Federalism As an Ideal Political Order and an Objective for Constitutional Reform

Federalism is first examined as an ideal-type political orderas possibly emergent from initial constitutional agreement amongmembers of a prospective political community. This abstractedand nonhistorical analysis is followed by an examination ofthe possible applicability of the federalist ideal as the basisfor reform in specific historical-institutional settings. Thedirection of constitutional change toward effective federalismis discussed, with the devolution of political authority fromcentralized structures carefully distinguished from the limitedconcentration of authority from previously autonomous politicalunits.     

Effects of authoritarian and libertarian values on Conservative and Labour party support in Great Britain

Abstract. While there is strong evidence that a libertarian-authoritarian dimension exists in Great Britain, there is only weak evidence that it contributed to the Conservative Party's electoral victories in 1979, 1983, and 1987. The present paper addresses this empirical divergence by presenting new evidence. Using a multivariate statistical analysis of British respondents in the 1979–1987 Eurobarometers, the paper estimates the impacts of political values and class-based demographic characteristics on individual-level support for the Conservative and Labour parties. The multivariate model is estimated separately for each year in order to compare the explanatory variables' effects over time. The paper's findings demonstrate that authoritarian and libertarian values significantly influenced party support, with the strongest effects occurring in 1983 and 1984. In addition, they show that class-based support was negatively correlated with value-based support during 1979–1987.     

Books in review

He has also served as research director of the Guggenheim Foundation from 1972–1984. Among his books are Men in Groups; The Imperial Animal(with Robin Fox); The Manufacture of Evil;and The Pursuit of Pleasure.     

On the political economy of state highway expenditures: Some evidence of the relative performance of alternative public choice models

This paper explores the extent to which the public demand for roads and/or power of special interest groups determines road expenditures at the state level using an extension of the methodology developed in Congleton and Shughart (1990). Reduced form models of median voter demand, special interest group equilibria, and a combined model are estimated using cross-sectional state data from the United States. We generally find support for the hypothesis that voting matters. The pure median voter models have a better fit than the pure special interest group models. Moreover, in our combined model, we find that variables from the median-voter model can not be dropped without significantly reducing the combined model's fit.     

The influence of state-level economic conditions on the 1992 U.S. presidential election

Evidence is found that state-level economic conditions played a significant role in the defeat of George Bush in the 1992 U.S. presidential election. Evidence is also found which indicates that the entrance of Ross Perot into the race as an independent candidate was not instrumental in the Bush loss.     

Heterogenous demand for public goods: Behavior in the voluntary contributions mechanism

Numerous laboratory experiments have investigated the performance of several processes for providing public goods through voluntary contributions. This research has been able to identify features of the institution or environment which are reliably likely to produce outcomes “close” to the free riding outcome or “substantially” greater than the pessimistic prediction of standard models. One such feature is the “marginal per-capita return” (MPCR) from the public good. Various authors have altered MPCR between groups or for an entire group at the same time. The experiments reported here address a different question, “What would happen if, within a group, some persons faced a ‘high’ MPCR while others faced a ‘low’ MPCR?”     

MINISTERIAL STAFF IN AUSTRALIAN COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT

Abstract: This study examines the ministerial staff in Australian commonwealth government to discover what they do and how they assist ministers in achieving political control of departments. The data consist of interviews with ministers, departmental secretaries and ministerial staff. The study finds that ministerial staff offer policy advice in much the same way as found by James Walter in his study almost a decade before this one. But there does appear to be more emphasis on monitoring departmental implementation of policy and brokering positions within government than was the case in the earlier study. The study concludes that the relationship between ministers and their offices and the departmental secretaries is characterised by a conditionally cooperative approach, which is similar to that recommended by several public administration scholars.     

The earnings test and the short-run work response to its elimination

Eliminating the earnings test will have different effects on the work effort of persons aged 65-69, depending on whether or not they are currently working or currently receiving Social Security benefits. This article reviews the development of the earnings test and examines the theoretical implications on work effort of removing the test for members of this age group. It looks at the Current Population Survey (CPS) data to determine how many persons aged 65-69 have characteristics that can be identified with groups that would theoretically increase, decrease, or not change their work effort should they no longer be subject to the earnings test. This analysis suggests that at least 80 percent, and perhaps more than 90 percent, of the 9.7 million persons aged 65-69 will not change their level of work effort if the earnings test is eliminated. Individuals who would modify their hours worked and earnings are fairly evenly split among those who would increase, decrease, or have an undetermined direction of change in their work effort.     

An analysis of contributions and contributors to Public Choice and the Journal of Law and Economics; 1973–1987

Several conclusions may be drawn from the information we have presented here. First and without doubt, the University of Chicago is by far the most dominant force overall, and is particularly so with respect to the production of pages and papers published in the Journal of Law and Economics. The George Mason-Virginia Tech influence is strong with respect to Public Choice, but is not, in our opinion, dominant.One does not necessarily need to be located at a large, research-oriented school in order to publish in either journal, but these schools are the source of most contributions. This is particularly true of the JLE but significantly less so for PC. The source of contributions is very broad, but top 50 institutions account for the lion's share. Contributions by persons employed at foreign institutions are important, particularly for PC.