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Essay A ("Anchor Store Quality and Competition in Shopping Malls"): The ability of shopping centers to attract customers and increase sales depends in part on their anchor stores, the small number of large-sized, high-profile tenants located in every mall. In this paper, I develop a theoretical model of competition between anchor and non-anchor stores in a shopping mall, with the goal of explaining an observed pattern of choices of anchor-store quality levels made by mall developers. In particular, I examine the relationship between a mall's anchor-store quality levels, size, and measures of mall performance (visitor traffic and revenues). I find that mall size, because of its relationship to the probability that consumers will find a "fit" between their preferences and the non-anchor store's goods, has varying effects on price competition between the stores, visitor traffic, mall revenues, and anchor quality levels chosen by mall developers. The primary analytical result is that mall size has a positive and concave, i.e. inverse U-shaped, relationship with the probability that the developer chooses a high-quality anchor over a low-quality one. I then validate the predictions of this model using a data set containing information about key strategic variables for major North American malls, showing that the proposed relationships are robust to the inclusion of inter-mall competitive effects and additional relevant controls.Essay B ("Negative Advertising and Voter Choice"): Negative advertising in political campaigns has been especially timely in recent years, given the increased presence of negative advertising with each successive U.S. election cycle. Using data containing detailed information from both voter surveys and automated ad monitoring, we model choices made by both voters and candidates in U.S. House and Presidential elections in 2000. On the voter side, we model and estimate both voter candidate choice as well as voter turnout, and find that negative advertising has a positive effect both on voter turnout and on the likelihood of voting for the candidate sponsoring the ad. We then examine the campaign's choice of negative advertising and the manner in which it is related to various voter and market characteristics. The key findings are that negative advertising is more likely to be chosen when the cost of advertising is low, when races are closer, when the candidate is a "challenger" rather than an incumbent, and when the voter market is less educated, which makes it less likely that there will be greater scrutiny of candidates by voters.

"Books will soon be obsolete in the public schools. Scholars will be instructed through the eye. It is possible to teach every branch of human knowledge with the motion picture. Our school system will be completely changed inside of ten years." Thomas Edison, 1913 A century after the great inventor Thomas Edison's bold prediction about the future of education, we find ourselves in an era where the school system looks strikingly similar to that of a hundred years ago. Teachers still make lectures in front of students, and students still take notes from the blackboard. The motivation for my research springs from the puzzle of why Thomas Edison was sorely mistaken. My work engages with the study of the political economy of education policy formation and the dynamics affecting the passage of education reforms. This dissertation revolves around a few basic questions. What political and economic environment engenders reforms in education? Through which mechanisms do interest groups influence the composition of education policy? What role does social mobility play in the way democratic processes shape education reforms? To answer these questions, I use variations of a unique dataset on education reforms, which I compiled from state-level education legislation in the United States.

As an anthropologist, I intend to develop some reflections over the field of study of political science, in dialogue with the intellectual horizon set by Eric Voegelin and in a critical relation with the ideas expressed about political science in the recent publications, of professors Andrés Casas and Rodrigo Losada, whom represent an important school of thought in the study of the political phenomena. The debate is framed in terms of dialogue between reductive visions and heuristic approaches. It is stated the importance of the theoretical category of experience of order as a connecting pattern between anthropology and political science and allowing them to enrich their rhetorical scientific universe in terms of identifying the complexity of the political phenomenon. ; Me propongo desarrollar algunas reflexiones sobre el campo de estudio de la ciencia política, como antropólogo, en diálogo desde el horizonte intelectual fijado por Eric Voegelin y en relacionando críticamente las ideas sobre la ciencia política expresadas por los profesores Rodrigo Losada y Andrés Casas, en sus recientes publicaciones, y quienes representan una importante escuela de pensamiento en el estudio de los fenómenos políticos. El debate se plantea en términos del dialogo entre las visiones reduccionistas y los enfoques heurísticos. Se afirma la importancia de la categoría teórica de experiencia de orden como pauta que conecta a la antropología política y a la ciencia política; concepto que de ser apropiado, permitiría enriquecer el universo retórico-científico, en cuanto a la identificación de la complejidad del fenómeno político.

A contribution to a symposium on Bertrand de Jouvenel highlights his appreciation of American political institutions. Jouvenel recognized the enormous power accessible in American society & saw basic restraints on government as political & moral necessities. However, he was a "pessimistic evolutionist" who stressed that restraining Power required "untimely wisdom and timely prudence." A champion of the politics of liberty, Jouvenel contended that the emphasis on an individualistic view of human nature was a critical flaw in American society. He argued that the Lockean notion of individual rights as separate from politics failed as a restraint on Power & political authority could only be curbed within & by law. Ways in which Jouvenel's thinking was in conflict with the New Deal are examined, along with his criticisms of the direction of political science in America; the political/constitutional challenge of balancing & stabilizing forces; the relationship between Power & interest groups; Jouvenel's regard for American political parties; & his contention that political liberty requires the "formalization" of politics. J. Lindroth

Committees of the American Political Science Association.

Committees of the American Political Science Association.