Style issues and vote choice

It has been an assumption common in voting research that candidates must offer and voters must perceive opposing stands on issues for those issues to have a rational influence on the vote. Though apparently reasonable, this assumption eliminates analysis of the rational impact of style in voter thinking. This article argues that style issues should not be so easily dismissed and were of some importance in the 1972 presidential election. First, the data indicate that voters considered style issues as important as position issues. Second, voters were able to detect differences between the candidates on certain style issues. Third, salient style issues and salient position issues are similar in their causal relationship to the vote. These findings lend support to the general conclusion that style issues are an important and rational element of voter deliberations and have several implications for the study of public opinion, the behavior of political leaders, and the adequacy of elections as mechanisms of governmental accountability.This is a revised version of a paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association in Phoenix, March 31-April 2, 1977. The data presented here were gathered under National Science Foundation Grant GS-35408, Robert D. McClure and Thomas E. Patterson, principle investigators. We would like to thank Professor Patterson and McClure for the use of their data and their helpful comments.     

New findings on the transfer of computing applications among cities

This paper presents a study of the concepts of transferring computer technology among city governments. A sample of cities from a domestic population and an international population are used as the basis of the research. Contrary to expectation, and for both populations, the survey indicated the level of computer applications transfer among cities was found to be low compared to the amount of total application development. It was determined that an important source of transfer information was from “centers” such as the federal government, vendors, and transfer agencies, rather than city to city. International cities that were studied seem to experience a propensity toward centralized control at the national level. These controls often include the transfer of technical information. Further, the types of transfer may vary widely between the domestic vs the international cities. That is, domestic city transfers tend to be operations-oriented, while transfers from national centers tend to be management oriented. In general the study supported prior conclusions concerning the difficulties of transfer. The problem of mismatch and difficulties in modification make transfers very risky. Even so, there are many persons willing to take the risks in order to try to achieve lower costs and to realize the opportunity to obtain sophisticated applications.     

Partnership and public administration: conceptual and practical considerations

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a proliferation of partnerships involving public organizations. The use of partnerships has evolved from an ad hoc response to particular problems to a general approach to problem-solving and to improving the efficiency, effectiveness, and responsiveness of public organizations. Partnerships are also used to empower individuals, groups, and organizations outside government by enabling them to make a genuine contribution to government decisions affecting them. It is important, therefore, to explain the meaning and types of partnership, to examine their purposes, benefits, and participants, and to assess their political implications. In-depth evaluative studies of partnerships are scarce, but there are enough data on partnerships and enough sufficient and theoretical materials on inter-organizational relations in general to formulate hypotheses about the requirements for successful partnerships. Sommaire: Au cours des dernieres annees, on a assiste a une proliferation des partenariats impliquant des organismes publics. Leur utilisation a evolue, passant de la simple reponse concue pour un probleme particulier a une approche generate visant a resoudre les problemes et a ameliorer l'efficacite et la receptivite des organismes publics. Cette forme d'association sert aussi a deleguer davantage de pouvoirs aux particuliers, aux groupes et aux organismes non-gouvernementaux en leur permettant de contribuer vraiment aux decisions gouvernementales qui les touchent. II importe done d'expliquer la signification et les differents types de partenariats, d'examiner leurs objectifs, leurs avantages et leurs participants, et d'evaluer aussi leurs repercussions politiques. Les etudes sur ce sujet sont rares, mais il existe a cet egard suffisamment de donnees et de materiel conceptuel et theorique sur les relations interorganisationnelles en general, pour pouvoir formuler des hypotheses sur les elements qui garantissent la reussite d'une association en partenariat.     

The relationship between life satisfaction, risk-taking behaviors, and youth violence

This study builds on existing criminological theories and examines the role of life satisfaction and self-control in explaining youth violence. Using data from a stratified cluster sample of 5,414 public high school students who responded to the South Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey, the study examines the relationship between adolescents'perceptions of life satisfaction, behavioral risky acts, and self-reported acts of violence. Analyses indicate that higher levels of life satisfaction are associated with lower violence. Participation in work and involvement in health-related risk-taking behaviors pertaining to sex, drugs, and alcohol are also associated with increased violence. The implications of these findings for criminological theory and for school-based violence prevention programs are discussed.