The thrill of victory,the agony of defeat

This paper presents experimental evidence from a rent-seeking exercise where the highest bidder wins the rent, but all bidders, including the winner, lose their wagers. This exercise closely resembles the rent-seeking dilemma facing agents in many settings. There are two main conclusions from the results. First, there is a tendency towards overdissipation of the rent. Second, some individuals are willing to pay more for a rent than its face-value would warrant. We attribute this phenomenon to a “thrill of victory” effect.     

Continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy: Carter and reagan on el salvador

In attempting to understand continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy, analysts have tended to place too much emphasis on the importance of process and too little on that of values, interests, and strategies. In formulating policies toward the conflict in El Salvador, both the Carter and Reagan administrations were constrained by some enduring moral and political factors in the U.S. civic culture and by some fundamental processes of decision-making, which together account for the similarities in policy between administrations. Despite such factors, each administration's remaining space for choice produced a decidedly different set of policies with different outcomes.     

State and Local Government Officials' Perspectives on Intergovernmental Relationships in Surface Transportation Policy: 1987 and 2001

This article reports results of nationwide surveys of stateand local government officials conducted in 2000/2001 concerningtheir perspectives on intergovernmental relationships in surfacetransportation. It then compares the survey results with theresults from a 1987 survey on the same topic that was conductedby the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations.Although there was some variation among the categories of stateand local government officials surveyed, overall, both stateand local government officials report that they are relativelysatisfied with intergovernmental relationships in surface transportationand that those relationships have generally improved since 1987.     

Making a difference? The role of Statutory Committees in the Northern Ireland Assembly

This paper seeks to examine some aspects of the early operation of the Northern Ireland Assembly and in particular the role of the Statutory Committees. The particular issue that is used to explore these matters is the review of student finances which the Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment Committee (HFETEC) undertook as its first major investigation. It should be noted here that the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment changed its name to the Department of Employment and Learning during 2000. The Committee also changed its name to the Employment and Learning Committee. Since the issues discussed took place prior to these changes the original name has been used here. Specifically, the paper examines the Review of Student Finances launched by the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment (DHFETE), how the Committee tackled the issue, tensions within the Committee, the relationship between the Committee and the Minister, between the Minister and the Department, the public debate, how the Committee Report was subsequently dealt with in the Assembly and the Minister's response. It is suggested that this example provides some insights into the operation of the distinctive devolved institutions in Northern Ireland and some early evidence of how such Statutory Committees may develop.