“Therefore,Get Wisdom”: What Should the President Know,and How Can He Know It?

The literature on the U.S. presidency offers analysis of how the presidential advice and information support function has been performed. Some studies go further to suggest certain principles for designing the advice- and information-giving process involved in presidential decision making, along with organizational features to implement such principles. A well-established principle, based on comparative case studies, is that presidents should institutionalize distrust. Implementation of this principle usually involves channeling competing options, along with supporting information, to the Oval Office before a president becomes committed to a course of action or policy choice. In designing how the presidential support function is to operate, the advantages and disadvantages of the institutionalized distrust principle should be carefully examined, taking into account circumstantial conditions. This article examines this practical issue from the perspective of a historically oriented presidency scholar, writing during the transition to the Barack Obama administration.     

Size,Power, and Electoral Systems: Exogenous Determinants of Legislative Procedural Choice

I tested hypotheses about the relationship between exogenous institutions and legislative procedural choice using a unique cross‐sectional approach and a dataset gleaned from 55 legislative bodies from around the world. I focused on three entrenched characteristics of legislative bodies that we have theoretical reason to think will shape procedures: size, the relative power of the chamber, and the method by which its members are selected. Relatively small and powerful bodies generally have decentralized procedures. To a lesser extent, we can say the same of chambers that have electoral systems that incentivize the personal vote.     

Reeling in Disengaged Students: An Assessment of a Countywide Juvenile Court Attendance Program

On any given day, thousands of youths are absent from school; many are absent without a legitimate excuse and thus deemed truant. Truancy has been linked to various problem behaviors including academic failure, delinquency, and school dropout. Thus, the prevention of truancy is assumed to have beneficial effects far into the future. This study provides an overview of an innovative truancy abatement program operating in southwestern Idaho known as the Ada County Attendance Court. Qualitative and quantitative data are presented to show how the program operates, its effects, and how it differs from other truancy prevention programs nationwide.     

From Ted to Ed: Electing British Party Leaders

Since 1965, British political parties have radically, and repeatedly, changed the ways in which they choose their leaders. In this article, I explain how and why these changes occurred and assess the consequences of the ‘new’ selection procedures adopted by four ‘mainstream’ parties: Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Party and the Liberal Democrats. In the first section, following Sjoblom and Stark, I outline a theoretical framework which purports to explain the criteria used by parties in parliamentary systems when choosing their leaders. I then examine the four parties in turn and consider two questions. First, how and why has the process of selecting British party leaders changed over time; and secondly, to what extent, and why, have the ‘new’ selection procedures adopted since 1965 produced different outcomes, resulting in the election of leaders who would not have been chosen had the decision rested with their party's elites and/or MPs alone?     

Uganda's Progress and Problems

The following address was given by the former Governor of Ugandaat a joint meeting of the Royal African Society and the RoyalEmpire Society on February 7, 1957. Sir John Macpherson tookthe chair.