When do Economic Perceptions Matter for Party Approval?

Do economic perceptions influence partisan preferences or vice versa? We argue that the direction of influence between government approval and economic perceptions is conditional on the state of the economy. Under conditions of economic crisis, when economic signals are relatively unambiguous, perceptions of the economy can be expected to exogenously influence government approval but this is not found when the economy is experiencing a more typical pattern of moderate growth and economic signals are more mixed. We test these arguments using British election panel surveys covering electoral cycles of moderate economic growth (1997–2001) and dramatic and negative disruption (2005–2010). We examine the most commonly employed measures of retrospective economic perceptions and estimate a range of models using structural equations modelling. We demonstrate that when the economy is performing extremely badly economic perceptions have an exogenous effect on government approval and provide a means of electoral accountability, but this is not the case in under more normal circumstances.     

Interdisciplinarity and the Authority Paradigm: Should Law Be Taken Seriously by Scientists and Social Scientists?

This article questions whether those outside law should take law seriously as an intellectual discipline capable of contributing to the development of epistemological thinking in the natural and social sciences. The discipline is approached from a diachronic and synchronic position with emphasis on the civil law tradition. It will be shown that the governing paradigm in legal studies has always been the 'authority paradigm', which results in law being closer to theology than to the social sciences. Its principal actors (judges) make assertions free from the normal constraints of scientific method; accordingly, the idea of a 'legal science' (imported into the common law tradition after 1846) must be treated with great caution. It is not a science dedicated to enquiring about the nature of the physical world, society or social relations. Its epistemological development remains trapped in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: thus, as a discipline, law has little to offer other social sciences.     

Technological Innovation and Its Impact on Public Sector Efficiency and Performance: Aerial Imagery in Property Tax Assessment Administration

ABSTRACT

Technological innovations can help public organizations deliver higher quality public goods and services at lower average costs. While a considerable literature exploring the determinants of technology adoption and diffusion exists, much less is known on whether technology innovations improve public sector outputs. This study investigates the impact of high-resolution, oblique aerial imagery, an increasingly common technology used by local governments in the US, on the inspection efficiency and quality of property assessment administration. Aerial imagery is often argued to be a low-cost substitute to in-person inspections of property. Drawing on data from 2013 through 2017 for property assessing districts in Texas, aerial imagery use is found to improve the rate at which properties are inspected as well as improve the quality of assessments. The results further provide evidence that investments in aerial imagery are best justified on budgetary grounds rather than as a means to improve organizational performance.     

Factor analysis applied to magnitude estimates of punishment Seriousness: Patterns of individual differences

This research makes use of factor analysis to locate important dimensions of individual differences in perceptions of legal punishments. A sample of 152 recently arrested persons provided magnitude estimates of the seriousness of several types and levels of punishment. A factor analysis of the data showed that the major dimensions of individual differentiation were in responses to (a) lengthy periods of imprisonment; (b) several punishments judged less serious, including short periods in jail or on probation; and (c) fines. Regressions of the factor scores on individual characteristics are reported, and the implications of the analysis for deterrence theory are discussed.