Suchergebnisse

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001, the federal government extended its reach into classrooms across America. Despite this proverbial "reach," its lack of enforcement of the Highly Qualified Teacher provisions of this act has been blamed for the varied and often poor implementation of this federal teacher policy across states. Through the lens of Principal-Agent Theory this project discusses the relationship between the federal and state governments, testing the impact of state teacher policies before the passage of NCLB, union presence, and the political partisanship of the governor as influencing factors in the implementation of the Highly Qualified Teacher provisions of NCLB.

Scholars have long argued that state legislative professionalism, or the provision of staff, legislator salary, and session length, has behavioral incentives for legislators and implications for legislative capacity. Scant attention, however, has been devoted to public attitudes on the provision of these legislative resources. Using survey data on preferences for features associated with a citizen legislature versus a professional legislature, we examine the contours of public attitudes on professionalism and test models on the factors associated with these attitudes. Results suggest partisanship, trust, and approval of the local delegation matter, but the factors differ by the legislative professionalism of the respondent's state and for low versus high knowledge citizens.

What are the interactions between religion and politics? The most habitual way to answer this question is to analyze the predicting probability of religiosity variables on political variables. This fundamental causal relation reflects the idea that religiosity "creates" partisanship and ideology. This paper aims to complement this approach by relying on ethnographic methods and show the dialectical relation between religion and politics. We discuss the unidirectionality of the causality (religion → politics) to show that the reverse must also be taken into account (people's political views play a role in the choice of a religious environment). We then explore how congregants create a space for political content in a religious setting by using humor.

Why do some parties fail to benefit from patronage in pork‐ridden political systems? This article analyzes the interaction between patronage and partisanship to explain why some incumbents are more likely to benefit from pork politics than others. We explain such differences by focusing on political parties' access to resources (supply side) and voters' dependence on fiscal largesse (demand side). We show how these differences affect the patron's choice of public sector wages and employment. We use subnational level data to show different electoral returns from patronage for the two major political coalitions in Argentina—Peronism and the UCR‐Alianza—and their effect on preferences over public sector wages and employment.

Using survey data in the states from 1981 to 2000, we explore the nature of public sentiment toward members of the US Senate, compare aggregate senator approval to congressional approval, & examine the impact of several factors that may influence approval of both senators & their legislative institution. We hypothesize that presidential approval, partisanship, consumer expectations, inter-branch discord, national scandals, & rally-around-the-flag events will influence both senator & congressional approval. We find evidence that supports the conventional argument that constituents "love" their senators but "hate" Congress. Senators appear to be relatively insulated from factors that sway presidential & congressional approval. 3 Tables, 2 Figures, 32 References. Adapted from the source document.

Militantism is generally only thought of as a subset of the study of partisanship & unions, contexts where political participation is understood as something conventional. In the 1990s, however, there has been more focus on militant approaches, & articles in current issue of the Revue Francaise de Science Politique all center on the issue of social agency. Militant organizations are less an object of study in these papers & more a place for observing a collection of individual actions, with the organization seen merely as the result of a punctual equilibrium resulting from the coexistence of individuals whose presence there stems from different backgrounds & different contexts. Contributions are introduced. D. Weibel

Some researchers claim that different issues are dominated by different congressional voting patterns. Others argue that a single ideological dimension is sufficient to characterize votes on most issues. This analysis compares foreign and domestic policy votes in the U.S. Senate. The results show that the determinants of Senate voting behavior are very similar for both foreign and domestic policy issues. Ideology has strong direct and indirect effects, constituent influence plays a secondary, more indirect role, and partisanship is a minor influence for issues of domestic policy only. Overall, the expectations of the unidimensional, ideological model of congressional behavior are borne out, while pluralist explanations receive little support.

Discusses victory of the Popular Party (PP), as the first center-right party to achieve this success in contemporary Spain, and examines whether this election may prove to represent a sharp and potentially durable realignment.

This article investigates whether businesses in concentrated or regulated industries are more likely to exert influence in the area of tax policy. Simultaneous equation models are developed that describe the behavior of firms in their effort to achieve policy outcomes beneficial to their common interests. These models are estimated using pooled time series cross‐sectional data. The results show that firms in concentrated industries are likely to seek political influence if they are affected by direct or exclusive government regulation. The study also reveals that industrial concentration leads to greater corporate income. Examination of the political partisanship thesis provides support for the view that firms' tax rates vary depending upon the partisan coloration of state government.

The link between public opinion & state policy is examined via US national opinion survey data, 1976-1982. Causal analysis reveals that electoral competition had a substantial impact on lower-class mobilization, & that competition & mobilization were positively linked to elite liberalism. A reciprocal relationship between preferences of the mass public & political elites had substantial impact on the state policy process. This relationship was particularly strong among mass & elite members of the same political party. Implications for the democratic process are discussed. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 34 References. Adapted from the source document.

This paper examines 18 statewide term‐limitation elections held between 1990 and 1992 in 16 states. Three basic explanations of the term‐limit vote are considered: partisanship, race, and alienation. The results suggest that whites are more likely to support term limits than minorities, and Republicans are more likely to do so than Democrats. Measures of alienation yielded mixed results. An income‐based measure of the concept was inconclusive. Nevertheless, a connection between the constituencies of the term‐limitation movement and Ross Perot's presidential bid is apparent. The results also reveal that media framing of the term‐limitation issue may have affected the outcome in the early term‐limitation elections by intensifying voters' distrust of government institutions.