Bias in Conditional and Unconditional Fixed Effects Logit Estimation

Fixed-effects logit models can be useful in panel data analysis,when N units have been observed for T time periods. There aretwo main estimators for such models: unconditional maximum likelihoodand conditional maximum likelihood. Judged on asymptotic properties,the conditional estimator is superior. However, the unconditionalestimator holds several practical advantages, and thereforeI sought to determine whether its use could be justified onthe basis of finite-sample properties. In a series of MonteCarlo experiments for T < 20, I found a negligible amountof bias in both estimators when T 16, suggesting that a researchercan safely use either estimator under such conditions. WhenT < 16, the conditional estimator continued to have a verysmall amount of bias, but the unconditional estimator developedmore bias as T decreased.     

Analyzing the 2000 National Election Study

Nancy Burns Center for Political Studies 4246 ISR, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248 e-mail: nburns{at}umich.edu (corresponding author) Michael J. Ensley Department of Political Science, 210 Woodburn Hall, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405 e-mail: ensley{at}indiana.edu Donald R. Kinder Center for Political Studies 4258 ISR, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106-1248 e-mail: drkinder{at}umich.edu In an earlier report, two of us (Bowers and Ensley, 2003, NationalElection Studies Technical Report, www.umich.edu/nes) provideda general framework for understanding the particular strategyoutlined by Fogarty et al. (in this issue). Fogarty et al.'sstrategy is to make the face-to-face variables more like therandom digit dial (RDD) telephone variables by trimming theends in order to reduce the variance of the face-to-face (FTF)variables. Perhaps some scholars will want the FTF variablesto look like the RDD variables, but that would be a fix fora specific research question. Given the significant differencesin the representativeness of the samples, the processes of surveynonresponse, and the quality and character of the responsesbetween data taken from a National Area Probability sample inperson and data taken from an RDD telephone sample, researchquestions involving comparisons with other years in the 50-yeartime series will require different remedies.     

Collective identities,public spheres,civil society and citizenship in the contemporary era – with some observations on the Israeli scene

This paper falls into two sections. In the first certain macro-social changes that have transformed the nature of collective identities in the modern period are considered. In the second, how these have had an impact on Israeli society is considered.

In the contemporary era there have been taking place in Europe – indeed throughout the world – far-reaching changes and transformation of public spheres, civil society and conceptions of citizenship, in close relation to the crystallization of new patterns of collective identity – processes which entail far-reaching transformations of some aspects of what has been envisaged as the ‘classical’ nation-state or the decomposition of some of its components.

These far-reaching changes, decline or transformation of the ideological and institutional premises of the modern nation state developed in a specific historical context. The most important characteristic of this new context was the combination of first, changes in the international systems and shifts of hegemonies within them; second, processes of internal ideological changes in Western societies; third, the development of new processes of globalization; and fourth, far-reaching processes of democratization, of the growing demands of various social sectors for access into the centers of their respective societies, as well as into international arenas.     

How to Teach Political Advice: Bringing the Daily Life of the Minister Into the Classroom

During four intensive summer weeks, 28 students were exposed to the daily life of top political leaders (ministers and city mayors), acting as their political advisors. Real-life assignments were planned in cooperation with liaisons from the personal offices of these political leaders. The cases brought the hectic, complicated and uncertain life of political leaders into the classroom, and exposed students to the real world to an extent that they had never before experienced in a classroom. They were highly stimulated, were forced to cooperate, learned a great deal, and were reactivated as committed students of political science.

The course was based on a mix of pedagogical elements to enhance student learning such as learning by doing, problem solving, critical reflection, student collaboration, prompt feedback, time on task and active learning and applies many of the recommendations of action-based and experiential learning theory.     

Are There Any Global Egalitarian Rights?

This article considers whether or not there are any global egalitarian rights through a critical examination of the political philosophy of Ronald Dworkin. Although Dworkin maintains that equal concern is the special and indispensable virtue of sovereigns and the hallmark of a fraternal political community, it is far from obvious whether the demands of equality stop at state borders. While some scholars in the field—most notably Thomas Pogge—posit the existence of negative rights in relation to social and economic inequalities at the global level, here I try to defend the existence of positive global egalitarian rights by appealing to Dworkin’s own two principles of ethical individualism. I also set out the framework for a version of what I call global luck egalitarianism based on Dworkin’s equality of resources and try to respond to David Miller’s charge that comparative principles of justice do not apply at the global level.

Environmental Activism of Teacher-Scholars in the Neoliberal University

This article takes a case study approach to examine social justice-oriented environmental activism of faculty in the context of neoliberalism. As an evolving trend, university corporatization places new economic burdens on universities and their students and has contributed to a tenuous landscape for faculty in terms of academic freedom and job security. In particular, we examine a faculty-led response to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. Drawing on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and campus-wide survey data, we document this response as a “tempered grassroots leadership” approach to workplace inquiry and activism. We discuss both the opportunities and limitations of promoting more transparent, informed, and inclusive decision-making on campus via internal and tempered activism strategies. Ultimately, this case presents lessons learned regarding social change practices of teacher-scholar-activists on college campuses. These experiences are especially germane in the “Trump era” of top-down and socially regressive decision-making.

Abbreviations: IHE: Institutions of Higher Education, TGL: tempered grassroots leadership, UNCO: University of Northern Colorado, HFTF: Hydrofracturing Task Force, NAS: National Association of Scholars.     

That Enlightenment Question Again

Sandall’s complaint that the Enlightenment is in danger is not new as it repeats a long standing complaint about “the betrayal of the intellectuals”. But the danger today is not from either the Muslim world or from the marginalized academics who pursue an anti-liberal multicultural agenda that belittles the Western liberal tradition. In the United States the menace comes from the much more powerful far right that has abandoned America’s Enlightenment tradition. It is time for academics to start teaching students what that tradition is all about, and why it needs to be defended, but spreading fear about weak and divided Muslim societies is not the way.

Human Rights and Ethnic Data Collection in Hungary

The article analyzes ethnic data collection pertaining to criminal justice in Hungary. With such a sensitive and delicate issue at hand, Hungary has decided on an evasive approach, resisting ethnic data collection by law enforcement authorities. The author argues that this approach has become one of the obstacles in fighting discrimination and ethnic profiling. Moreover, Hungary’s restrictive approach to ethno-national data classification also causes severe constitutional problems in other, noncriminal legal circumstances, where ethnic data is used in the context of additional rights and affirmative protection provided for ethno-national minorities. The first part of the article describes general problems relating to ethnic data collection and analyses of the Hungarian minority protection framework, in particular, the minority self-government structure (a unique constitutional institution). The second part focuses on the criminal justice system; the author’s aim is to show that prohibiting the official recognition and collection of data on ethnicity by criminal justice authorities has potentially ethnically discriminatory consequences. This paper was written under the aegis of the Bolyai Research Scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.

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Resorting to Statism to Find Meaning

The paper develops the idea of configuration of ownership to distinguish three primary political ideologies: (classical) liberalism, conservatism, and leftism. The liberal configuration is atomistic in its recognition of owners and ownership claims; it conforms closely to Adam Smith’s “commutative justice,” which Smith represented as a sort of social grammar. The conservative configuration also strives for a social grammar, but it counts among the set of owners certain spirit-lords such as God and Patria. The liberal and conservative configurations become isomorphic if and only if the ownership claims of the conservative spirit-lords are reduced to nothing. The left configuration ascribes fundamental ownership of resources to the people, the state, and sees laws as organizational house-rules into which one enters voluntary by choosing to remain within the polity; the type of justice that pertains is parallel to Smith’s “distributive justice,” which Smith associated with aspirational rules for achieving beauty in composition. The scheme illuminates why the left’s conception of liberty consists in civil liberties. The formulation of configurations is used to interpret the semantics of the three primary ideologies. Meanwhile, it is noted that actually existing parties and movements are admixtures of the three primary ideologies. For example, what makes Republicanism “conservative” is that it is relatively conservative; it by no means thoroughly or consistently rejects the precept of collective ownership by the polity.

“They Tried to Bury Us”: Scholar Advocacy in the Wake of the DACA Rescission

On September 5, 2017, the Trump Administration announced that it would rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Initiated in 2012 via an Executive Order, DACA sought to provide a provisional fix to the legal status of the nation’s growing number of “Dreamers” – the approximately 1.2 million young adults who have lived the majority of their lives in the United States, but were brought into the country without proper entry documentation. The termination of DACA has presented unique challenges for the 241,000 Dreamers currently enrolled in US colleges and universities. While several institutions proudly declared themselves to be “sanctuary campuses,” this paper focuses on a restrained if not conservative, land-grant university, detailing how two faculty members incorporated scholar-activist and community organizing strategies to support a Dreamer-driven institutional response.

Abbreviation DACA:- Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, ICE:- Immigration and Customs Enforcement, USCIS:- United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, CR:- continuing resolution, CHIP:- Children's Health Insurance Program, DHS:- Department of Homeland Security, TPS:- temporary protected status, NMSU:- New Mexico State University, ORS:- Oregon Revised Statues, CSU:- Colorado State University, FTFT:- first-time, full-time     

Democratic Development,Judicial Reform and the Serbian Question in Croatia

In anticipation of Croatia’s accession to the European Union, this article assesses the way in which the state has come to terms with the Serbian question and the practice of non-discrimination in the justice sector. The first part offers an historical review of the Serbian question in Croatia and the main laws that discriminated against non-Croats during the war and rule of President Franjo Tudjman (1991–1999). The second part evaluates the nature of judicial reform in light of the external demands placed on Croatia to improve relations with the Serbian minority and recent rulings from the European Court of Human Rights, which have questioned the capacity of the Croatian judiciary to provide an effective remedy in cases of human rights violations.

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Wie lässt sich Demokratie am besten messen? Zum Forumsbeitrag von Thomas Müller und Susanne Pickel

Ohne Zusammenfassung * Die vier Autor(inn)en arbeiten in einem gemeinsamen Forschungsprojekt des NCCR Democracy (vom Schweizerischen Nationalfonds finanziertes National Centre of Competence in Research: Challenges to Democracy in the 21^st Century) und des WZB an einem „Demokratiebarometer“ für die 30 OECD-Staaten, das die Ignoranz der 0-Varianz bei Polity und Freedom House aufkl?ren will.

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The Special Court for Sierra Leone’s Consideration of Gender-based Violence: Contributing to Transitional Justice?

Serious gender-based crimes were committed against women and girls during Sierra Leone’s decade-long armed conflict. This article examines how the Special Court for Sierra Leone has approached these crimes in its first four judgments. The June 20, 2007 trial judgment in the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council case assists international criminal law’s limited understanding of the crime against humanity of forced marriage, but also collapses evidence of that crime into the war crime of outrages upon personal dignity. The February 22, 2008 appeals judgment attempts to correct this misstep. In contrast, the August 2, 2007 trial judgment in the Civil Defence Forces case is virtually silent on crimes committed against women and girls, although the May 28, 2008 appeals judgment attempts to partially redress this silence. This article concludes that the four judgments, considered together, raise the specter that the Special Court could potentially fail to make a significant progressive contribution to gender-sensitive transitional justice.

Do associations support authoritarian rule? Evidence from Algeria,Mozambique, and Vietnam

Whether associations help to democratize authoritarian rule or support those in power is a contested issue that so far lacks a cross-regional, comparative perspective. In this article we focus on five types of associations in three post-socialist countries, situated in different world regions, that are governed by authoritarian regimes. We first explore how infrastructural and discursive state power impact such associations and vice versa. We then discuss whether these associations support the development of citizens’ collective and individual self-determination and autonomy and/or whether they negate such self-determination and autonomy – a state of affairs that is at the core of authoritarianism.

Our analysis addresses decision-making in associations and three specific policy areas. We find that most of the covered associations accept or do not openly reject state/ruling party interference in their internal decision-making processes. Moreover, in most of these associations the self-determination and autonomy of members are restricted, if not negated. With respect to HIV/AIDS policy, associations in Algeria and Vietnam toe the official line, and thus contribute, unlike their counterparts in Mozambique, to negating the self-determination and autonomy of affected people and other social minorities. Looking at enterprise promotion policy, we find that the co-optation of business and professionals’ associations in all three countries effectively limits democratizing impulses. Finally, in all three countries many, but not all, of the interviewed associations support state-propagated norms concerning gender and gender relationships, thus contributing to limiting the self-determination and autonomy of women in the private sphere.     

From Dictatorship to Democracy: Four Chilean Women’s Memories

A law school dean, a university president, a scholarly judge, and the head of the Foreign Ministry division in charge of Chile’s frontiers agree: The Constitution of 1980 was the initial turning point in Chile’s transition from autocracy to pluralism.

Citizens,denizens and exiles

The New Diaspora: The mass exodus, dispersal and regrouping of migrant communities. Nicholas Van Hear, London, UCL Press, 1998, ISBN 1–85728–837–6

The Citizenship Debates: A Reader. Gershon Shafir (Ed.) Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 1998, ISBN 0–8166–2881–5     

Islamists in the “Rainbow” Coalition

In the 1980s, Britain’s Labour Party promoted a system of race-relations that envisioned Britain as a collection of discrete cultures with equal status. This multicultural model for organizing society conflicted with traditional British notions of a unified national culture, with an assimilationist model of immigrant incorporation. Today, the Labour Party’s relationship with Islamists is sharply dividing Labour’s “rainbow” constituency. Whereas the horrific events of 9/11 and 7/7 have led many Labour leaders to replace its defense of multiculturalism with Tory-sounding calls for immigrant assimilation, other Labour leaders are working harder than ever to accommodate their Muslim constituents.

Appeals to the Hispanic Demographic: Targeting through Facebook Autoplay Videos by the Clinton Campaign during the 2015/2016 Presidential Primaries

By looking at the autoplay videos posted and shared on Hillary Clinton’s Facebook account during the 2015 Facebook. 2015. “The Value of Video for Brands.” Webpage Accessed 28 April 2017. https://www.facebook.com/business/news/value-of-video [Google Scholar]/2016 Clinton, H. 2016. “A Special Moment during a Meeting with the Union of Peasants. Yes You Can! Watch the Video. Facebook Status Update.” Retrieved 20 November 2016. https://www.facebook.com/hillaryclinton/posts/1090969694292892 [Google Scholar] primary election season, this article offers much needed insight into the communication aspect of campaign targeting. Using data analysis extracted from the leading social media platform, the article examines what groups of Hispanic Facebook users were attracted to Clinton’s targeted autoplay videos, what elements within these videos best enticed these people into liking the videos, and if the Clinton campaign appeared to learn what types of autoplay videos were most effective over the course of the primary season.     

Returning to a Sane Foreign Policy

The next president of the USA will surely correct some of the Bush administration’s most egregious policy errors, particularly its gross insensitivity to the rest of the world’s opinions and its extreme bellicosity. To restore trust in American, and to strengthen national security, better diplomacy will be necessary. Strengthening a demoralized and nearly dysfunctional State Department by acknowledging the vital role foreign area experts must play will have to be a major part of the new administration’s policy.

Born Weak,Growing Strong: Anti‐Government Protests as a Signal of Rebel Strength in the Context of Civil Wars

All rebel organizations start weak, but how do they grow and achieve favorable conflict outcomes? We present a theoretical model that allows for rebel organizations to gain support beyond their “core” and build their bargaining power during fighting. We highlight that rebel organizations need to win over crucial parts of society to generate the necessary support that allows them to attain favorable civil conflict outcomes. We find empirical support for the argument that low‐income individuals who initially fight the government (rebel organizations) have to convince middle‐class individuals to turn out against the government to gain government concessions. Empirically, we demonstrate that government concessions in the form of peace agreements and the onset of negotiations become more likely when protest occurs in the context of civil conflicts.

Replication Materials

The data, code, and any additional materials required to replicate all analyses in this article are available on the American Journal of Political Science Dataverse within the Harvard Dataverse Network, at: http://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/MYDZNF .