Network Formation During Disasters: Exploring Micro-Level Interorganizational Processes and the Role of National Capacity

Despite common assumptions about the processes associated with interorganizational network formation, the resulting structures and relevant factors often vary. This variation suggests that there are likely contextual or meta-network variables that moderate the influence of well-established micro-level mechanisms. Because much of the existing research on disaster response networks relies on single case studies, the role of meta-network variables in shaping network formation remains unexplored. We look to fill this gap by comparing network formation patterns in multiple countries that vary in their disaster management capacity. This article uses social network analysis to analyze the formation of response networks after earthquakes in Indonesia, Haiti, and Japan. This study contributes to existing literature by examining how transitivity, homophily, and brokerage vary in their salience under different macro-level constraints. The results suggest that national response capacity may influence the jurisdictional level at which bridging and bonding strategies take place.     

Real Solutions for Fake News? Measuring the Effectiveness of General Warnings and Fact-Check Tags in Reducing Belief in False Stories on Social Media

Political Behavior - Social media has increasingly enabled “fake news” to circulate widely, most notably during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. These intentionally false...     

Understanding commenter influence during agency rule development

We provide the first empirical assessment of commenter influence during the rule development stage of administrative rulemaking. We argue that public com‐menters play a critical agenda‐setting role during rule development. To test this proposition, we analyze data from 36 Department of Transportation rules and almost 500 comments. Each of these rules began with an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking—a procedure that allows us to track the formal participation of interested parties during rule development. Our analyses are supplemented by face‐to‐face interviews with agency officials. We find a strong agenda‐setting role for early commenters—both in terms of affecting the content of future regulations and in thwarting unwanted regulations. We conclude that “early‐bird” com‐menters are well positioned to frame public policy debates as rules move through the regulatory process. © 2009 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

Divided government and US federal rulemaking

Despite paying a great deal of attention to the effects of divided government on legislative outputs, scholars of American politics have surprisingly ignored the potential impact of divided government on bureaucratic regulatory outputs. In this article we argue that divided government should reduce the volume of federal agency rulemaking. We test this hypothesis against a data set covering 21,000 rules from 1983 to 2005. Our study is one of the first to analyze the determinants of federal bureaucratic rulemaking activity across such a long period of time. Our results demonstrate that during periods of divided government, agencies issue fewer rules and fewer substantively significant rules than they do during periods of unified government. These findings suggest that divided government impedes agency rulemaking.     

Political Orientation and Ideological Inconsistencies: (Dis)comfort with Value Tradeoffs

People are often inconsistent in the way they apply their values to their political beliefs (e.g., citing the value of life in opposing capital punishment while simultaneously supporting abortion rights). How do people confront such inconsistencies? Liberals were more likely to say that issues that could draw on several competing values were complex issues that required value tradeoffs, whereas conservatives were more likely to deny the comparability of the issues. We argue that this difference is rooted in the distinct ways that liberals and conservatives represent political issues. Additional evidence suggested that conservatives’ higher need for closure leads them to represent issues in terms of salient, accessible values. Although this may lead conservatives’ attitudes to be more situationally malleable under some circumstances, such shifts do serve to protect an absolutist approach to one’s moral values and help conservatives to deny the comparability of potentially inconsistent positions.     

A comparison of fatal with non-fatal knife injuries in Edinburgh

Assault using a knife is a common problem in the United Kingdom. Between February 1992 and December 1996, 120 individuals died or received hospital treatment in Edinburgh after being assaulted with a knife. Twenty individuals (17%) died as a result of their injuries. Comparison of the survivors with non-survivors revealed both groups to have similar age and sex distributions, but those who died had significantly more severe injuries when scored according to the Abbreviated Injury Scale. Eight individuals died of unsurvivable chest injuries at the scene of the attack and of the remainder, only five reached hospital with signs of life. Analysis of hospital treatment using TRISS methodology revealed there to be two unexpected survivors and no unexpected deaths. The risk of death appears to depend mostly upon injuries sustained and also to a lesser extent upon other factors such as alcohol consumption and the presence of a bystander capable and willing to request emergency medical assistance. There does not appear to be much potential to save lives by improving hospital treatment for those assaulted with a knife in Edinburgh. Instead, greater focus needs to be placed upon rapid transfer to hospital and upon restricting the possession and use of knives.     

Work Requirements in Public Housing: Impacts on Tenant Employment and Evictions

In recent years, many have debated adopting work requirements in the public housing program, and a limited number of public housing agencies (PHA) have implemented these policies through the flexibility provided by the Moving to Work program. One such agency—the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA)—has implemented a work requirement across five (of 15) public housing developments that mandates households to work 15 hr weekly or face sanctions. This article evaluates this policy and presents the first empirical analysis on the outcomes of a work requirement on employment and evictions. We find that, following work requirement enforcement, the percentage of impacted households paying minimum rent (a proxy for nonemployment) decreased versus a comparison group. Analysis of additional data on both employment and hours worked indicates similar results regarding employment gains, but no increase in average hours worked. We find no evidence that work requirement sanctions increased evictions, and very modest evidence that enforcement increased the rate of positive move-outs such as moves to unsubsidized housing.