Suchergebnisse

This article examines the effect of contact with gays and lesbians on inducing or decreasing ambivalence among citizens' attitudes toward gay rights. Contact may create cross‐pressure or ambivalence among strong conservative‐leaning citizens, causing internal conflict between their political values and their contact with gays and lesbians. Citizens torn between conflicting values will have less predictable attitudes than those not experiencing such conflict. Contact, however, is likely to have the opposite effect among liberal‐leaning citizens, reducing ambivalence and making their attitudes more predictable and uniform. Results from heteroskedastic regression models indicate that contact increases the error variance among evangelical Christians, strong conservatives, and strong Republicans while decreasing it among their liberal‐leaning counterparts. The results suggest that contact with gays and lesbians can impact the mean level of support for gay rights, as well as the clarity or certainty of those attitudes, although its effect differs across these two dimensions of public opinion.Related Articles
Bramlett, Brittany H. 2012. "." Politics & Policy 40 (): 13‐42. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2011.00337.x/full


Barth, Jay L., and Janine Parry. 2009. "." Politics & Policy 37 (): 31‐50. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2007.00160.x/abstract


Skipworth, Sue Ann, Andrew Garner, and Bryan J. Dettrey. 2010. "." Politics & Policy 38 (): 887‐906. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747‐1346.2010.00262.x/abstract
Related Media
. 2010. "?" Accessed on December 20, 2012. Available online at http://www.itgetsbetter.org/pages/about‐it‐gets‐better‐project


Edsall, Thomas B. 2012. "." (April 15). http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/let‐the‐nanotargeting‐begin

AbstractWater, like much else in the landscape of the New Forest, England, is highly contested. Recent major environmental works have changed the flow of water by adjusting river beds, slowing flows and holding up water in parts of the Forest. These changes are elaborated as reversing past interventions, restoring rivers and increasing environmental values. Under the rubric of conservation, some of the greatest physical changes in 150 years are taking place in the Forest. This paper traces how, since the early nineteenth century, ideas about water have shaped management interventions and dramatically changed the flow of water over the Forest landscape. The works have also given new impetus to arguments about the meaning and value of water, rights of access and the control of water resources in both economic terms and in terms of social status and identity. How value is assigned by small-holders and visitors to waterscapes is compared to that of the agencies managing the environment. A key cause for conflict is shown to lie in the different ways of measuring and constructing value, and in two forms of environmental expression.

As policy making for Indian gaming and other tribal issues has shifted from the federal government to state politics and state legislatures over the past several decades, the role of American Indians in the electoral process in state legislative elections deserves greater scholarly attention. We examine changes in voting patterns among state legislative elections over a 40‐year period for districts with and without casinos. In the past, Democrats held a large advantage in casino districts both in terms of the two‐party vote share and in terms of incumbents running unopposed when seeking reelection. Since the 1990s, this traditional Democratic advantage has largely disappeared to a point where the two parties compete at rough parity in these districts. In several states, American Indians represent a sizeable and potentially influential voting bloc.Related Articles

Pearson‐Merkowitz, Shanna. 2012. "." Politics & Policy 40 (): 258–295. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00349.x/abstract


Adams, Brian E. 2012. "." Politics & Policy 40 (): 43–68. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2011.00336.x/abstract


Sullivan, Jas M.,
Lesa Hatley Major,
Kirby Goidel, and
David Kurpius. 2009. "." Politics & Policy 37 (): 289–308. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2009.00173.x/abstract
Related Media

Bogardus, Kevin. 2013. The Hill. http://thehill.com/policy/technology/327241-casino-lobbyist-time-to-go-on-offense


Parti, Tarini. 2015. "Tribal Casino Fight Tests Lobbying Clout." Politico.com. http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/tribal-casino-fight-lobbying-117992


Jones, Harriet. 2015. "Tribes Lobby Hartford‐Area Businesses on Expanding Gaming." WNPR.org. http://wnpr.org/post/tribes-lobby-hartford-area-businesses-expanded-gaming#stream/0

The polarization of the political and social environment over the past four decades has provided citizens with clearer cues about how their core political predispositions (e.g., group interests, core values, and party identification) relate to their issue opinions. A robust and ongoing scholarly debate has involved the different ways in which the more polarized environment affects mass opinion. Using heteroskedastic regression, this paper examines the effect of the increasingly polarized environment on the variability of citizens' policy opinions. We find that citizens today base their policy preferences more closely upon their core political predispositions than in the past. In addition, the predicted error variances also allow us to directly compare two types of mass polarization-issue distance versus issue consistency-to determine the independent effects each has on changes in the distribution of mass opinion. Adapted from the source document.

ObjectiveThis article examines the distinction between group‐based issue opinion formation (what we term "following the crowd") and idiosyncratic or nongroup‐based formation (what we term "thinking outside of the box"). The argument put forth is that issue saliency can lead citizens to think about issues in nongroup‐based terms.MethodWe use heteroskedastic regression to measure the degree to which group‐based variables explain issue opinions. Using group variables (demographics, party identification, etc.) to estimate respondents' issue responses means that nongroup variation is soaked up by the error term.ResultsWe find that citizens who view an issue as highly salient are more likely to "think outside the box," while citizens who view an issue as less salient are more likely to "follow the crowd" by defaulting to their group memberships and identifications.ConclusionOur results indicate that response variability (less consistency within groups) on issue opinions is not always the result of uncertain citizens, nonattitudes, or measurement error. In some situations, greater response variability can reflect a deliberative and policy‐based form of opinion formation.

Past research has consistently found that American Indians have traditionally turned out to vote at lower rates than do other citizens. Using two separate data sets, we examine this "turnout gap" over the past several decades. We find that not only has Native American turnout increased generally, but that the "gap" between Native Americans and non-Native Americans has declined substantially, and that in recent elections this "gap" has largely disappeared. We then provide a preliminary and tentative examination of possible causes for the decline, including the role of Indian gaming, mobilization by political parties and candidates, and shifting political values among Native Americans.

ObjectiveHas the shift from a one‐party Democratic South to an (increasingly) Republican South been marked by partisan conversion or partisan competition of legislative district seats? That is, as Democratic incumbents retired, did the districts switch from uncontested Democratic incumbents to uncontested Republican seats (conversion), or did the two parties contest the district after the period of Democratic retirement (competition)?MethodWe analyze all state legislative elections since 1967 to explain southern partisan change. We report rates of uncontested legislative elections, and we model candidate entry in southern and nonsouthern legislative elections.ResultsOur findings support the conversion hypothesis implying that southern legislative districts are increasingly polarized along partisan and racial lines.ConclusionsDespite growing partisan parity within the southern electorate, southern state legislatures are increasingly composed of uncontested white Republicans and uncontested black Democrats. We discuss the implications of party‐based, racial polarization for the ongoing constitutional debate regarding the Voting Rights Act's Section 5.

Critics of U.S. congressional and state legislative redistricting have argued that gerrymandering severely undermines electoral competitiveness to the point of violating constitutional equal protection standards. In this article, we evaluate whether redistricting principles and processes have any measurable consequence on state legislative electoral competition. In addition to their substantive importance, state legislative general election contests provide greater variance than congressional data for empirically assessing theoretical propositions regarding redistricting principles and processes. We find that electoral competitiveness in state legislative races declined throughout the 1990s, even after term limit reforms were implemented. The proportion of uncontested state legislative seats has doubled since the 1970s, and there has also been a slight increase in average margin of election district victory. Our results show that political principles and some traditional, 'politically-neutral' redistricting principles significantly decrease the probability of uncontested state legislative elections. In contrast, independent redistricting commissions did not appear to affect state legislative competition. We conclude with a discussion of how our findings relate to the redistricting reform debate. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractCritics of U.S. congressional and state legislative redistricting have argued that gerrymandering severely undermines electoral competitiveness to the point of violating constitutional equal protection standards. In this article, we evaluate whether redistricting principles and processes have any measurable consequence on state legislative electoral competition. In addition to their substantive importance, state legislative general election contests provide greater variance than congressional data for empirically assessing theoretical propositions regarding redistricting principles and processes. We find that electoral competitiveness in state legislative races declined throughout the 1990s, even after term limit reforms were implemented. The proportion of uncontested state legislative seats has doubled since the 1970s, and there has also been a slight increase in average margin of election district victory. Our results show that political principles and some traditional, "politically-neutral" redistricting principles significantly decrease the probability of uncontested state legislative elections. In contrast, independent redistricting commissions did not appear to affect state legislative competition. We conclude with a discussion of how our findings relate to the redistricting reform debate.

This article examines brokerage activity and "vote buying" in the 2017 Pati district election, where the incumbent seeking re-election was the only candidate on the ballot. Although running unopposed, Indonesian election laws still require unopposed candidates to win the majority of votes cast in order to win. Despite facing a weak opposition that was under-funded and largely limited to the use of social media, the unopposed incumbent in Pati nonetheless built a large and expensive campaign organization and vigorously campaigned for votes. Some of the incumbent's supporters gave money directly to voters in the days before the election. Our study finds that a complex interaction between strategic political considerations and cultural factors explains the apparent paradox of why a popular and unopposed incumbent who was virtually assured victory would engage in an active campaign similar in size and scope to one found in a regular election involving multiple candidates. (Contemp Southeast Asia/GIGA)