Toward a Psychology of Framing Effects

Framing is the process by which a communication source constructs and defines a social or political issue for its audience. While many observers of political communication and the mass media have discussed framing, few have explicitly described how framing affects public opinion. In this paper we offer a theory of framing effects, with a specific focus on the psychological mechanisms by which framing influences political attitudes. We discuss important conceptual differences between framing and traditional theories of persuasion that focus on belief change. We outline a set of hypotheses about the interaction between framing and audience sophistication, and test these in an experiment. The results support our argument that framing is not merely persuasion, as it is traditionally conceived. We close by reflecting on the various routes by which political communications can influence attitudes.     

Targeting housing assistance

This article examines the current system for targeting federal rental housing assistance, a rationed program rather than an entitlement, to households with the greatest need. It describes the current systems for eligibility and for ranking households on waiting lists, and then analyzes relative needs for assistance among different groups of households. We conclude that the main policy objective should be to maintain the present system against the leakages that are starting to occur. We also recommend that assistance be targeted more heavily to families than at present and less to the elderly, and that nonelderly single persons be made fully eligible for assistance.     

Federalism and the Constitutional Right to Keep and Bear Arms

Until recently, the federal courts agreed that the Second Amendmentprotects the interest of states in maintaining their own militias.In United States v. Emerson, the U.S. Court of Appeals for theFifth Circuit rejected this consensus, and held that the Constitutionprotects a right of private individuals to keep and bear arms.The fifth circuit's position is more plausible than the consensusview, and the arguments for treating the Second Amendment asa kind of federalism device are weak. A different set of federalismissues is raised by the prospect that the Supreme Court mightadopt the fifth circuit's position, and then take the next stepof applying the Second Amendment to the states through the FourteenthAmendment. Finally, Emerson shows how certain technical legaldoctrines that protect the dignity of he states can operateto strengthen the federal government's ability to undermineprotections afforded by the Second Amendment.     

Transparency, wages, and the separation of powers: An experimental analysis of corruption

We conducted an experimental analysis of the causes of corruption, varying the ease of hiding corrupt gains, officials’ wages, and the method of choosing the law enforcement officer. Voters rarely re-elect chief executives found to be corrupt and tend to choose presidents who had good luck. Directly elected law enforcement officers work more vigilantly at exposing corruption than those who are appointed. Increasing government wages and increasing the difficulty of hiding corrupt gains both reduce corruption.     

New Community Associations for Established Neighborhoods

From 1980 to 2000, 50 percent the new housing in the United States was located in a development project where it was subject to the governance of a private community association. The creation of a community association requires unanimous consent, which is achieved in practice by requiring home owner agreement as a condition of initial purchase in new developments. In an established neighborhood of existing homes and other properties, however, it is for practical purposes impossible at present to create a private community association. This paper proposes that state governments enact legislation to allow for retroactive creation of private community associations in established neighborhoods with a vote of less than unanimous consent. In this way, the same advantages of private neighborhood government that have proven so attractive to such large numbers of suburban homeowners in recent years could be extended as well into inner city areas.     

Corruption and government size: A disaggregated analysis

Using annual state-level data over 1983–1987, this paper examines the effect of government size on corruption by public officials by including both demand and supply side incentives for engaging in corrupt practices. Our objectives are twofold. First, we assess the relationship between the incidence of corruption and overall measures of the size of the federal government and the state-local sector in each state. Second, we explore what kinds of government activities are more likely to be successful in deterring abuse of public office. Our results are generally supportive of Becker's “crime and punishment” model. Regarding the primary focus of the paper, our results show that government size, in particular spending by state governments, does indeed have a strong positive influence on corruption.