Translating into Votes: The Electoral Impacts of Spanish‐Language Ballots

This article investigates the impact of one election procedure designed to enfranchise immigrants: foreign‐language election materials. Specifically, it uses regression discontinuity design to estimate the turnout and election impacts of Spanish‐language assistance provided under Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act. Analyses of two different data sets—the Latino National Survey and California 1998 primary election returns—show that Spanish‐language assistance increased turnout for citizens who speak little English. The California results also demonstrate that election procedures can influence outcomes, as support for ending bilingual education dropped markedly in heavily Spanish‐speaking neighborhoods with Spanish‐language assistance. Small changes in election procedures can influence who votes as well as what wins.     

What Wins Votes: Why Some Politicians Opt Out of Clientelism

In a context where clientelism is widespread, why do some politicians choose not to condition the delivery of goods and services to citizens on individual political behavior? I argue that the answer to this question lies in the heretofore unexamined electoral costs of clientelism: clientelism decreases support from nonpoor constituents even while it generates votes from among the poor. Taking into account these costs and other factors that shape politician incentives, I posit that the interaction between political competition and poverty will explain variation in clientelism. I test this claim using an original measure of clientelism that assesses mayoral involvement in social policy implementation in Argentine municipalities. The results of statistical analysis suggest that high levels of political competition are compatible with clientelism when poverty is also high. Only when high competition is coupled with low rates of poverty does clientelism decline.     

Appropriateness and Consequences: The Logic of Neo-Institutionalism

Skeptical questions may be raised about the neo-institutionalist approach of James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, in which a "logic of expected consequences" is set against a "logic of appropriateness": (1) it is difficult to determine what kind of constructs the so-called logics are—whether they are to be seen as perspectives, theories, or ideal types; (2) the logics, far from being mutually excluding, overlap very considerably; (3) analytical utility is debatable not only in the case of the "logic of expected consequences" but also when it is a matter of the "logic of appropriateness"; (4) the normative virtue of substituting a "logic of appropriateness" for a "logic of expected consequences" is less obvious than March and Olsen's readers may be led to think. It is tempting to conclude that March and Olsen's approach has proven compelling because of its consequences for the scholarly community rather than by virtue of its analytical appropriateness.     

后现代主义:晚期资本主义的文化逻辑

作为一种广泛流行于当今西方社会的哲学文化思潮,后现代主义在国内学界也引起广泛关注.但究竟什么是后现代主义,后现代主义是怎样产生的,在对这些基本问题的认识上国内外学界存在着诸多分歧.杰姆逊从马克思主义哲学的批判思路出发,把后现代主义的产生与资本主义的历史性变迁联系起来,将后现代主义界定为晚期资本主义的文化逻辑,从总体上对后现代主义进行了比较客观的分析.     

The Logic of Violence

To date, there is no synthetic, general theory of violence able to integrate the less complete theories of violent behaviour. There is little agreement among researchers about the causes of violence (not to mention what to do about it) and the field has become vast in terms of literature. This paper reviews theories of violence, mostly from sociology, political science and psychology both at the level of the individual and the collective. The paper is divided in two parts: the first deals with theories that see violence as a reaction, the second deals with those theories that see violence as a mean to attain goals.     

从纠偏束权到集成创新:巡视制度的生成机制与演变逻辑

巡视制度是政治监督体系的重要组成部分。针对有限理性下的官员谋利、多重委托-代理关系中的信息级差、层级传递过程中的权威流失等现象,巡视通过制度联动,发挥了纠偏束权功能。党的十八大以来,巡视制度不断创新完善,实现了从纠偏束权到集成创新的范式演变,具体表现为从纠偏威慑到组织权威重塑、从单向问责到双向责任约束、从片状覆盖到网状扩散、从正向过程反馈到逆向结果复查等变化。党内巡视制度的变迁不是一种临时性的替代安排,而是传统巡视方式和新型监督关系的交融,其演变是渐进、长期、全面和深刻的。在全面从严治党的背景下,巡视制度优化了权力监督结构,拓宽了信息渠道,增加了政治信任和政治稳定,在实现巡视与反腐协同联动方面发挥了关键作用。     

Encouraging Political Defection: The Role of Personal Discussion Networks in Partisan Desertions to the Opposition Party and Perot Votes in 1992

Drawing on data from a unique study of the 1992 American presidential election, this article demonstrates that personal discussion networks influence voting behavior, independent of candidate evaluations and partisanship. These social networks encouraged two different kinds of defections from otherwise-expected behavior. People were more likely to vote for Perot if their personal discussants supported him and to convert preferences for him into a Perot vote on election day. Partisans also were more likely to defect to the other major party if their discussion network failed to fully support the candidate of their own party. These results withstood controls for candidate evaluations and partisanship as well as for selective exposure to discussants and selective perception of their preferences. They show the importance of adding social context to personal attitudes, interests, and partisanship in explaining voting behavior.     

The Logic of Collective Inaction: Senatorial Delay in Executive Nominations

While most executive nominees are successfully confirmed, this success masks wide variation in how long it takes the Senate to decide. Delay of critical nominees influences the character and effectiveness of agencies while hampering the policy ambitions of presidents. The exact logic of which nominees are targeted for delay and why, however, remains difficult to uncover. Building on prior literature, this project suggests that delay can be used to protect allied agencies from presidential politicization. Using a data set of several thousand executive nominations from 1987 to 2012, the ideological predisposition of an agency relative to the president is demonstrated to influence senatorial delay. Ultimately, these findings help explain why some nominees are delayed while other, seemingly similar, nominees are not.     

Party,Constituency, and Representation: Votes on Abortion in the British House of Commons

Public Choice - To whom do British Members of Parliament respond when votingin the House of Commons? Using a series of votes on abortion,the revealed preferences of MPs are estimated. The...     

A Case Study: Sale of Railway Consulting Services

Queensland Rail has developed a market niche in South East Asia, where it advises on profitable narrow-guage rail operations. This article outlines the extent of Queensland Rail involvement with the region and offers practical advice for commercial dealings with one important customer, Vietnam.