Death and Turnout: The Human Costs of War and Voter Participation in Democracies

War heightens public interest in politics, especially when human lives are lost. We examine whether, and how, combat casualties affect the decision to vote in established democracies. Drawing from social psychology research on mortality salience, we expect increasing casualties to increase the salience of death, information that moves people to defend their worldview, especially nationalistic and ideological values. By heightening the importance of values, we propose that combat casualties increase the benefits of voting. In particular, we expect the effect of combat casualties to be pronounced among the least politically engaged. Using both cross‐national data of elections in 23 democracies over a 50‐year period and survey data from the United States and United Kingdom during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, we found that mounting casualties increase turnout. Furthermore, as expected, we found the effect of casualties to be most pronounced among those least interested in politics.     

‘Our own paper’: evaluating the impact of Women's Cricket magazine, 1930–1967

This article examines the content of Women's Cricket magazine, which was published between 1930 and 1967 by the Women's Cricket Association. It is suggested that sportswomen have always actively resisted and attempted to combat the negative discourses surrounding their participation in physical activities; the magazine is used as a case study of this. It is argued that the editors attempted to challenge the stereotypes of women's cricket available in the mainstream press by publishing a newspaper of their own which provided accurate, serious coverage of their sport, and by distributing this to the mainstream press. The question of how far they were successful in altering negative discourses about female participation in the sport is also assessed.     

Types of coproduction and differential effects on organizational performance: Evidence from the New York City school system

A growing body of literature explores the process of coproduction by citizens and government employees in providing goods and services, yet research that attempts to link coproduction to organizational performance offers contradictory findings. It is possible that these conflicting results are a consequence of trying to compare distinct categories of coproduction. This study identifies types of coproduction, classified by which organizational tasks citizens can influence during stages of policy design and implementation, and tests whether these types have different effects on student proficiency in Mathematics and English Language Arts using data from New York City schools between 2007 and 2009. This study then tests the degree to which different types of coproduction moderate the negative effect of environmental turbulence on performance. Results confirm that types of coproduction have varying effects on organizational performance and can reduce, and even eliminate, the negative effect of a turbulent environment on student outcomes.     

Capacity,Guidance, and the Implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

Programs administered by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 were designed to spur investment in clean energy and jump‐start the economy. There was considerable variation, however, in the proportion of obligated funds that states spent during each year. A primary goal of the ARRA was to infuse as much money as possible into the struggling economy; however, there was significant variation in the success with which states implemented these programs. This article draws on and extends the literature on intergovernmental implementation to explain such variation. The authors argue that jurisdictional capacity and federal guidance were important determinants of the rate at which states spent ARRA funds and, more important, that these factors interacted with one another in the implementation process. This assertion is tested using a mixed‐methods approach that includes a regression analysis of state ARRA spending between 2009 and 2012, as well as an evaluation of interviews conducted with 46 state agency representatives responsible for spending ARRA energy funds.     

THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD AND THE NEED FOR ITS INCORPORATION INTO A BILL OF RIGHTS

In this article I discuss the failure of most democratic countries to accept or properly implement the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, despite, except in the case of the United States, having ratified it. I consider the domestic implementation of treaties. I discuss, from an Australian perspective, that country's failure to enact a Bill of Rights and argue that children in Australia have suffered as a result. I also discuss judicial approaches to international law and compare the situation in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and New Zealand and suggest that even in those countries that do have a Bill of Rights, it is not oriented toward children and therefore does not properly recognize their rights.