Suchergebnisse

THE PURPOSE OF THIS PAPER IS TO ELUCIDATE SOME OF THE KEY POLICIES THAT THE FORD ADMINISTRATION ADHERED TO ON THE ISSUE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE. THE PAPER IS ORGANIZED AS A SET OF CONCENTRIC CIRCLES, THE OUTERMOST CIRCLE HAVING THE LEAST DIRECT IMPACT ON CRIME POLICY, AND THE INNERMOST CIRCLE DEALING MOST SPECIFICALLY WITH THE ISSUES OF CRIME. MOVING FROM OUTER TO INNER CIRCLES, THE FACTORS CONSIDERED TO HAVE AFFECTED PRESIDENT FORD'S CRIME POLICY ARE THE PRESIDENT'S PERSONALITY AND LEADERSHIP STYLE, THE POLITICS OF THE TIMES, THE PRESIDENT'S GENERAL POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY, THE BROAD CRIME PROGRAM PARAMETERS, AND THE CRIME POLICY PARTICULARES. THE AUTHOR ARGUES THAT ONLY THROUGH THIS TYPE OF EXAMINATION, WILL ONE BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PRODUCED THE FORD'S ADMINISTRATION'S POLICIES ON CRIME.

While democratic theory suggests that representatives should be willing to adjust their issue positions to adapt to new circumstances, politicians face serious political risks from "flip flopping." How do members of Congress balance these risks? Using an original data set of district economic conditions and opinion from 2007 to 2010 and sets of repeated roll call votes, I leverage the exogenous shock of the Great Recession to explain position change on three major economic policies. I find that position change occurs in response to the constituency on final passage votes, but that partisan pressures exert greater influence, especially on procedural votes. This novel test of responsiveness has implications for the nature of policy representation and the mechanisms behind aggregate responsiveness.

Parties face a dilemma when confronted with shifting public opinion or changing rival parties' issue positions: while ignoring ongoing changes could lead to electoral losses, position shifts on a salient issue might be perceived as flip- flopping and alienate supporters. This paper proposes a model combining positional and framing approaches in order to understand how parties can shift their position on a specific issue without losing face. The empirical analysis of rhetoric-based estimates of party strategies draws upon a corpus of 8790 press releases issued by Swiss parties between 2007 and 2016 on the issue of migration. The results show that parties, rather than bluntly shifting their opinion on the issue, prefer to draw the public's attention toward another set of frames that allows for a different position. These results have important implications for our understanding of parties' competition on issues, as well as for the literature on mass-elite linkages.

Einstellung ausgewählter Personen zu innen- und
außenpolitischen Fragen.

Themen: Beziehungen BRD und USA; Einstellungen zur EWG, zur
NATO, zu einer europäischen Atomstreitmacht und zur Lagerung
von Atomwaffen auf deutschem Boden; Vorbehalte gegenüber den
Notstandsgesetzen; Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands und
Entspannungspolitik; Einstellung zur Verringerung der Streitkräfte;
Einstellung zu diplomatischen Beziehungen mit arabischen und
osteuropäischen Staaten; wichtigste Gründe für den Sturz der
Regierung Erhard; präferierte Wahlrechtsreform; Beurteilung der
Wahlerfolge der NPD; eigene Parteipräferenz; Dauer der
Mitgliedschaft im Deutschen Bundestag.

Demographie: Konfession; Beruf; Bundesland.