Ethos,ideology, and partisanship: Exploring the paradox of conservative democrats

Despite the increasingly liberal cast of the national Democratic Party, self-identified conservatives continue to represent a significant segment of the party. At least 25 percent of Democratic identifiers considered themselves to be conservatives during the 1972–1988 period. This paper explores the puzzle of why significant numbers of political conservatives continue to identify with the Democratic Party. We argue that conservative Democrats relate to their party not because of political ideology, as do Republicans and to a lesser extent, liberal/moderate Democrats, but because of the symbolic values associated with the main groups in the party—what we refer to as party ethos. This proposition is examined by analyzing a new set of open-ended questions included in the 1988 American National Election Study probing citizens' images and assessments of the Republican and Democratic parties.The data utilized in this paper were made available by the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. The data forAmerican National Election Study 1988: Pre- and Post-Election Survey were originally collected by Warren E. Miller and the National Election Studies. Neither the collector of the original data nor the Consortium bears any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.     

The DutchAlgemene Rekenkamer and its role in light of practical experience

TheAlgemene Rekenkamer functions in the area around government and parliament. This chapter focuses on two questions: How does theRekenkamer ascertain loss of efficiency and effectiveness within government, and how does theRekenkamer restrict loss of efficiency and effectiveness within its own organization?

The goal of theRekenkamer is to provide parliament with reasonable assurances of the validity of expenses incurred and to promote the efficiency of the ministries and the effective spending of state funds. TheRekenkamer pursues a policy aimed at achieving these goals. Some central elements in this active policy are

• ? An independent position,

• ? Optimum reliability,

• ? Strategic planning,

• ? Both regularity and performance audits.

• ? The political and social relevance of research subjects, and

• ? Dialogue between parliament and theRekenkamer.

With regard to the audit theory of W.J. Van Braband, some suggestions for improvement are given.