What is moral sanctity? Sanctity in the moral worldviews of U.S. political liberals

The moral worldviews of liberals and conservatives in the United States have been extensively studied in the political sphere, revealing the peripheral role of sanctity in the worldviews of liberals. This paper provides a commentary on this previous research and then presents a qualitative study that seeks to explore liberals’ personal meanings of sanctity from a more grounded approach. Liberals’ personal experiences of sanctity involved bodily contamination, interpersonal breaches, and lack of self-control. To further interpret these findings, we situate them in the context of two constructs measured quantitatively, namely, moral perceptions of sanctity violations and transcendental self-concepts. Results suggest that overall, certain forms of sanctity are meaningful within liberals’ moral understandings, but these sanctity concerns may obtain their significance alongside other moral concerns. Findings help to illuminate what moral sanctity means to political liberals in the United States and the multiple ways that sanctity can be moralized by different groups.     

Does financial development affect income inequality in the U.S. States?

This paper examines the role of financial development on U.S. state-level income inequality in the 50 states from 1976 to 2011, using fixed-effect estimation. We find robust results whereby financial development linearly increases income inequality for the 50 states. When we divide 50 states into two separate groups of above-average and below-average inequality states than the cross-state average inequality, the effect of financial development on income inequality appears non-linear. When financial development improves, the effect increases at an increasing rate for above-average income-inequality states, whereas an inverted U-shaped relationship exists for below-average income-inequality states. To our knowledge, this paper is the first to examine the role of financial development on U.S. state-level inequality.     

¿Amigo de la Raza? Reexamining Determinants of Latino Support in the U.S. Congress*

Objectives. This study updates and extends research on substantive Latino representation in the U.S. Congress. An improved method of measuring “Latino interests” is proposed. Methods. Using a scorecard from the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda as the dependent variable, standard OLS regression is employed to determine the variables that best predict how members of the 108th Congress vote on issues that are salient to the Latino community. Results. The findings indicate that Latinos are substantively represented overwhelmingly by Democrats and those from majority‐Democratic districts or states, while religion and level of constituency poverty also play a notable role. Conclusion. This study adds strong support to the “party as a substantive representative” model of minority representation. It also shows that Latinos are not more likely to be substantively represented by fellow Latinos, nor do larger Latino constituencies affect a lawmaker's propensity to vote in favor of Latino interests.     

The political economy of U.S. economic performance: is the president responsible?

A recurring theme in electoral politics is that American voters hold the president responsible for the state of the economy. Ironically, many Presidency scholars argue that presidents are ill equipped to manage the economy because other variables compete with and complicate the effects of fiscal policy. These include international variables, private market forces, and monetary policy, among others. Using simultaneous equation methods, we examine the direct and indirect effects of fiscal policy on economic performance while controlling for a variety of other determinants of economic performance. We find that fiscal policy plays a significant role in influencing unemployment and economic growth in the United States, even after controlling for a variety of other determinants of economic performance. We close by discussing the importance of linking the econometric modeling literature with the literature on presidential management of the economy.     

U.S.Policy toward China and the Question of Recognition in 1949-1950

InaconversationwithPresidentHarryS.Trumanon17November1949,U.S.SecretaryofStateDeanAchesonsaidthereweretwoobjectivesofU.S.policytowardChina:OnemightbetoopposetheCommunistregime,harassit,needleitandifanopportunityappearedtoattempttooverthrowit.AnotherobjectiveofpolicywouldbetoattempttodetachitfromsubserviencetoMoscowandoveraperiodoftimeencouragethosevlgorousinfluenceswhichmightmodifvit....ThissecondalternativedidnotmeanapolicyanymorethanithadinthecaseofTito.1WiththesewordsAchesonenunciat…     

Review of the Sino-U.S. Lend-Lease Relationship During the War Against Japanese Aggression

ⅠThelend-leaserelationshipbetweenChinaandtheUnitedStatesduringtheWarAgainstJapaneseAggression(1937-1945)wasnotonlydifferentfromalend-leaserelationshipinageneralsense,blltalsodifferedfroma1lpreviousdebtrelationshipsbetweenthetwocountriesthathadealstedsinc…     

Separation of powers and the Ecuadorian Supreme Court: exploring presidential–judicial conflict in a post-transition democracy

In 2005 ongoing political conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government in Ecuador culminated in a struggle over the judiciary. These events resulted in the dismissal, re-constitution, and dismissal again of the Ecuadorian high court (the Corte Suprema de Justicia) and the impeachment of the president. This paper uses the political crisis surrounding the dismissal of the Ecuadorian Supreme Court of Justice to examine the broader phenomenon of executive branch attacks on the judiciary in South American and Africa. We make three general observations: (1) the longevity of the judiciary alone (time without attack) does not guarantee a sufficiently deep reservoir of diffuse support to protect it from successful efforts at structural change or dissolution, (2) despite previous evidence that multilateral constitutional processes result in increased court independence (Dargent, 2009), we conclude that multi-party institutional arrangements are more vulnerable to the types of crisis that cause them to seek to use courts and their legitimacy to achieve political goals thereby limiting previous gains in independence, and (3) a court's institutional legitimacy is enhanced when it survives political threats from other branches of government. The crisis in Ecuador is used to demonstrate the challenges facing newer democracies with continuing multilateral conflict as well as the utility of thinking about how, why and when political institutions attack high courts and how the judiciary and citizens respond.     

Three's a crowd? The Nader vote in the 2000 presidential, election in U.S. metropolitan areas

The 2000 U.S. presidential election resulted in one of the closest and most controversial outcomes in U.S. history. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader had little chance of winning, but nevertheless impacted the race in several close states and arguably swung the race from Al Gore to George W. Bush. This research examines Ralph Nader's “urban strategy” to win 5% of the vote for president and the bases of his electoral support. This study uses the METRO_2000 data set which contains a variety of publicly available variables for 276 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the year 2000. The analysis uses OLS regression to examine the determinants of the percentage of the vote for Nader in each MSA. The results indicate that the Nader vote was positively influenced by key electoral variables such as the level of electoral participation, whether Nader was on the ballot or could be written in, and the closeness of the race in state polls leading up to the election. The Nader vote was also higher in MSAs with high percentages of voters who supported Nader programs including environmentalists, those favoring universal health care and gay rights, union members, and MSAs that were college towns or with high percentages of college-educated voters. Ralph Nader's urban strategy effectively mobilized enough of his electoral base to impact the 2000 election, but electoral constraints and the closeness of the race prevented him from achieving his goal of attaining 5% of the vote. This case holds lessons about the limits and possibilities of third party campaigns in U.S. presidential elections.     

The Administrative Impact of Smallpox in the Early Years of the Qing Dynasty and Measures Adopted by the Qing Court

History is a theatrical stage fraught withhuman activities. The formation of a histori-cal phenomenon not only comes from thepeople’s social activities, but also results fromthe interaction of various factors, includingnatural factors such as plagues. In the earlyQing, a smallpox epidemic had become asevere annoyance to the Qing government.During winter and spring when epidemicsran out of control, the Manchu emperorssuch as Huangtaiji (reigned 1627-1644) andShunzhi (reigned 1644-1662) had t…     

Crime,correction, education and welfare in the U.S. – What role does the government play?

As federal, state and local governments continue to allocate a significant share of their resources to law enforcement and correctional spending, concerns have risen that spending in education and welfare is declining. With fiscal pressure in the United States mounting, it is important to determine the effectiveness of public spending in deterring crime. This paper compares the effectiveness of the impact of government spending on welfare and education with that of law enforcement and correction on crime. Using panel data from 50 U.S. states over a time period of 1994–2014, results of linear regression with panel corrected standard errors as well as GMM estimation reveals that public welfare and education spending can potentially lower violent and property crime rates but law enforcement spending can only deter property crime. However, correctional spending can exacerbate both types of crimes. There is little to no evidence of the presence of crowding out of one category of spending by another. This results in the policy implication that more resources be allocated towards welfare and education programs.     

Do flexible work schedules reduce turnover in U.S. federal agencies?

Agency theory suggests that when agencies adopt flexible work schedules, employees will be more likely to remain with the organization, because these programs demonstrate that the organization cares about their well-being in that flexible work schedules give them more flexibility regarding when, where, and how they perform their work. To test this proposition, cross-sectional panel data at the agency level were obtained from two federal government sources: Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey and FedScope. Furthermore, transfers and quits were the two forms of turnover examined. After lagging the independent variables behind turnover over several years so as to provide a robust test of causality, the results show only limited support for agency theory. Specifically, teleworking was found to lower quits. However, teleworking was not found to reduce transfers or turnover, in general. Furthermore, alternative work schedules were not found to have an impact on quits, transfers, or turnover generally.     

Rise of the Regulatory Welfare State? Social Regulation in Utilities in Israel

This article explores the relation between economic liberalization, regulation and welfare. It asks how the state regulates, delays or prevents service disconnection due to debt and arrears, and what this kind of policy implies regarding the use of regulation as a form of social policy. This is done through a comparative study of the electricity and water sectors in Israel after liberalization. It finds that after initial economic reform, both sectors saw a growth in regulation intended to compensate for the social effects of reform, in what may be termed the ‘regulatory welfare state’. However, this form of social protection has been residual and incoherent. The article argues that trying to separate economic reform from its social consequences is unrealistic and may lead to adverse social and economic results. Second, findings raise concerns regarding the potential of the regulatory welfare state to deliver effective and fair social policy.     

Types of rapidly growing counties of the U.S., 1970–1990

Recent economic growth and in-migration have led to an interesting patchwork of rapidly growing counties in the United States. This paper identifies 299 U.S. counties that were growing at least 70% from 1970 to 1990, a rate greater than one standard deviation above the mean of all counties. Using a k-means cluster algorithm, seven distinct types of rapidly growing counties, with meaningful spatial patterns, were found. Four of these clusters were primarily urban: smaller fast-growing cities in the south, large sunbelt cities, as well as both white and blue-collar suburban counties ringing many of the more dynamic metropolitan regional centers of the country. Also, there were two predominately rural clusters: retirement counties and several counties in the Intermontane West characterized by environmental amenities and isolated growth. Lastly, we observed a distinct cluster of several Hispanic counties in the southwest primarily along the U.S.–Mexico border. We believe these seven clusters present a remarkably clear portrait of the significant forces underlying the rapid growth of counties in the United States.     

Cross-border school enrolment: Associated factors in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands

This paper examines students who live in Mexico but attend school in the U.S., and looks into the factors associated with their decision to study abroad. Based on Mexico’s 2015 Intercensal Survey, cross-border students are described in terms of their number, location, educational level and socioeconomic characteristics. Subsequently, the study estimates probit models to analyze the factors associated with studying in the United States. Cross-border students are mainly U.S.-born and concentrated in Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez. The probability of being a cross-border student is positively associated with age, household income and having a household member who was born in the U.S. or is a cross-border worker. Cross-border students come from high-income households with strong ties to the United States. The decision to study in the U.S. is likely taken due to the higher quality of the country’s education system and to facilitate an eventual transition into the U.S. labor market.