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Lawmaking provides many opportunities for proposals to be altered, amended, tabled, or stopped completely. The ideal legislator should assess evidence, update his or her beliefs with new information, and sometimes be willing to change course. In practice, however, lawmakers face criticism from the media, the public, and their colleagues for "flip-flopping." Legislators may also only appear to change positions in some cases as a means of voting strategically. This book presents a systematic examination of legislative indecision in American politics. This might occur via "waffling"--where a legislator cosponsors a bill, then votes against it at roll call. Or it might occur when a legislator votes one way on a bill, then switches her vote to the other side. In Indecision in American Legislatures, Jeffrey J. Harden and Justin H. Kirkland develop a theoretical framework to explain indecision itself, as well as the public's attitudes toward indecision. They test their expectations with data sources from American state legislatures, the U.S. Congress, and survey questions administered to American citizens. Understanding legislative indecision from both the legislator and citizen perspectives is important for discussions about the quality of representation in American politics

Tackling one of the most volatile issues in contemporary politics, Martin Gilens's work punctures myths and misconceptions about welfare policy, public opinion, and the role of the media in both. Why Americans Hate Welfare shows that the public's views on welfare are a complex mixture of cynicism and compassion; misinformed and racially charged, they nevertheless reflect both a distrust of welfare recipients and a desire to do more to help the ""deserving"" poor. ""With one out of five children currently living in poverty and more than 100,000 families with children now hom

AbstractWe examine the relationship between political environments and perceptions of women's physical abilities. Using a sample of 496 golf courses located in the United States, we find a significant relationship between state political affiliations, ratings of senators and congressional representatives on a liberal to conservative continuum, and perceptions of gendered physical abilities. Institutional theory is presented as an explanation for the regional variation in perceptions of women's golfing abilities. Implications and results are discussed. Suggestions for further research are presented.

ALTHOUGH DATA ON CRIME ARE OFTEN PROBLEMATIC, FIGURES PUBLISHED BY THE WORLD BANK CONFIRM ANECDOTAL EVIDENCE THAT CRIME IS A SERIOUS AND GROWING PROBLEM IN LATIN AMERICA. IN ADDITION, MANY HARBOR SUSPICIONS THAT THE POLICE OFTEN COLLABORATE OR EVEN PARTICIPATE IN VIOLENT CRIMES AND KIDNAPPING. EXPLANATIONS FOR THIS INCREASE RANGE FROM THE LEGACIES OF CIVIL WARS, GUERRILLA MOVEMENTS AND MILITARY GOVERNMENTS TO THE COLLAPSE OF THE FAMILY. SOLUTIONS TO THE PROBLEM SEEM DIFFICULT TO COME BY.

Structural power is a critical variable that merits more extensive and more explicit attention in Latin American political economy and in comparative politics more broadly. Assessing structural power in conjunction with its counterpart, instrumental power, can provide strong leverage for explaining variation in policy outcomes that affect business interests. However, structural power must be carefully defined and operationalized in order to capture its core attributes and nuances. This task requires wedding the concept's "structural" underpinnings with policymakers' perceptions and anticipated reactions. Moreover, the relationship between structural power and instrumental power must be carefully theorized. While these concepts encompass distinct channels through which business exerts influence, the two types of power may be mutually reinforcing. I argue that business interests shape policy outcomes when either their structural power or their instrumental power is strong, yet business influence will be more extensive and more consistent when structural power and instrumental power are both strong. However, electoral incentives, and more importantly, popular mobilization, can counteract business power. I illustrate these theoretical points with a case study of Chile's 2014 tax reform proposal, a major policy initiative with important distributive consequences that received international press attention.

Tulio Halperin Donghi: Two centuries of South American reflections on the development gap between the United States and Latin America Enrique Krauze: Looking at 'Them': A Mexican perspective on the gap with the United States Jorge I. Domínguez: Explaining Latin America's lagging development in teh second half of the twentieth century: Growth strategies, inequality, and economic crises Adam Przeworski; Curvale, Carolina: Does politics explain the economic gap between the United States and Latin America? Riordan Roett; Francisco E. González: The role of high-stakes politics in Latin America's James A. Robinson: The Latin American equilibrium Francis Fukuyama: Do defective institutions explain the development gap between the United States and Latin America Natalio R Botana: Why institutions matter: Fiscal citizenship in Argentina and the United States

Seizing the moment -- Declaring war -- "Why isn't he a priest?" -- Sleepy Hollow -- "A hard and harsh moral judgment" -- Dump Johnson -- The general -- "We will never be young again" -- Old politics -- "A decent interval" -- Peace with honor -- Peter the hermit -- "Clean for Gene" -- The new Nixon -- "Nixon's the one" -- "Abigail said no" -- The poor people's campaign -- "Something bad is going to come of this" -- "Stand up and be counted" -- "It's not important what happens to me" -- "I've seen the promised land" -- The happy warrior -- Don't lose -- "Everything's going to be okay" -- Stop Nixon -- "Great television" -- The last liberal standing -- The peace plank -- "The whole world's watching" -- "The government of people in exile" -- The perfect crime -- Epilogue