The Structure of Utility in Spatial Models of Voting

Empirical models of spatial voting allow legislators' locations in a policy or ideological space to be inferred from their roll‐call votes. These are typically random utility models where the features of the utility functions other than the ideal points are assumed rather than estimated. In this article, we first consider a model in which legislators' utility functions are allowed to be a mixture of the two most commonly assumed utility functions: the quadratic function and the Gaussian function assumed by NOMINATE. Across many roll‐call data sets, we find that legislators' utility functions are estimated to be very nearly Gaussian. We then relax the usual assumption that each legislator is equally sensitive to policy change and find that extreme legislators are generally more sensitive to policy change than their more centrally located counterparts. This result suggests that extremists are more ideologically rigid while moderates are more likely to consider influences that arise outside liberal‐conservative conflict.     

Elected Mayors: Leading Locally?

The directly elected executive mayor was introduced to England a decade ago. Drawing inspiration from European and American experience, the elected mayor appealed to both New Labour and Conservative commentators in offering a solution to perceived problems of local leadership. There was a shared view that governance of local areas was failing and that elected mayors were the answer. The first local referendums were held in 2001. Most have continued to reject the idea of the elected mayor. During 2012, the coalition government initiated 10 further mayoral referendums in England’s largest cities but only one, Bristol, opted for an elected mayor. Overall, there is no evidence of widespread public support, yet the prospect of more mayors – with enhanced powers – remains firmly on the policy agenda.

Drawing from a decade of research, this paper considers reasons for the persistence of the mayoral experiment, the importance of local factors in the few areas where mayors hold office and the link to current policy debates. Using the authors’ analytical leadership grid, this paper links the governmental, governance and allegiance roles of mayors to the problematic nature of local leadership. It then draws tentative conclusions about the strange case of the elected mayor in England.     

Book notes

Housing Year Book 1983, Longman Community Information Guides, Longman, 1983, pp. 440, £22.00.

Public Expenditure and Leisure: A Study of Central‐Local Relations, W.D. Hamilton, Polytechnic of North London, Papers in Leisure Studies No. 8 1983, pp. 35 £1.50.

Local Authorities and Land Supply, Susan Barrett and Gill Whitting, School for Advanced Urban Studies, Occasional Paper No. 10, University of Bristol, 1983, pp. 87, £5.35.

Speed, Economy and Effectiveness in Local Plan Preparation and Adoption, C. Fudge, C. Lambert, J. Underwood and P. Healey, School for Advanced Urban Studies, Occasional Paper No. 11, University of Bristol, 1983, pp. 150, £7.40.

The Capitalist State, Bob Jessop, Martin Robertson, 1982, pp. 296, £17.00 hardback, £5.95 paperback.

Homes Fit for People, Family Services Unit Discussion Paper, 1983, pp. 48, £1.00.     

Government‐operated public broadcast stations and candidates' access to political debates

Under the Communications Act's equal opportunity requirement and FCC interpretations of that provision, licensees can choose which political candidates to include in a broadcast debate. However, a 1994 decision by a federal appellate court has clouded the ability of public broadcast stations licensed to government entities to exclude particular candidates. According to the court, such stations, as a form of state action, generate a limited First Amendment right on the part of candidates to demand inclusion in a broadcast debate. This article examines the unique constitutional questions raised by the court's decision. An assessment of the competing rights and interests of candidates, stations licensed to government entities and the public indicates that such stations should provide access to political debates.     

Is the Westminster System Broken Beyond Repair?

Is Westminster dying as a useful conceptual encapsulation of a particular system of public administration? Scholarly critiques over the last decade have suggested Westminster civil services are evolving in ways that erode crucial Westminster “traditions.” Core elements including security of tenure, merit‐based selection, non‐partisanship, anonymity, and ministerial responsibility are all perceived as in decline or under attack. Influential commentators have proposed concepts such as “new political governance,” changing “public sector bargains,” “court government/politics,” and “presidentialization” to document and interpret these allegedly paradigmatic shifts in public administration. This article places these in context by canvasing different accounts of what Westminster is, before assessing the critiques about what it has become. The article argues that Westminster is not broken beyond repair, but rather it has been remolded to suit the needs of contemporary governance.     

The temporal fate of drugs in decomposing porcine tissue

Drug levels in decomposed individuals are difficult to interpret. Concentrations of 16 drugs were monitored in tissues (blood, brain, liver, kidney, muscle, and soil) from decomposing pigs for 1 week. Pigs were divided into groups (n = 5) with each group receiving four drugs. Drug cocktails were prepared from pharmaceutical formulations. Intracardiac pentobarbital sacrifice was 4 h after dosing, with tissue collection at 4, 24, 48, 96, and 168 h postdosing. Samples were frozen until assay. Detection and quantitation of drugs were through solid phase extraction followed by gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer analysis. Brain and kidneys were not available after 48 h; liver and muscle persisted for 1 week. Concentration of drugs increased during decomposition. During 1 week of decomposition, muscle showed average levels increasing but concentrations in liver were increased many fold, compared to muscle. Attempting to interpret drug levels in decomposed bodies may lead to incorrect conclusions about cause and manner of death.