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This paper outlines the White House Interview Program (WHIP), a program wherein scholars researched 7 senior administrative White House offices. Their findings were then compiled into 7 White House Briefing Books & delivered to Bush administration officials prior to the 2001 presidential transition. These texts, written to maintain a record of the White House decision-making process, are based on 78 interviews with White House staffers from the Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, & Clinton administrations. Topics include presidential transitions, the environment of the White House, & office operations. The books have proved useful to the incoming Bush administration, to journalists, & to scholars. 1 Chart, 2 References. K. Larsen

Measures quality of doctoral programs by calculating research productivity of their graduates; compares number of books published by graduates, 1996-98 with journal productivity rankings; US.

We explore the effect of the transparency of fiscal institutions in government on the scale of government & gubernatorial approval using a formal model of accountability. We construct an index of fiscal transparency for the American states from detailed budgetary information. With cross-sectional data for 1986-1995, we find that -- on average & controlling for other factors -- fiscal transparency increases both the scale of government & gubernatorial approval. Our results imply that more transparent fiscal institutions induce greater effort by politicians, to whom voters give higher job approval, on average. Voters also respond by entrusting greater resources to politicians where fiscal institutions are more transparent, leading to larger government. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix, 52 References. Adapted from the source document.

Public approval is an important tool for chief executives. It helps predict their reelection success & it may translate into greater legislative & administrative policy success. Does a governor's personality influence his or her public approval? We address this question by examining the effects of three gubernatorial motives -- affiliation-intimacy, achievement, & power -- on public approval. We hypothesize that governors who are especially motivated by affiliation-intimacy will be more successful with the public. However, we find that governors motivated by a desire for power have greater public approval, while the affiliation-intimacy motive is unrelated to approval. Furthermore, the achievement motive is negatively related to approval in our data. We contrast these results with our earlier findings that a combination of power & achievement motives leads to gubernatorial success in the legislative arena. It appears that personality is important in determining gubernatorial success with both the public & the legislature, but in decidedly different ways. 2 Tables, 54 References. Adapted from the source document.

Offers an epistemological comment on the future of political science as a discipline (or "knowledge regime") rather than as a profession. The field ought to be termed one of political "studies" instead of "science"; it should focus on problems rather than methods, & balance the current presentist tendency with a historical dimension; it should promote interdisciplinary "border crossing"; & finally, it should encourage the inclusion of women & minorities for their vital contributions to studying difference. K. Coddon

The connection between the government & the governed is often evaluated using election results. This article explores this connection between elections using data on gubernatorial approval in the states. Specifically, I ask the question: Do governors with greater job approval ratings have greater influence over the state bureaucracy than governors with lower approval ratings? Measures of both gubernatorial influence & administrator contact with gubernatorial staff are regressed on gubernatorial approval ratings from state polling data, along with controls for other state characteristics. The results show that approval does affect a governor's influence with the bureaucracy, &, as such, serves as an additional connection between the government & the governed. 1 Table, 40 References. Adapted from the source document.