The Role of Corporations in the 1980 U.S. Congressional Elections*

The issues of whether and how corporate campaign donations affect the operation of American elections have recently become the focus of public and scholarly debate. Using Federal Election Commission campaign finance data, this analysis identifies a link betwren contributions from business PACs and candidate success in the 1980 U.S. congressional elections. Findings also confirm an association between corporate support and legislative voting for candidates re-elected in 1980. Candidates heavily supported by business PACs during the campaign did better at the polls and were more likely to vote conservatively if elected than those not so strongly endorsed by economic interests. Results are discussed in terms of various theories of the state as well as their relevance to potential election finance reforms.     

A Question of Genesis: An Analysis of the Determinants of Public Authorities

One of the central questions in the study of special purposegovernments is how to explain their proliferation over the pastfifty years. Of particular concern to scholars has been therise of a hidden government that is not highly accountable throughregular democratic processes. This article looks specificallyat one form of special purpose government, known as a "publicauthority," and amends the conventional explanation that localgovernments principally create public authorities to addresspublic finance concerns. First, I argue that full "service publicauthorities," which administer and make policy about a particularservice arena, raise different concerns about democratic accountabilityfrom a "conduit authority" and are a nonparsimonious solutionto a public finance problem. Second, drawing on an archivalsurvey of the institutional choices of county governments indealing with solid waste policymaking in New York State, I findthat while public finance is a driver in the choice to createa service public authority, equally, if not more important,are the needs of local government to resolve a policy problemin a politically competitive environment.     

Generalized median social welfare functions

The article considers the construction of social welfare functions when the set of alternatives is the two-dimensional nonnegative orthant, as would be the case if there are two divisible public goods which can be consumed in any nonnegative quantities. With individual and social preferences required to be linear and strictly monotonic, but otherwise unrestricted, we characterize all of the social welfare functions which satisfy binary independence of irrelevant alternatives and anonymity and which satisfy binary independence of irrelevant alternatives, anonymity, and weak Pareto. These classes of social welfare functions are shown to be formally equivalent to the classes of social choice functions characterized by Moulin in his study of strategy-proof social choice with single-peaked preferences.We are grateful to Charles Blackorby, Hervé Moulin, and an anonymous referee for their comments.     

THE NONPROFIT FIRM: A POTENTIAL SOLUTION TO INHERENT MARKET FAILURES

This article analyzes the differences in products offered by nonprofit and for-profit firms in a monopolistically competitive industry where goods are differentiated both by product attributes and by the degree to which benefits are public. Because nonprofit firms receive donations, they provide a Pareto improvement of the equilibrium product set: nonprofit firms will be less biased against goods with a high social good component than will their for-profit counterparts, hi addition, the optimal donations function which equates the nonprofit equilibrium product set to the set which maximizes societal welfare is derived.     

Press and TV as Opinion Resources in Presidential Campaigns

A comparison of campaign news in two successive presidentialelections reveals major deficiencies in information supply.Newspaper audiences, even more than television viewers, receiveconfusing, heavily negative information which makes candidateappraisal difficult. Incumbency of one candidate does not leadto substantially greater emphasis on public policy issues andprofessional qualifications. A pattern of heavy stress on personalcharacteristics and daily campaign events prevails in all sources.Data come from content analysis of nearly 10,000 campaign storiesfrom network television news and 20 U.S. daily newspapers.     

Electoral competition, incentive contracts for politicians and unknown preferences

When reelection is uncertain, the election mechanism may provide insufficient incentives for politicians to implement socially desirable policies. In this paper, we show that threshold contracts that the candidates themselves offer during the campaign can help to alleviate the problem, even if the preferences of the candidates are unknown to the public. A threshold contract stipulates a policy space in which the implemented policy must lie for an elected candidate to have the right to stand for reelection.     

CATEGORY REPORTING IN CHARITABLE GIVING: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

We examine the effect of category reporting on charitable giving, aiming to disentangle the publicity effect from the category effect. We compare subjects' donation decisions under three reporting plans: category reporting, where an honored category is prespecified and qualifying subjects were publicly acknowledged; category no reporting, where the same category was utilized but the qualifying donors were not publicly acknowledged; and no reporting, where neither category setting nor public reporting was utilized. We found that category reporting significantly increased average donations relative to no reporting, and that this superiority was due to the dual presence of the category setting and the public reporting. The category setting anchors donations toward the category threshold and increased the average donations when the threshold was modestly set. The public reporting, on the other hand, only worked at the highest category level. It further increased the donations by providing extra social‐image benefits. (JEL C90, C91, D64, H00)     

DOES PUBLIC ATTENTION REDUCE THE INFLUENCE OF MONEYED INTERESTS? POLICY POSITIONS ON SOPA/PIPA BEFORE AND AFTER THE INTERNET BLACKOUT

We investigate the role of public attention in determining the effect that campaign contributions by interest groups have on legislators' policy positions. We exploit the shock in public attention induced by the Internet service blackout of January 2012 that increased the salience of the Stop Online Piracy Act/Protect IP Act (SOPA/PIPA) bills aimed at stronger protection of property rights on the Internet. Using a new dataset of U.S. congressmen's public statements, we find a strong statistical relationship between campaign contributions funded by the affected industries and legislators' positions. However, this relationship evaporates once the two bills become primary policy issues. Our results are consistent with the notion that legislators choose positions on secondary policy issues in order to cater to organized interests, whereas positions on primary policy issues are driven by electoral support. (JEL D72, L82, L86)     

Disasters,donations, and tax law changes: Disentangling effects on subjective well-being by exploiting a natural experiment

This study investigates (i) whether an increase in donations in the aftermath of disasters can mitigate the negative effects on subjective well-being (SWB), and if so, (ii) whether policy measures, such as tax law changes, can amplify this mitigating effect by providing further incentives for donations. To analyze these questions, we use data on the recent, impactful triple disaster on March 11, 2011 in Japan (3–11). Coincidentally, only three months after the disaster, a long-planned change in tax law was put into effect that allows higher tax deductions for charitable donations. Applying a moderated mediation analysis to a unique dataset, we are able to disentangle the total rise of donations into positive effects that are caused by the disaster itself and positive effects that are caused by the recent change in the Japanese tax law. The results of our study are as follows: First, we show that about 30% of the direct negative effect of 3–11 on SWB is mediated and mitigated by donations. Second, we show that the change in taxation law could have further mitigated the negative SWB effects of 3–11, if more people had been aware of it. However, since a large majority of the Japanese public had not even been aware of the tax law change, potential mitigating effects by increased donations have not been realized. As for policy implications, our results show that governments can create incentives for donations that not only support disaster reconstruction, but also mitigate the negative SWB effects of disasters.     

What Works at Work? Toward an Integrative Model Examining Workplace Campaign Strategies

Many US employees are regularly asked to give charitable donations through work. The techniques used to solicit workplace donations vary. Drawing on a nationally representative survey, the study used a sample of donor responses to examine the effectiveness of several widely used campaign strategies: donor choice, company matching, public recognition, and solicitation support. The theoretical framework built on workplace research by Barman (2007) and established charitable giving mechanisms (Bekkers and Wiepking 2011a, 2011b). The research question was, “Do workplace campaign strategies lead employees to participate and to make (larger) donations in the workplace?” The positive outcomes of the strategies, aside from donor choice, were limited, suggesting that tried‐and‐true workplace fundraising strategies warrant additional scrutiny. The findings are meaningful to campaign managers seeking to identify approaches that generate workplace giving. For researchers, the results confirm growing attention to the importance of purpose‐based giving in comparison with community‐based giving.     

Decisions with endogenous frames

We develop a model of decision-making with endogenous frames and contrast the normative implications of our model to those of choice theoretic models in which observed choices are determined by exogenous frames or ancillary conditions. We argue that, frames, though they may be taken as given by the decision-maker at the point when choices are made, matter for both welfare and policy purposes.     

Strategy-proof and anonymous rule in queueing problems: a relationship between equity and efficiency

We consider a relationship between equity and efficiency in queueing problems. We show that under strategy-proofness, anonymity in welfare implies queue-efficiency. Furthermore, by combining the result of Kayı and Ramaekers (Games Econ Behav 68:220–232, 2010) with ours, we also give a characterization of the class of rules that satisfy strategy-proofness, anonymity in welfare, and budget-balance.     

At the Eve of Convergence? Transformations of Social Service Provision in Denmark, Germany, and the United States

Increasing societal heterogeneity, changing demographics, and increasing public debt and fiscal constraints have recently challenged traditional “regime” approaches to welfare state development. Some scholars argue, against this background, that welfare states might plausibly move out of their “regime container” by opting in favor of similar solutions and responses. This potential trend toward “convergence” might, furthermore, be facilitated by the widespread use of new public management ideas and techniques for “reinventing government” by adopting market solutions to public problems. This article investigates whether such trends of convergence can be identified by comparing three different countries each traditionally looked upon as belonging to different welfare state regimes: Denmark, Germany, and the United States. More specifically the article looks at one important segment of welfare state activity, namely social services and related health care. To further focus the analysis, special attention is devoted to the changing role played by the third sector in delivering services. The research design, thus, differs from most comparative welfare state research. Instead of analyzing a broad set of quantitative indicators in a large number of countries, it is scrutinized how some of the same problem pressures and policy ideas are being interpreted and implemented in a small number of countries within one policy area. The analysis reveals that trends of convergence—conceptualized along four dimensions: ideas, regulation, mix of providers, and revenue mix—can be identified across the three cases, though this does not mean that the market share of nonprofit providers becomes the same. The study also reveals that fundamental aspects of state–nonprofit relations persist despite trends of convergence.     

Impression Management,Super PACs and the 2012 Republican Primary

Super Political Action Committees (PACs) are new organizations within American politics allowing for unlimited donations to candidate campaigns. Super PACs helped make the 2012 Republican primary the most well‐funded primary in American history. Both candidates and Super PACs spend much of their money on televised campaign ads. My study of the 2012 Republican primary expands existing literature concerning political impression management by examining advertising imagery in the era of Super PACs. I developed a typology of performance types from a qualitative content analysis of television advertisements for both candidates and Super PACs. The significance of Super PACs as they interact and overlap with the images of candidate ads calls for analysis of the changing front stage in the political realm.     

To claim or not to claim: Anonymity,symmetric externalities and honesty

In many situations, economic actors submit claims for money which are unverifiable or hard to verify. Examples include claims for a tax return or an insurance payout. This paper investigates what role anonymity and externalities play for the decision of whether to be (dis)honest when making such claims. First, does honest claiming increase when anonymity is removed and unverified claims are made public? We present experimental evidence to this effect. Second, does honest reporting increase when it is public knowledge that claims affect others’ payoffs and claimants’ payoffs are symmetrically affected by others’ claims? We find no such effect. Making claims public and having symmetric externalities together increases honesty, but this effect is driven solely by the reduction in anonymity.     

New directions for research on the organizational and institutional context of child welfare agencies: Introduction to the symposium on “The Organizational and Managerial Context of Private Child Welfare Agencies”

This paper argues for a conceptual reorientation to research and practice that emphasizes the prominence of institutional and organizational factors in the lives of those who are involved in child welfare systems. Current child welfare reform efforts are premised on the idea that agencies—their structures, management, and internal approaches to organizing their workforce and frontline services—may be influential drivers of and barriers to innovation in practice and policy. We unpack this premise by providing an introduction to the institutional and organizational context of child welfare practice that highlights the diverse contexts and contributions of public and private child welfare agencies. We then review five domains for future research and present examples of studies that might be undertaken. The paper concludes by introducing the symposium papers and identifying their contributions to child welfare and human service research.     

The Transtheoretical Model

ABSTRACT

This article examined the application of the Transtheoretical model of behavioral change to the welfare to work transition with public housing residents. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered and analyzed to demonstrate that the welfare to work process may indeed be considered a change process. These findings have implications for social policy development and public worker training in both the public housing and publicwelfare systems.     

The Use of Polling in Congressional Campaigns

This study examines successful 1974 congressional campaignsthat used public opinion polling. The primary focus of the researchwas on where and how polling was used in the campaign and thefactors that influenced its use. Polling was most common inhighly competitive, well-financed races involving younger, lesspolitically experienced candidates. Surveys were typically begunquite early in the campaign and emphasized candidate standingand determined which issues were most salient to the electorate.The way polling was used was influenced primarily by party affiliation,the hiring of a professional polster and campaign expenditures     

Casting the 2000 U.S. Presidential Primaries

This article examines the 2000 U.S. presidential primaries as a case study in "casting" by early journalistic and polling choices. Casting is a strong series of candidate expectations expressed by news organizations early in campaigns. Often casting choices are based significantly on early polls (and campaign cash), and sometimes they can become self-fulfilling prophecies as campaign coverage and elections move forward.

The author argues that casting occurs in regularly scheduled and significant news stories. The news choices fulfill both organizational needs and the routines of dramatic storytelling. The researcher examined polls and news coverage in the primary season from January 1 until March 14, 2000. News coverage was determined by daily keyword searches on Lexis-Nexis for each of nine candidates. The researcher tracked not only overall news coverage, but also news attention per polling point. Casting was clear: Al Gore and George W. Bush as extensively-covered front runners, a "serious candidates" field covered more extensively than their initial poll numbers would seem to justify, and nearly invisible "immediate also-rans."     

Support for campaign spending limitations in the U. S. senate: The role of party,ideology and electoral security

Recent media disclosures of American campaign funding raising practices in the 1996 election have renewed political interest in campaign finance reform. This paper examines senatorial support for the McCain/Feingold measure that would have established voluntary spending limits on senate candidates and banned unlimited campaign contributions through political party organizations. While party affiliation and senator ideology are very important in explaining support for the McCain/Feingold measure, various measures of electoral security are not significant. This is important because the public choice literature emphasizes that electoral security is the primary goal of legislators. Additionally, the electoral self-interest of legislators is probably much more accurately measured by the various electoral security measures used in this study than by the constituency measures typically employed in the public choice literature. Nevertheless, personal legislator electoral security is not a powerful explanatory factor.