Electoral equilibrium in double member districts

The median-voter result, and the issue of stability in electoral competition generally, have been examined from a number of different perspectives. Out of all these examinations, however, only a few focus on institutional variables. This essay demonstrates that the median-voter result is robust under a significant institutional change that entails altering the basic assumption of single-member districts. After developing a model of electoral competition in a two-member, first-two-past-the-post district, I show that, if there are three candidates, the set of Nash equilibria is the set of strategy triples (x ₁, x ₂, x ₃), with x ₁ = x ₂ = x ₃ = x*, and such that x* lies between the quantiles of order 1/3 and 2/3. If there are four candidates, I show that a unique Nash equilibrium exists with all candidates adopting a position at the medianvoter's ideal point.     

Police enforcement of alcohol-related laws

Data are presented that indicate that the Southern region of the United States has a much higher arrest rate for drunkenness than other regions of the country; that the state of Kentucky has a much higher arrest rate for drunkenness and for alcohol offenses in total than even the Southern region; and that Madison County, Kentucky has much higher rates than even the state of Kentucky. Data collected from court records in Madison County are then presented to describe the people arrested for alcoholrelated offenses, the circumstances of their arrests, and the legal processing of their cases. Finally, speculative hypotheses for the higher arrest rates for alcohol-related offenses in the South, in Kentucky, and in Madison County are discussed.     

Facilitating technology transfer in education via paradigms for planned change

The technology (product) in education is knowledge. Therefore, one would expect that disseminators of knowledge (educators) would be on the forefront of change (creators and distributors of new knowledge). There is little evidence to show that the education system in the United States is receptive to future-oriented knowledge and methods. Therefore, this paper presents models to facilitate a receptive mind-set to the creation and transfer of technology in education.