The Impact of Petition Signing on Voter Turnout

Generally speaking, campaign-related contact motivates voters. One form of such contact not much explored in the voter mobilization literature is the petitioning for ballot initiatives that occurs with considerable frequency in about half the states and even more localities. Using newly-available data that allow us to match individual petition signers with their subsequent election behavior, we explore the role of having had a hand in a ballot measure’s qualifying stage in propelling individual voters to the polls. Specifically, we perform multivariate analysis on a random sample of 1,000 registered Arkansas voters, 1,100 registered Florida voters, and all 71,119 registered voters in Gainesville, Florida to measure the influence of petition-signing in spurring voter turnout. We find marginal effects in the statewide samples, but substantial and significant turnout effects in the Gainesville municipal election—an off-cycle, low-profile election. Furthermore, the effect of petition-signing—across all of our samples—is strongest among irregular, as compared to habitual, voters. These findings are in keeping with recent campaign mobilization experimental research and comport with previous findings on the “educative effects” of ballot measures on voter turnout.     

The problem of the straits

Siberian Development and East Asia. Threat or Promise? By Allen S. Whiting. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California. 1981. Pp. 276. Index, notes, maps. Price $22.50 (hardback).     

Siemens' ‘Anglo‐Saxon’ strategy: Is globalising business enough?

In the 1990s German conglomerates have attempted to move towards Anglo‐Saxon business values. Siemens saw shareholder value as the key measure of competitiveness. To become more Anglo‐Saxon, the strategy of Siemens was to globalise its business and change corporate culture. These changes have proved to be insufficient. Vertically integrated conglomerates need to break up their business empires, focus on their core competencies and move towards de‐integrated networking relations if they want high stock‐market performance.