Fragmenting parchment and the winds of war: The Constitution of the United States, 1860–2004

The tension between Hobbesian and Lockeian perspectives on the origins and functions of the state was resolved decisively at Philadelphia in favor of the latter. Fourscore and seven years on from 1787, however, Abraham Lincoln’s resolve to save the Union rather than to preserve the Constitution launched a series of attacks by the executive and legislative branches, sustained by a complaisant judiciary, on the parchment so carefully crafted by the republic’s Founders. This essay documents the federal government’s exploitation of security threats, from the Civil War to the War on Terror, to dismantle constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.     

Gender Differences in the Association between Maternal Depressed Mood and Child Depressive Phenomena from Grade 3 through Grade 10

This study reports on relationships among gender, maternal depressed mood, and children’s trajectories of depressive phenomena across middle childhood and early adolescence. It tested the hypothesis that, compared to boys, girls become increasingly vulnerable to maternal depression as they enter adolescence. The study sample consisted of 834 families from 10 Pacific Northwest schools that participated in the Raising Healthy Children project. Maternal depressed mood and children’s depressive phenomena were assessed annually during an 8-year period that spanned Grade 3 through Grade 10 for the children. Mean scores for girls’ depressive phenomena increased relative to those for boys as children matured. Maternal depressed mood was significantly and positively associated with children’s level of depressive phenomena. An interaction effect of gender and maternal depressed mood on acceleration in children’s depressive phenomena indicated that girls’ trajectories of depressive phenomena were sustained in the presence of maternal depression while those of boys declined in the presence of maternal depression.

The energy factor in China’s foreign policy

This paper argues that China’s foreign policy behavior has been influenced by growing energy dependence. As a major importer, China can pursue energy security through strategies that result in conflict; alternatively, energy vulnerability might lead it toward cooperation with rival oil consuming nations through participation in multilateral organizations and other forums. After outlining the argument for the strategic nature of energy, China’s increasing energy dependence is assessed, as are Beijing’s efforts to shift China’s energy balance. China’s energy diplomacy with the Middle East, Russia and Central Asia, the Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America are examined, and Beijing’s efforts toward greater energy security through multilateral organizations are discussed. The evidence supports the liberal hypothesis that economic interdependence promotes international cooperation. Energy demands have accelerated China’s rise to global prominence, and appear to moderate conflictual aspects of Chinese foreign policy. He is co-editor of and contributor toRussia’s Far East: A Region at Risk (University of Washington Press, 2002), and author ofThe History of Russia (Greenwood, 1999),Foreign Policy and East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 1993), andEnvironmental Policy in the USSR (University of Massachusetts Press, 1987). His articles have appeared inProblems of Post-Communism, Asian Survey, Pacific Affairs, Comparative Politics, Political Science Quarterly, British Journal of Political Science, and many other journals and edited books. The author would like to thank Igor Danchenko for his able research assistance on this project.     

Organizational Report Cards: Significant Impact or Much Ado about Nothing?

Despite a recent spate of organizational report cards, relatively little is known about their impact on consumers' choices or public policy. This study identifies 32 report cards that compare government performance across states in a variety of policy domains. These report cards fall into four categories according to their issuer: governments, commercial enterprises, academics, and advocacy groups. Government-generated report cards are directed at improving consumer choice and enhancing service quality. Commercial enterprises seek to increase profits and readership. Academics generally take a value-neutral approach, looking to stimulate public policy debate. Public interest groups, think tanks, and foundations indirectly measure public policy impact by the amount of media attention generated.     

Motivated Skepticism in the Evaluation of Political Beliefs

We propose a model of motivated skepticism that helps explain when and why citizens are biased-information processors. Two experimental studies explore how citizens evaluate arguments about affirmative action and gun control, finding strong evidence of a prior attitude effect such that attitudinally congruent arguments are evaluated as stronger than attitudinally incongruent arguments. When reading pro and con arguments, participants (Ps) counterargue the contrary arguments and uncritically accept supporting arguments, evidence of a disconfirmation bias . We also find a confirmation bias —the seeking out of confirmatory evidence—when Ps are free to self-select the source of the arguments they read. Both the confirmation and disconfirmation biases lead to attitude polarization —the strengthening of t₂ over t₁ attitudes—especially among those with the strongest priors and highest levels of political sophistication. We conclude with a discussion of the normative implications of these findings for rational behavior in a democracy.     

Bottom-Up Federalism: The Diffusion of Antismoking Policies from U.S. Cities to States

Studies of policy diffusion often focus on the horizontal spread of enactments from one state to another, paying little or no attention to the effects of local laws on state-level adoptions. For example, scholars have not tested whether local policy adoptions make state action more likely (through a snowball effect) or less likely (through a pressure valve effect). This study conducts the first comprehensive analysis of vertical policy diffusion from city governments to state governments, while simultaneously examining the influence of state-to-state and national-to-state diffusion. Focusing on three different types of antismoking laws, we find evidence that policies do bubble up from city governments to state governments. State politics are crucial to this relationship, however, as local-to-state diffusion is contingent on the level of legislative professionalism and the strength of health advocates in the state.     

Rethinking ward and at-large elections in cities: Total spending,the number of locations of selected city services,and policy types

Public Choice - This study shows why the conventional wisdom that cities with ward elections will spend more than cities with at-large elections is too simple and explains why the empirical...     

Federal and Local Interests in the Nation's Capital: Congress and District of Columbia Appropriations

Canadian political scientist Donald C. Rowat posits the thesis that there is a "conflict of interest" in all federal capital cities between the national government and the local residents. Federal and local interests in the nation's capital have been so intertwined that it is difficult to define or separate them. Congress has used the appropriations process to intervene in local policy matters even when the federal interest is not involved.