The Administrators of Democracy: A Research Note on Local Election Officials

Local election officials are the administrators of democracy, but we know little about their views. This paper draws from two national surveys of local election officials. The authors find that local election officials generally support the goals of the federal Help America Vote Act but are less enthusiastic about the actual impact of the legislation. Implementation theory helps explain their evaluation of federal reforms. Goal congruence with reform mandates, resource availability, and a willingness to accept federal involvement predicts support for these reforms. Federal policy changes have promoted electronic systems, and some of the authors' findings are relevant to research on e-government. Users of electronic voting machines tend to have high confidence in them despite the significant criticism the machines have faced. Local election officials who support e-government generally are more likely to more positively evaluate federal reforms.     

Norms Are What States Make of Them: The Political Psychology of Norm Violation

I examine why states violate norms they embrace as members of international society. The rationalist answer, that norms are violated whenever they conflict with interests, is underspecified and empirically challenged. Constructivists cannot address violations well from their structural, sociological perspective. I argue from political psychology that violations stem from the motivated biases of actors who face a moral dilemma between personal desires and social constraints. These biases compel leaders to interpret norms and situations in a manner that justifies violation as socially acceptable. The ability to do so depends on the norm and the situation. The more parameters a norm possesses, and the more ambiguous those parameters are, the easier it is for actors to interpret them favorably to justify violation. Oftentimes norms are what states make of them. If the situation is plausible for states to claim exemption, they violate; otherwise they are constrained. The U.S. invasion of Panama illustrates these dynamics.     

The relationship between psychological buffers, hopelessness, and suicidal ideation: identification of protective factors

In this study we examined the role of psychological buffers (life satisfaction, self-esteem, perception of family cohesion, and perception of social support) in the development of hopelessness and suicidal ideation. The participants were 314 university students, 71 males and 243 females, who were asked to complete a battery of instruments measuring the psychological buffers mentioned above. The results of a set of hierarchical multiple regression analyses suggested that life satisfaction and self-esteem are independent predictors of lower levels of hopelessness, while perception of social support seems to be the major predictor of lower levels of suicidal ideation independent of depression and hopelessness severity. Thus, hopelessness seems to be minimized by the level of life satisfaction and level of self-esteem exhibited by the individuals, while the key factor to the mitigation of suicidal ideas seems to be perception of social support.     

Growth and productivity measures of China’s due to international trade: PRC’S experience 1970–1993

Solow’s Growth Model Solow (Q J Econ 70:65–94, 1956) and aggregate data are applied to estimates the increase in productivity due international trade and the resulting technical change and capital augmentation for the years 1970 to 1978 and 1978 (the beginning of the reforms and “open door” policy in China) to 1993. According this paper’s estimations the GDP per man hour in 1978 increased by 1.76 times for the year 1970, from $0.1233 in 1970 to $0.2169 in 1978, and in 1993 by 5.23 time that of 1978 to $1.1348 in 1993. For the period under study due to “open door” policy the GDP per man-hour more than quadrupled, and 76.18% of this increase was due to technical changes and the remaining 23.82 was due to capital augmentation. The paper consists of five sections. “Introduction” Section reviews some of the growth literature as well as looking at the macroeconomic measures of China’s economic performance since 1978 the beginning of the reforms. “Data” Section explains the data modifications. “Empirical results” Section portrays the empirical results and the next indicates conclusions. This paper is dedicated to the memories of Late Dr. Anthony D’Amato, who was a Professor at W. Paul Stillman School of Business at Seton Hall University South Orange, New Jersey.

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