Jefferson and Executive Power: Revisionism and the "Revolution of 1800"

Thomas Jefferson's varied and divergent statements concerningthe nature and extent of executive power seem to defy interpretation.Evidence can be gathered to support the proposition that Jeffersonwas a determined foe of Hamilton's conception of the chief executiveor that he was an active partisan of that view. The argumentof this article is that as opportunities arose, Jefferson setout to revise the public understanding of the formal powersof the president and, in so doing, moved away from his earlierposition on the extent of those powers. Jefferson's purposewas to check what he perceived to be the dangerous "monarchic"designs of the Federalists and, in turn, reinvigorate the republicanspirit of the regime. At the same time, Jefferson did not discardhis appreciation for the necessity of resorting at times toan enlarged executive authority. How Jefferson set about tobalance these elements in his revised conception of the presidencyraises in a direct fashion key questions about the role of executivepower in a popular government dedicated to the rule of law.     

Why Public Employees Rebel: Guerrilla Government in the Public Sector

Employee recalcitrance and employer reprisal are ever-present conditions in public service. Yet we have limited knowledge of the forces that move administrators away from acquiescence and toward antagonism. The authors follow the theoretical thrust of behavioral public administration to better understand administrative behavior by targeting the determinants of guerrilla government actions. They do so by presenting the results of a conjoint experiment embedded in a survey of federal bureaucrats. Findings show that decisions to pursue guerrilla activities are conditional on a multitude of factors—namely, the bureaucrat's personal views of the directive as a policy solution, the compatibility of the directive with the bureaucrat's ethical framework, the status of the person issuing the directive, and the probability that the directive might cause harm to others. Notably, these decisions generally are not affected by the probability of retribution or the expected type thereof. However, they are affected by the magnitude of harm that may ensue if orders are obeyed and not resisted.     

Agenda control in the Bundestag, 1980–2002

We find strong evidence of monopoly legislative agenda control by government parties in the Bundestag. First, the government parties have near-zero roll rates, while the opposition parties are often rolled over half the time. Second, only opposition parties' (and not government parties') roll rates increase with the distances of each party from the floor median. Third, almost all policy moves are towards the government coalition (the only exceptions occur during periods of divided government). Fourth, roll rates for government parties skyrocket when they fall into the opposition and roll rates for opposition parties plummet when they enter government, while policy movements go from being nearly 100 per cent rightward when there is a rightist government to 100 per cent leftward under a leftist government.     

Change and continuity in the Spanish labour movement

This article assesses the current state of the Spanish trade union movement. More specifically it examines the results of the 1978, 1980 and 1982 union elections and explores changes occurring within the Spanish working class. It seeks to explain the overall strength and combativity of the Spanish working class as measured by available sociological data and the political events of the past three years. It also analyses the current relationship between the major working‐class parties, the PCE and the PSOE, and the two major trade union federations, Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) and General Workers Union (UGT).     

BEYOND ARSON? A THREAT ASSESSMENT OF THE EARTH LIBERATION FRONT

The Earth Liberation Front (ELF) is radical environmentalist group that has in the past engaged in profile acts of arson, thus far without causing casualties. In order to determine the correct level of official response, it is necessary to examine the potential for the ELF and other radical environmentalist groups to engage in various levels of violence against human beings. Using empirically-based threat assessment, this study investigates the motivational and capability-related attributes of the ELF and concludes that there is a moderate-high threat of an escalation to internationally targeting people, a moderate probability that its members will at some point seek to inflict mass casualties and a low potential for ELF attacks using unconventional weapons. The assessment also identifies several factors indicating that the threat of all three types of violence is increasing, although determining the magnitude of this increase requires further study. Recommendations are given for law enforcement strategies with respect to the ELF and similarly-oriented radical groups.