A spatial analysis of candidate competition in dual member districts: The 1989 Chilean senatorial elections

This study uses empirical spatial theory to evaluate candidate and voter behavior in senate elections contested during the 1989 Chilean general election. The study evaluates whether senatorial candidates competing in dual member districts under Chilean d'Hondt locate near the periphery or interior of the electoral space. Spatial analyses demonstrate the Chilean senatorial electoral system is characterized by centrifugal forces. In particular, candidates of the right locate on the periphery of the space and face few incentives to pursue moderate electoral strategies. The study also characterizes bases of party and candidate support and the underlying dimensions of political competition. Spatial analysis reveals both change and continuity in the pre- and post-authoritarian electoral universes.     

Directional and proximity models of voter choice in recent US presidential elections

This note evaluates relative ability of the proximity and recently proposed directional variants of the spatial model of voter choice to account for candidate evaluations in US presidential elections contested between 1980 and 1992. I do this by estimating a statistical model that represents voter preference for a candidate as a weighted average of proximity and directional components. The analysis corroborates previous studies supporting the directional model, but illustrate that these results are sensitive to statistical specification. Alternative methodological specifications favor a mixed directional-proximity model and the traditional distance representation.     

Money,Mortgages, and the Conquest of America

In colonial America, land acquired new liquidity when it became liable for debts. Though English property law maintained a firm distinction between land and chattel for centuries, in the American colonies, the boundary between the categories of real and personal property began to disintegrate. There, the novelty of easy foreclosure and consequent easy alienation of land made it possible for colonists to obtain credit, using land as a security. However, scholars have neglected the first instances in which a newly unconstrained practice of mortgage foreclosure appeared—the transactions through which colonists acquired land from indigenous people in the first place. In this article, I explore these early transactions for land, which took place across fundamental differences between colonists’ and native communities’ conceptions of money, land, and exchange itself. I describe how difference and dependence propelled the growth of the early American contact economy to make land into real estate, or the fungible commodity on the speculative market that it remains today.     

Putting the City on the World Art Map: Star Curators and Nation Branding

International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society - Over the last two decades, we have seen a worldwide expansion of the concept and practice of cultural diplomacy, along with the emergence...     

Parliamentary influence in a new democracy: The Spanish congress

This study, based on elite interviews and quantitative data, examines the public policy‐making influence of the Spanish Congress since the formation of its new democracy (1979–96). Three of the factors considered in this study are derived from previous comparative legislative studies: (1) the size of or absence of majority representation of the government party in the legislative body; (2) the degree of party unity and party discipline; and (3) the existence of a specialised committee system. In new democracies, we must also take into account the malleable circumstances of the new regime. In Spain, the following also appear to have an impact on parliamentary influence especially: (1) the special requirements of the process of democratic consolidation; (2) the nature of legislation; (3) the formal rules affecting parliament; (4) the impact of membership in the European Union; and (5) Spain's asymmetric federal structure.