A New Zealand Tragedy: Problems of Political Responsibility

New Zealand's state sector reforms, designed to enhance accountability and efficiency, have attracted considerable international attention. However, an unprecedented tragedy in April 1995 involving the deaths of 14 young people, and which resulted from the failings of the department of conservation, has raised doubts about whether the reforms actually clarified or clouded issues of political and managerial responsibility.     

Reassessing ideological bias in campaign participation

Until 1964, ideological conservatives tended to participate in presidential campaign activities at higher rates than liberals. Since then, Beck and Jennings (1980, 1984) have shown the variable nature of the participation-ideology relationship, arguing that ideologically extreme candidates have successfully mobilized their followers in particular elections. In this paper, we explain the anomaly of the 1980 election in which strong liberals participated at higher rates despite a very strong conservative on the Republican side. Using data collected over time in 1980 by the University of Michigan's Center for Political Studies (CPS/NES), we broaden the Beck-Jennings model to include participation during the primary season and hypothesize that mobilization of ideological groups may result from ideological candidatesand the competitiveness or closeness of a nomination contest. We find that the ideological candidate model explains general election participation to a significant degree, while competitiveness considerations are more important for mobilization during the primaries.     

In the mirror of the justices: Sources of greatness on the Supreme Court

Few political scientists have undertaken systematic study of the determinants of greatness on the Supreme Court. In this article, I formulate and test a series of competing explanations for judicial eminence in a multivariate model. For the measure of performance on the Court, I use Blaustein and Mersky's ratings of the justices. The alternative explanations include social backgrounds, occupational experiences, political connections, experiences on the Court, and region of residence. Neither occupational experiences nor political connections have an appreciable impact on the level of achievement a justice reaches. Thus, contrary to one of the most popular hypotheses, previous judicial experience does not give an individual any advantage. Instead, in much greater measure, experiences on the Supreme Court and certain social backgrounds differentiate among the various levels of performance. In particular, the statistical analysis indicates the centrality and potency of parental status, religious affiliation, reputation as a dissenter, the number of opinions written in landmark cases, holding the office of chief justice, years of service, and the age of the justice at appointment.