Valence characteristics, costly policy and the median-crossing property: A diagrammatic exposition

Voters value valence characteristics such as honesty and competence. In this paper, we consider the situation where candidates may have more than one valence characteristic of importance to the voters. At the same time we introduce a new concept “the median-crossing property" which differs from single-peakedness and is less restrictive than the single-crossing property. If indifference curves satisfy the median-crossing property, then voting is transitive and the majority's preference rankings coincide with those of the median voter; if the indifference curves violate the median-crossing property, then intransitivity may arise. The framework also allows us to consider elections with costly policy.     

Mass destruction

How international organizations influence the domestic politics and foreign policies of states is often ignored in the study of international cooperation. This article develops an approach focusing on how states may influence the international agenda, which then shapes the position‐taking opportunities and constraints politicians face as they try to maintain their domestic political positions. This article is a preliminary exploration of how agenda setting works, what kinds of agenda‐setting strategies are available, and under what conditions agenda setting matters. Aspects of past secessionist crises will be used to clarify the discussion. The interaction between domestic position taking and international agenda setting will then be applied to the current crisis in Yugoslavia to determine why Greece, in particular, has been more influential than one might have expected.     

Critique of Schuker “J.M. Keynes and the Personal Politics of Reparations”

In “J.M. Keynes and the Personal Politics of Reparations,” Parts I and II, published in Diplomacy and Statecraft (2014), the American historian Stephen Schuker claims that Keynes’ scientific arguments against the policy of reparations were distorted by both political passion and his emotional attachment to the German banker, Dr. Carl Melchior. He provides no evidence for this argument, and Keynes’ analytic positions emerges without reference to either.     

Municipal politics and government: development of the field in Canadian political science

Abstract. Following what has become almost a tradition within the Canadian discipline of political science, this paper attempts an analysis of the development of one field in that discipline. In a sense, a main purpose of the paper is to define the boundaries of the field, an exercise which, given the nature of the field, results in a rather personal definition. Two approaches are taken. First there is a review of the Canadian literature since 1886. That review helps identify the more important sub-fields and analytical approaches. Secondly, the paper reports on a survey of the ways the field is presently taught in Canadian universities and colleges. Assuming that an image of a discipline or of a field is most accurately obtained by examining both writings over time and teaching approaches, the analysis proceeds to identify some of the problems within the field, and offers suggestions for future development of it. The author concludes that because of the highly eclectic nature of the field, in terms of both scope of subject matter and in approaches to analysis, there is a need for more integration among the sub-fields.