği ile toplumun değişik kesimlerinden manzaralar sunup, tarih ve sosyolojinin ışığı altında teori ile pratiği yoğurarak Amerika’yı incelemektir.
Amerika en iyi ile en kötünün bir arada yaşadığı çelişkiler ülkesidir. Bir yanda dünyanın en iyi üniversiteleri, kütüphaneleri, kültür merkezleri, hastane ve teknoloji merkezleri, uzay üssü NASA, askeri gücü, Hollywood, spor tesisleri, doğa parkları…; ama diğer yanda sanayi toplumları içinde en adaletsiz gelir dağılımı, ağzına kadar dolu olan hapishaneleri, özellikle büyük şehirlerin sokaklarında görülen evsizleri, metropollerde belirli saatlerden sonra belirli semtleri teröre boğan çeteleri, uyuşturucu madde ticareti ve kullanımı, makro seviyede ırk konusunu çözümlemesine rağmen zaman zaman beyaz polislerle Afrikalı-Amerikalı gençler arasında patlak veren, can kayıplarının yaşandığı terör olayları… Kısacası toplumun kazanan ve kaybedenleri. 21. yüzyılda bu tezatlar ülkede radikal bir düzen değişimine yol açar mı? Bir çelişkiler ülkesi olarak Amerika süper güç olma statüsünü nasıl devam ettiriyor? Bu toplumun olumlu ve olumsuz iç dinamikleri nelerdir? Kitapta bu ve benzeri sorulara analitik bir yaklaşımla cevap aranmıştır.

2025, Bulletin d'histoire politique

Aux États-Unis, l'influence politique des think tanks conservateurs a été grandement étudiée par les chercheurs, qui ont accordé moins d'attention aux think tanks progressistes. Dans cet article, nous nous intéressons au Progressive Policy Institute et au Center for American Progress. Nous revenons sur leur contexte de création, nous décrivons les tactiques employées pour faire leur place dans le marché des idées et nous analysons l'influence qu'ils ont eue auprès d'administrations démocrates. Nous montrons que la création de ces centres de recherche répond à un contexte politique marqué par une prépondérance des idées conservatrices. Ces think tanks libéraux ont ainsi pour raison d'être, dans un premier temps, de redonner leur place aux idées libérales et, dans un second temps, de proposer une feuille de route au Parti démocrate afin de reprendre le pouvoir à la Maison-Blanche. think tank, libéralisme, progressisme, Parti démocrate, Progressive Policy Institute, Center for American Progress, politique américaine Apparus aux États-Unis au tournant du XX e siècle, les think tanks y connaissent depuis plus d'une quarantaine d'années un essor spectaculaire et y sont * Cet article scientifique a été évalué par deux experts anonymes externes, que le Comité de rédaction tient à remercier.

2025, Medya Günlüğü

TRUMP TARİFELERİ PİRUS ZAFERİ Mİ?
ABD’de dahi kitlesel protestolara yol açan, tehditlerin dozu giderek artan asimetrik Trump çılgınlıkları dur durak bilmiyor.
Trump, bir zamanların “özgürlük ve fırsatlar ülkesi” olarak nam salan ‘’üstün’’ Amerika değerlerini yeniden canlandırma hayali içinde.
Uluslararası dengeleri alt üst etme pahasına, tehdit dolu saldırgan çıkışların altında Amerikan Rüyasını zafiyete uğratan Çin’i frenleyememe hırçınlığının büyük payı olduğunu da unutmamak gerekir.
Çin’in yükselişi, ABD yönetiminin kimyasını bozmaya devam ederken, bu gerilimli tırmanışın sıcak hesaplaşmalara evrilme olasılığı, uluslararası toplumun başına yeni çoraplar örüleceği anlamına gelir.
GÜMRÜK TARİFELERİ
Trump’ın küresel ekonomik yüklerden ‘’kurtuluş’’ olarak adlandırdığı ve Rusya hariç tüm coğrafyalara uygulanacağını ilan ettiği tartışmalı gümrük tarifeleri, ilk bakışta sonu kestirilemeyecek zincirleme olumsuz etkilere yol açabilecek bir gelişme.
Pandemiden sonra daha da kırılganlaşan küresel ekonomik düzeninin yeni bir kaos dalgası eşiğine girmesinden ciddi ciddi endişe duyulmakta.
ABD’nin ithalat bağımlılığını azaltarak yerli üretimi teşvik etmeyi ve Çin’in ekonomik baskısını kırmayı amaçladığı tahmin edilen, ‘’önce Amerika’’ hedefli gümrük hamlesinin geniş çaplı tahripkar ticaret savaşlarını tetiklemesi mümkün.
Serbest ticaret idealizmini çökertebilecek yeni vergilerin ulusal korumacılığı arttırıp, tercihli ticaretlere yol açabileceğine dikkat çekilirken, sürdürebilirliği olmasa da küresel ekonomik kaoslar için müsait ortam yaratabileceği dışlanmamalı.
Dış piyasalara kapanmasıyla ABD’de fiyatların ve yoksulluğun artabileceği, küresel tedarik zincirlerinin bozulacağı keza diğer olumsuzluklar olarak sayılmakta.
Şimdiden işaretleri alındığı üzere, ekonomisi rekabete dayanıklı Çin, Kanada ve AB ülkelerinden aynıyla misilleme ve hatta cepheleşerek karşı koyma adımları duyulmakta.
Gidişat, yeni bir dünya düzeni yaratma peşindeki ABD’yi kendi içine çekilip, dünyadan izole olmaya da zorlayabilir.
Bu anlamda “Amerikan Rüyası”nı yeniden canlandırma hayali daha büyük boyutlu kâbuslara kapı açabilir.
Trump ve iş ortağı oligarkların içeride ve uluslararası planda eleştirilere yol açan otoriter, kutuplaştırıcı tasarrufları, 2021 Kongre baskını, seçimlere ve yargıya müdahale, kuralsızlıklar ve nepotizm iddiaları demokratik kurumlara güveni giderek sarsmakta.
Trump ekibinde, Çin’in mucizevi yükselişinde otoriter yönetim modelinin de payı olduğu, Pekin’in demokrasi kaygısı olmadığı için başarısını katladığına inananların mevcudiyetinden bahsedilmekte.
ABD’nin demokrasi geleneğinden ciddi çöküş işaretleri verdiği fikri yayılırkan, son yıllarda altyapı erozyonu ve sosyal bölünmelerle, yönetimin gerçeklerden kopuş şımarıklığının altı sıkça çizilmekte.
Bilinen şu ki, üçüncü büyük savaşın tuğlalarının örülmekte olduğu kutuplaşmada, ticaret savaşlarının riskli eşikler yaratabileceği.
Trump, sanki Dünyayı yönetmekten yorulduk, ama hâlâ patron biziz ve artık ‘’önce Amerika’’ diyeceğiz, demekte.
Gümrük tarifeleri ile ivme kazanacak izolasyonist hava kalıcı bir stratejiye mi döner, yoksa sadece Trump’ın geçici bir şovu mu? Bunda uluslararası toplumun ve yerleşik küresel para ve ticaret sistemlerinin vereceği kurumsal tepkilerin yol gösterici olacağını söylemek yanlış olmayacaktır.
Vahşi kapitalizmin, insanlığın başına neler öreceğine dair endişeli bekleyiş sürerken, küresel ekonomide yıkıcı sonuçlar yaratabilecek Trump tarifelerinin kazananın da ağır kayıplara uğrayacağı bir “Pirus zaferi” olma ihtimali hayli yüksek görünmekte.
https://medyagunlugu.com/trump-tarifeleri-pirus-zaferi-mi/

2025

While exploring the distinctive political landscapes of the United States, the UK, Canada, and Australia—nations with parallel historical foundations—a notable contrast emerges, with the U.S. standing out for its resistance to left-wing politics. The challenges faced by left-wing movements in the U.S. differentiate it from nations with similar historical roots.
The USA, the UK, Australia, and Canada experienced comparable trends during the 19th century, with emerging movements championing the common man's interests and subsequent suffrage expansion. The abolition of property qualifications for voting played a pivotal role in reshaping the political landscape, enabling the rise of left-wing parties in the UK, Canada, and Australia during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In contrast, the United States took a different trajectory and remained largely immune to such ideological shifts during this period, with no significant emergence of left-wing movements altering its political landscape.
The unique trajectory of American history, particularly the enduring legacy of slavery and racial discrimination, emerges as a key explanatory factor. Racial disparities within the lower classes created a two-tiered working class, influencing divergent political priorities and interests. The racial stratification complicated the electoral success of left-wing politics, impacting policies related to taxes, social programs, and economic inequality.

2025

This article focuses on the relationship between 'the social' and 'the political', or more precisely, between a society of individuals and associations on the one hand and the domain of political deliberation on the other. Its main goal is to understand whether the transformation of intermediary bodies in politics (the parties) reflects a transformation of intermediary bodies in society; its hypothesis is that society does not experience a decline of intermediary bodies, but rather their unequal distribution among citizens, whereby, to be schematic, the 'strong' parts of society enjoy more power of intermediation than the 'weak' parts, with predictable effects as regards the power to influence politics and determine policy choices; its main idea is that the erosion of political moderation and the growth of radicalization start outside parties, in the extra-institutional socio-political relations between citizens or where social intermediate bodies grow and operate.

2025, Journal of Communication

Tbis article is about reader response to journalism during an important transitional period in the history of the American newspaper. It draws on a manuscript collection of letters sent by readers to James Keeley, editor of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Herald in the early 20th centu y. It explores the strategies that readers used to make sense of what they read. The article's main argument is that reader response was often not idiosyncratic, but rather it was linked to interpretive communities, and those communities were influenced by political organizations. In other words, readers constructed their own meanings as they read, but this creative process was often guided by organized cultural and political power. Then, as now, interest groups taught readers how to read their newspapers.

2024, Bitácora 2012-2024 del cero tributo de la 4T mexicana a plutócratas mundiales y a su subordinada mafia erario-saqueadora local. (Art 18 del Consenso sobre la Humanidad del Tercer Milenio).

El décimo octavo artículo de la constitución libertaria del planeta tierra es de prospectiva normativa. Apunta a un aspecto del escenario deseable de la humanidad cuando esté plenamente resurrecta. Ante todo, ir normando el presente para... more

2024

The whole matter of compensation for unjust convictions for felonies and lesser crimes is well worth further study, to the end that within measurable time remedial legislation may cure this defect in our social institutions. 1

2024, Economic and Social Review

2024

Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans in late August 2005, and debates are now underway across the country concerning strategies for reconstructing the City. A key to redevelopment involves encouraging former citizens and businesses to return. Both of New Orleans's professional sports teams, the National Football League Saints and the National Basketball Association Hornets, have taken up residence in other cities, and the question of what the city should provide in the way of financial accommodation to encourage them to return should be considered in devising a reconstruction plan. Infrastructure to facilitate professional sports and mega-events constitutes a significant fraction of capital budgets for even the largest cities. New Orleans has hosted a disproportionate share of mega-sports events in the United States given its size and demographics. An important question concerns whether these events have contributed enough to the New Orleans economy to justify reinvestment in infrastructure to restore New Orleans's place as a leading host of professional sports and mega-events in the United States. A careful review of the evidence suggests that the redevelopment efforts of New Orleans are better directed at first providing infrastructure that will encourage the return of its middle class citizenry and the restoration of its culture. Playing host to professional sports and megaevents does have symbolic significance, but it is arguable that the city cannot afford to invite guests until it has the means to accommodate them.

2024

The Future of party government. (Series C-Political and social sciences = Sciences politiques et sociales; 5) "A series under the general editorship of Rudolf Wildenmann." Includes bibliographies and indexes. Contents: v. 1. Visions and realities of party government / edited by Francis G. Castles and Rudolf Wildenmann-v. 2. Party governments, European and American experiences / edited by Richard S. Katz-v. 3. Managing mixed economies / edited by Francis G.

2024, Social Science Research Network

The economic and financial crisis has discredited the idea of a self-regulating market. Yet, it remains to be seen what measures society will be taking to protect itself against future fallouts of global markets. There is a growing consensus that the economy needs to be governed by tighter regulations. But this does not necessarily mean that the economy will be subordinated to democratic politics. Nevertheless, the paper concludes that any fatalism about the prospects of a democratic counter-movement against the marketisation of society is misplaced. Without doubt, the first reactions to the crisisnamely the huge bailouts for private banks and the subsequent cutbacks in public services-do not augur well for the future of labour and egalitarian democracy. Conversely, the more socioeconomic decisions are taken by tangible political and corporate elites rather than abstract market forces, the more difficult it is to mystify underlying business interests. The more visible business interests become, however, the easier it will be for social movements and trade unions to mobilise discontent and to politicise the economy.

2024, The Handbook of Labour Unions

The "apolitical" economic laws of supply and demand do not really work in the labour market. Instead, employment relations are first and foremost shaped by power relations between capital, labour and the state. Unions can, therefore, hardly afford to abandon the political terrain. This chapter first explains why politics plays such a central role in employment relations in capitalist societies, and then outlines the merits and limitations of the various political action repertoires of unions (private interest government, lobbying, protest action, corporatist political exchanges, alliances with sister parties, direct democratic citizens' initiatives and referendums).

2024, Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement

American colleges and universities have an expanding role to play in nurturing political engagement as more youth attend college. Given low voter turnout among college students yet growing experimental evidence that face-to-face mobilization can boost turnout, the experiment reported in this article examined the impact of a face-to-face college student mobilization effort on a small, private university in Florida. The authors found a non-significant difference in turnout between those students contacted and those not contacted. The findings suggest that although it is generally difficult to mobilize U.S. citizens, it may be especially difficult to mobilize U.S. college students. Brief recommendations are offered for steps university members can take to make elections a more established part of college students' experience.

2024

Using data from Lobbying Disclosure Reports filed in 1996 through 2000, and linking these data with indicators of federal government attention, government spending, and the size of the business population, we are able to show a strong demand effect of government activity on lobbying. We test a variety of theories about group mobilization and lobbying by analyzing how our measures vary across 56 separate issue areas during the five-year period. Congressional hearings, an indicator of the level of government activity, explains the mobilization of groups more than federal spending or levels of economic activity in the sector. We note the importance of government in defining what is an interest, the growth in the range of government activities over time, and the linkage between the growth in the size and scope of government and the "interest-group explosion" that many other authors have noted. Theories of group mobilization should include a prominent role for the demand effect of government attention.

2024, International Journal of Social Science Studies

The article analyses the transformations of the use of eminent domain in the United States in the context of urban redevelopment programs. In the past the private property has been expropriated for public use only. Recently it is possible to forcibly transfer property, from a private subject to private developers, on the basis of a cost-benefit analysis that demonstrates that the new use is more efficient than the previous one. This profound change has been possible thanks to a progressive modification of the concept of public use. Traditionally, public use coincided with the construction of infrastructures and public utility, such as highways and railroads. Over the time, it has come to include other aims: firstly, projects of urban renewal and economic development carried forth by private developers. Essentially, it has resulted in the use of expropriation to assemble lands which are then granted to subjects who intervene in the reconfiguration of the city for private purposes. St...

2024

Толстых П.А. Статья представляет собой продолжение исследований теоретических аспектов лоббизма. В ней автор раскрывает специфику взаимоотношений лоббистов с политическими стейкхолдерами на основе глубинного анализа теории Р. Холла «законодательное субсидирование» [4, с. 69-84]. Р. Холл использовал разработанный им подход для объяснения лоббистского процесса на уровне законодательной власти-Конгресса США. Особое внимание уделено сильным и слабым сторонам в подходе Холла. Статья рассматривает типологизацию наиболее распространенных потребностей чиновника, направленных на упрочнения его позиций на бюрократической лестнице, которые может удовлетворить профессиональный лоббист. Автор приводит пример из практики, анализируя процесс борьбы с потреблением табака в России. В заключении в исследовании формулируется вывод о том, что лоббисты занимаются субсидированием широкого круга политических стейкхолдеров (даже оппонентов по вопросам, входящих в сферу профессиональных интересов лоббистов), а не только представителей легислатур, как это утверждал Р. Холл. Ключевые слова: лоббизм; теория «законодательного субсидирования»; процесс субсидирования; заинтересованные группы; «субсидирование бюрократии».

2024, European Journal of Political Research

Different types of interest groups use different lobbying strategies. In this paper, we investigate this already well-established hypothesis once more, but in addition we propose that the institutional framework of the country in which interest groups operate also influence their lobbying behavior. More specifically, it is shown that groups working in the interest of the public are better integrated into the policy making process when direct democratic instruments, such as referendums, occur regularly (as in Switzerland), than when referendums are the exception (Germany). We demonstrate that Swiss cause groups, often also referred to as public interest groups in the literature, use a more balance mix of insider and outsider strategies than their German peers, but also that this moderating effect cannot be found for specific interest groups such as industry groups or unions.

2024, European Journal of Political Research

Different types of interest groups use different lobbying strategies. This article presents an investigation of this already well‐established hypothesis once more, but additionally proposes that the institutional framework of the country in which interest groups operate also influences their lobbying behaviour. More specifically, it is shown that groups working in the interest of the public are better integrated into the policy‐making process when direct democratic instruments, such as referendums, occur regularly (as in Switzerland) than when referendums are the exception (Germany). The article demonstrates that Swiss cause groups – often also referred to as ‘public interest groups’ in the literature – use a more balanced mixture of insider and outsider strategies than their German peers, but also that this moderating effect cannot be found for specific interest groups, such as industry groups or unions.

2024, American Journal of Political Science

Voting has been described as a contribution to a public good. Are people who vote frequently therefore more likely to contribute to other public goods? Does partisanship affect how likely a person is to engage in these cooperative behaviors? Although surveys suggest that the answer to these questions is “Yes,” few empirical studies examine these questions using observed behaviors. We examine them in the context of a large‐scale, randomized controlled trial to induce voluntary action in a common‐pool resource dilemma. During a drought in the southeastern United States, pro‐social messages that encouraged water conservation were randomly assigned to 35,000 out of 106,000 households. Frequent voters in primary and general elections (1990–2008) were substantially more responsive to the messages, but there was no detectable difference in the responses of Republican and Democrat households. Our results suggest that internalized pro‐social preferences promote action for the public good acr...

2024, The Journal of Higher Education

Dominant explanations of state higher education policy tend to emphasize economic models that foreground the business cycle or political approaches that cast ideology as fairly fixed. We instead foreground changing social context to conceptualize state appropriations as predicted not only by these classic explanations, but also by the interplay of racial representation and political party control. Drawing on the racial backlash hypothesis and quantitative analyses, we show that party control of state government and racial representation in higher education jointly explain state appropriations. Unified Republican governments spent more than Democratic or divided governments when White students were overrepresented. Republicans spent less otherwise. These results suggest that partisan attitudes toward racial representation in higher education may shape state government support for colleges and universities.

2024, Policy Analysis for …

This report examines how California's massive and ongoing investment in school construction could better advance the shared goals of school improvement, sustainable urban growth, and equal opportunity. This brief is organized in five... more

2024, American Review of Politics

Once characterized as poor, transitory, and "powerless," national party organizations in the United States are now financially secure, stable, and highly influential in election campaigns and in their relations with state and local party committees. The transformation of the Democratic and Republican national, congressional, and senatorial campaign committees can be explained using theories of organizational change from the organizational behavior literature and traditional arguments about electoral competition and coalition-building from the parties literature. This paper explains the timing and content of party organizational development by focusing on the nature of the problems that confront the parties, the crises that create opportunities for party organizational change, the motives and behaviors of political entrepreneurs instigating the change, and the internal politics of the party organizations themselves. The explanation accounts for the different paths of institutionalization taken by the six national party organizations and for the variations in the roles they currently play in the electoral process.

2024, Geographical Review

New-build development has become associated with the phase of gentrification that has taken shape since the mid-1990s. This article examines the gentrification of Deep Deuce, a historically black neighborhood in Oklahoma City. An analysis of property sales identifies the major external agents involved and leads to a discussion of the area's racial turnover. Considering the relational aspects of place, specifically how the identity of Deep Deuce has been constructed in relation to the nearby area of Bricktown, provides new insights on the nature of changes affecting this neighborhood. Supplementing this with an examination of resistance to the gentrification of Deep Deuce shows how city neighborhoods can come to be defined by limited understandings of place, and how historic preservation efforts can generate symbolic capital and facilitate cultural appropriation. This article also contributes to the study of gentrification in smaller metropolitan areas.

2024, Social Science Quarterly

ObjectiveIn the U.S. states, policy development can occur in multiple venues. In fact, the likelihood of policy success may be directly related to the policy arena chosen by advocates. In this article, we examine those conditions under which policy reform results in success within education finance reform.MethodWe model the likelihood that successful reform may take place via courts, legislatures, or referenda, and whether it occurs over multiple policy events. We simultaneously estimate the relative probability of the occurrence of different possible policy events (judicial action, legislative action, and referendum) in a given state and year. Our data comprise an exhaustive analysis of all litigation and policy events in education finance over time (1971–2005), for all states.ResultsOur findings indicate court‐ordered policy reform will most likely take place when judicial ideology supports it, while legislative‐ordered reform is meaningfully influenced by the passage of time. We ...

2024, Perspectives on Politics

The relative weakness of the American labor movement has broader political consequences, particularly for the ambitions of the Obama presidency. Absent a strong countervailing political constituency like organized labor, well-organized and more powerful stakeholders like business and industry groups are able to exert undue influence in American democracy, thereby frustrating attempts at political reform. I argue that it is impossible to understand the current political situation confronting the Obama administration without an account of the underlying sources of labor weakness in the U.S. In such an account two factors loom especially large. One is the role of the state in structuring labor market institutions and the rules of the game for labor-business interactions. The second is the distinctively racialized character of the U.S. political economy, which has contributed to labor market segmentation, a unique political geography, and the racial division of the U.S. working class. In our current post-industrial, post-civil rights racial and economic order, whether and how the labor movement can overcome its historical racial fragmentation will determine its possibilities for renewal and ultimately its political strength in relation to the Obama presidency. If the labor movement remains an uneven and weak regional organization hobbled by racial fragmentation, the Obama Administration's efforts to advance its core policy agenda will lack the necessary political force to be effective.

2024, Enterprise and Society

2024, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management

In recent years, there have been many high-profile attacks on large, relatively unprotected venues, including entertainment and shopping complexes in the U.S. and around the world. Public and private decision-makers can choose from a wide array of terrorism countermeasures. A question arises as to whether patrons’ complaints about delays, inconvenience and invasion of privacy actually translate into decisions to attend fewer such events. This paper presents the bottom-line economic impacts of terrorism countermeasures on business revenue at three public assembly venues and on their surrounding regional economic activity. These venues include an MLB Stadium, an NBA/NHL Arena, and a Convention Center. The analysis is based primarily on survey responses relating to changes in attendance that stem from public perception of the implementation of four major types of countermeasures. The surveys indicated that the majority of patrons were not affected either way by the presence of the coun...

2024, Legislative Studies Quarterly

The Saïd Business School's working paper series aims to provide early access to high-quality and rigorous academic research. Oxford Saïd's working papers reflect a commitment to excellence, and an interdisciplinary scope that is appropriate to a business school embedded in one of the world's major research universities.. This paper is authorised or co-authored by Oxford Saïd faculty. It is circulated for comment and discussion only. Contents should be considered preliminary, and are not to be quoted or reproduced without the author's permission.

2024, Journal of Community Practice

This article examines residents' perceptions of inner-city revitalization in legacy cities. The analysis focuses on neighborhoods undergoing revitalization in a legacy city, Buffalo, NY. The article draws from data for a larger research project called Turning the Corner which was sponsored by the Urban Institute. The focus of that project was to identify planning strategies to address negative externalities caused by neighborhood change and heightened risks of displacement due to revitalization. Data were collected through a series of focus groups with residents and stakeholders in working-class, minority neighborhoods which were identified as being in the early stages of revitalization. Two findings emerged from the analysis. First, residents perceived urban revitalization to have a destabilizing effect on traditional neighborhoods. Second, residents perceived revitalization as detrimental to the sustainability of family-friendly neighborhoods. Insights from the analysis are used to prompt planners' advocacy for revitalization strategies aimed at protecting minority, working-class neighborhoods when institutionally driven revitalization occurs.

2024, Political Research Quarterly

This study revisits the question of whether committees are biased in their policy outputs-pursuing policies at odds with noncommittee members. We find evidence that committees in the House are biased: Most committees are either more divided than the larger membership in the House, or there is a greater consensus within the committee than among noncommittee members. These patterns extend across all types of committees.

2024, RePEc: Research Papers in Economics

2024, Social Science Research Network

Political campaigns spend millions of dollars each voting cycle on persuading voters, and it is well established that these campaigns do affect voting decisions. What is less understood is what element of campaigning-the content of the message or the delivery method itselfsways voters, a question that relates back to how advertising works generally. We use a field experiment in a 2010 general election for local office to identify the persuasive mechanism behind a particular form of campaigning: candidate door-to-door canvassing. In the experiment, the candidate either canvassed a household or left literature without meeting the voters. In addition, the literature either contained information on the candidate or on how to vote. Our main results are that voters are persuaded by personal contact (the delivery method), but we find no evidence supporting the importance of messages in political persuasion. In our setting, personal contact seems to work, not through social pressure, as has been found in other research on persuasion, but by providing a costly or verifiable signal of quality.

2024, The Economic Journal

2024, SSRN Electronic Journal

Why do candidates risk alienating voters by engaging in negative campaigning? One answer may lie in the large empirical literature indicating that negative messages are more effective than positive messages in getting individuals to do many things, including voting and purchasing goods. Few contributions to this literature, however, gather data from a field environment with messages whose tone has been validated. We conduct field experiments in two elections for local office which test the effect of confirmed negative and positive letters sent to candidates' partisans on two measurable activities: donating to the candidate and turning out to vote. We find that message tone increases partisan support in ways that may help explain the persistence of negative campaigning. Negative messages are no better than positive messages at earning the candidates donations, but negative messages yield significantly higher rates of voter turnout among the candidates' partisans relative to positive messages. Positive messages, however, are not neutral relative to no message.

2024

To examine the accuracy of myths of state higher education finance trends, this study used data from 50 states to explore recent patterns in funding allocation, state policies, and system characteristics. Data were gathered through development of a database on state system characteristics and trends and through two surveys sent to state higher education executive officers soliciting information on appropriations and budgeting, linkages affecting appropriations and tuition, cost containment strategies, policy goals and state financial aid policies. Findings included the following: (1) unmet student financial need has been increasing in all states; (2) most states mount no systematic effort to link appropriations for institutions and student aid to public tuition rates; (3) only 26.7 percent of respondent states have discussions underway to adopt market approaches to tuition; (4) states that spend more on subsidies for their public systems also spend more for financial aid appropriations; (5) in general, any direct link at the state level between state aid appropriations, state appropriations for public institutions and tuition levels for public higher education is a myth; and (6) few states have enacted policies to link tuition levels at state institutions to levels of state financial aid available. An appendix contains additional tables. (Contains 39 references.) (JB)

2024, The Female Circumcision Controversy

2024, Journal of Hypertension

Over the past decade, international economic organizations have come under attack as illegitimate and oppressive. The remedy, according to the critics, is civil society: non-state associations should have a right to participate in the policymaking activities of international organizations. But the moral grounds for giving civil society such a central role in global governance, together with the ramifications of those moral grounds for organizational reform in the international arena, have not yet been systematically analyzed. Why are associations outside the state better placed than trained, career civil servants and elected politicians to decide on international aid, the regulatory prerequisites for free trade, and other issues of global governance? And even though we might all agree that associations outside the state have something to contribute to the work of international elites, what, precisely, should be their role? Writing press articles, lobbying, commenting on policymaking proposals, voting on committees, or suing in international tribunals? This paper explores the contribution that the political philosophy and empirical practice of liberal democracy can make to this set of questions. Liberal theorists have made four different types of claims for how civil society contributes to the good life, each of which generates a different understanding of the associations that count as "civil society" and the policy initiatives that should be undertaken in favor of civil society. Equipped with these insights, the organizational reforms under way in the international realm are evaluated. However, the literature review also demonstrates, somewhat surprisingly, that the political theorists and the civil society activists are talking past one another: the theory does not address directly the question of whether associations should take part in democratic governance. For the theory, the democratic value of civil society lies in collective life outside the state. Therefore, the paper turns to the practice of contemporary democracies. Comparative law shows that private associations can participate in public life in at least three different ways: pluralism, corporatism, and republicanism. In pluralism, multiple, competing interest groups have numerous opportunities to influence policymaking, irrespective of their size or aims, through the legislature, the bureaucracy, and the courts. In corporatism, certain intermediate organizations are afforded a special role in policymaking because they are believed to  Professor, Duke University School of Law. I would like to thank Jamie Boyle, Steve Charnovitz, Xavier Lewis, Joan Magat, and Ralf Michaels for their comments. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at a faculty workshop at the University of Illinois College of Law; I am grateful to the participants for their suggestions. Karin Linhart, Wilson Sumner, and Mariana Tavares provided excellent research assistance. Many thanks also to Tom Spragens for his advanced seminar on liberal democracy. 3 This is a working definition for purposes of this paper. International organizations, governments, activists, and, as we shall see, political theorists, all define the term "civil society" differently. While the World Trade Organization and the European Union adopt the broad definition used here, the World Bank's definition is narrower: the Bank excludes associations that further the market-related activities of their members. According to the Bank's website, civil society "[refers] to the wide array of non-governmental and not-for-profit organizations that have a presence in public life, expressing the interests and values of their members or others, based on ethical, cultural, political,

2024, Journal of Hypertension

2024

We model faction formation in a world where party politicians’ objective is the development of an informed program of governance. Politicians’ preferences reflect their own views and their information that, when aggregated via intraparty deliberations, influences the party manifesto. By joining a faction, a politician increases the influence of its leader on the manifesto, but foregoes his individual bargaining power. For broad model specifications, we find that a faction formation process allows power to be transferred to moderate politicians. This facilitates information sharing, increasing the capacity of the party to attain its objective. These positive welfare effects may hold even when factionalism restricts intraparty dialogue, and hold a fortiori when information is freely exchanged across factions. We conclude that the existence of ideological factions may benefit a party: It provides a means to tie uninformed or extremist politicians to more moderate and informed faction l...

2024, City and society

SURPRISINGLY SIMILAR DEVELOPMENTS in planning, land use, and cultural life are evident in "revitalized" waterfronts in many port cities throughout North America. This article presents a cultural theory of waterfront redevelopment, viewing the process as a characteristic response of similarly situated postindustrial port cities to international economic restructuring, technological obsolescence of port facilities, and corporatization. Major themes in revitalized waterfronts-environmentalism, history and heritage, and tourism and festival-serve to connect newcomer elite groups to a changing urban environment, by reconceptualizing the relationship of the city toward nature, the past, and work, [port cities, urban renewal, waterfronts, postindustrialism]

2023, The Journal of Politics

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2023, arXiv (Cornell University)

The ergm package supports the statistical analysis and simulation of network data. It anchors the statnet suite of packages for network analysis in R introduced in a special issue in Journal of Statistical Software in 2008. This article provides an overview of the new functionality in the 2021 release of ergm version 4. These include more flexible handling of nodal covariates, term operators that extend and simplify model specification, new models for networks with valued edges, improved handling of constraints on the sample space of networks, and estimation with missing edge data. We also identify the new packages in the statnet suite that extend ergm's functionality to other network data types and structural features and the robust set of online resources that support the statnet development process and applications.

2023

Among students of American politics, a key challenge is the ability to identify, define, operationalize, and measure the dominant dimension or dimensions of political contention. Particularly among scholars of American political institutions, the ability to measure the ideological positions of actors in the system-and to do so in ways that are reliable, valid, and comparable across time and space-is central to the empirical study of those institutions. Perhaps nowhere is the challenge more keenly felt than in the institution of the presidency.