"In My Opinion . . .": Justices' Opinion Writing in the U.S. Supreme Court, 1946–1997

Objectives . We develop hypotheses to explain the opinion writing by justices on the U.S. Supreme Court from 1946–1997. Methods . We use data from the U.S. Supreme Court Database, Phases I and II, to examine the proportion of cases in which a justice writes an opinion each term as well as the differences between writing majority, dissenting, and concurring opinions. OLS regression with robust standard errors is the estimation procedure. Results . We find that a justice's position as Chief Justice, professional and education background, reputation ranking, and tenure on the Court can explain a justice's opinion writing. At the same time, we discover that particular variables have different affects on writing majority, dissenting, or concurring opinions. Conclusions . This study demonstrates the importance of both structural and personal background variables in explaining judicial behavior. It also shows the importance of analyzing different kinds of judicial opinions when explaining the justices' opinion writing.     

Public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court: A new look at the impact of Court decisions

Judicial scholars have long debated the notion that Court decisions can influence the public's attitudes toward the U.S. Supreme Court. We engage this literature by introducing new dimensions to existing theory for predicting the impact of Court decisions on public confidence in the Court and by introducing innovative methods to test our hypotheses. We begin our analysis by examining the relationship between specific Court decisions and public confidence with aggregate time series data. Our analysis then shifts to an examination of individual-level survey data to examine the same hypotheses. Our results indicate that specific decisions can have a significant positive and negative impact on individual-level confidence in the Court. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for the theoretical and methodological debates over the influence of Court decisions on public confidence.     

Acclimation Effects on the Supreme Court of Canada: A Cross‐Cultural Examination of Judicial Folklore*

Objective. Few public law theories developed to understand the decision making of U.S. courts have been examined in different cultural settings. This study examines the applicability of the “freshman effects” theory in the context of the Canadian Supreme Court. Methods. The article uses analysis of variance tests to examine changes in the voting and authorship patterns of 15 Canadian Supreme Court Justices during the Laskin, Dickson, and Lamer Court periods (1973–1999). Results. We find very little evidence of acclimation effects on the Canadian Supreme Court. However, through the Chief Justice's power to compose decision panels, Canadian justices in their first full year of service are assigned significantly fewer cases than in subsequent years of their career. Thus, Canadian justices are given time to acclimate to the high court through a lower workload, a luxury not afforded to U.S. justices. Conclusions. Theories of public law adopted to understand U.S. courts may be limited in their generalizability beyond the U.S. setting because of the institutional and political forces that shape judicial decision making in other courts.     

Morality Politics vs. Political Economy: The Case of School-Based Health Centers

Objective . Scholars continue to debate whether morally charged political issues constitute a distinct type of policy question or produce essentially the same political dynamic as public controversies lacking an overt moral dimension. The debate will not be resolved until scholars test the determinants of putative morality policies with predictors drawn both from morality politics theory and from the socioeconomic factors that account for the distribution of many other public policies. This study reports such a test. Methods . We analyze data from our national survey of directors of school-based health centers. We use ordinary least squares regression models to predict the level of reproductive health care services provided to adolescents. Results . Service levels were influenced not only by cultural considerations, as morality politics theory would anticipate, but also by the same socioeconomic forces that account for policy levels in other domains. Conclusions . Policy for morality issues appears different from that for nonmorality issues but less distinctive than commonly imagined.     

Deepening democracy?: Demarcation,traditional authorities,and municipal elections in South Africa

Since the end of apartheid in South Africa, municipal elections often have been overlooked. Many analysts have discussed the significance of the national elections, but few have analyzed municipal elections. I argue that local elections are important indicators of democratic consolidation and the deepening of democratic procedures in South Africa. This article examines two issues that shaped recent municipal elections: the electoral demarcation process and the role of the traditional leaders. My analysis provides important lessons for democratic consolidation and representation in South Africa. Given the evidence of higher voter turnout and greater institutionalization of the democratic practice at the local level, traditional authorities may serve as a democratizing function in local politics. Moreover, this article suggests that focus on democratic consolidation should not be limited to the national level of politics. And, finally, the results of this study support the view that consolidation should be considered a continuum.     

Morality policy processes in advanced industrial democracies

In recent years, several countries have experienced widespread, intense debates about morality issues such as the death penalty, abortion, ART/stem cell research, same-sex marriage, and euthanasia. Assuming the distinctiveness of morality policies from other policy fields, this article analyses three alternative institutional models for explaining variations in the amount of conflict over these morality issues across 24 Western democracies. Is either the US-developed “policy type” model or the European-developed “two worlds” of morality politics, based on religious and secular party systems, applicable more broadly? Are there regional patterns (Europe and non-Europe) to any institutional findings? How does each model contribute to our understanding of morality policy comparatively across Western democracies? We find broader cross-national support for the policy type model, with the two worlds model largely restricted to Europe. The US has more morality policy conflict because of its unusual combination of a political party targeting religiously oriented voters within an institutional framework of multiple venues. The US and other non-European countries have similar patterns of institutional deliberation through decentralization, and the US also has similarities in multiple venues with religious party systems in Europe. Secular European party systems with centralized institutions have the fewest venues for morality policy debate.     

Women's rights and the Constitution

The revitalization of the Feminist Movement in the late 20th century led to the abandonment of most overt male bias in constitutional law. The Supreme Court replaced its old doctrines that accepted gender discrimination virtually without scrutiny with a rule that gender-based classification must bear a substantial relationship to an important purpose. The limited right to abortion recognized in Roe v. Wade [Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 413 (1973)] has survived 30 years of persistent efforts to negate it. Nevertheless, male bias remains entrenched in American law. Although law is no longer an exclusively male activity, legal rules originated in men's viewpoints and experiences. Examples of this kind of male bias include a concept of self-defense that does not fit the experience of domestic violence victims and child custody rulings that ignore the mother's role as primary caregiver. Unfortunately, constitutional doctrine remains impervious to this type of bias.     

Practical reasons and reasonable practice: the case of euthanasia in The Netherlands

Since the early 1970s the issue of euthanasia has been intensely debated in The Netherlands. Through these debates knowledge about medical practices involving the end of life was no longer confined to medical or legal quarters, but became public to a large extent. Following public opinion changes, the legal reaction to euthanasia changed. By prosecuting test cases the public prosecutors allowed the Dutch Supreme Court to formulate specific conditions in which euthanasia would go unpunished. The political debate about changing the criminal law, which still holds that euthanasia is a serious crime, developed at a much slower pace. Several extensive empirical studies were undertaken to gain valid knowledge about the medical practices. This article is concerned with a presentation of the various debates and the changes that took place in the fields of criminal law, politics, and medicine. The main conclusion is the hypothesis that a more open climate for medical practices concerning the end of life allows society to better control these practices.     

Race and Redistricting: What the Print Media Conveys to the Public about the Role of Race

In a series of voting rights cases, the U.S. Supreme Court held that race-based redistricting, particularly the intentional formation of majority–minority districts (districts in which voters of color constitute a majority of eligible voters) may be unconstitutional if race was the predominant factor in the formation of the district. The Court stated that "redistricting legislation that is so bizarre on its face that it is unexplainable on grounds other than race" may violate the Constitution because of the messages such districts send to the public ( Shaw v. Reno , 1993 ). Yet neither the Court nor social scientists have examined whether the existence of race-conscious majority–minority districts sends messages to voters and what the nature of these messages may be. This research begins to address this scientific issue. In a quantitative content analysis, we examined messages about racial redistricting conveyed to citizens via the print media. Our sample consisted of 355 newspaper articles about redistricting included in the Lexis–Nexis database between 1990 and 2005. We found that newspaper coverage of racial districting contains messages to citizens about the motives involved in redistricting, the individuals and groups who are responsible for it, and its actual and expected effects. This finding is consistent with the Supreme Court's assumption that districts, particularly bizarrely shaped ones, convey distinct messages to voters. The specific messages communicated varied in important ways across the articles. Newspapers in states subject to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because of their history of discrimination against voters of color covered racial redistricting differently than states not subject to Section 5. We discuss the legal and theoretical implications of these findings for understanding the role of race in legislative redistricting efforts.     

亚里士多德的伦理学命题——伦理的目的、德性的养成、幸福的获得

亚里士多德在论证德性与幸福中隐含着三个伦理学命题:伦理的目的、德性的养成、幸福的获得。以习俗为共同出发点的政治学和伦理学的目的分别是促进"城邦的幸福"和"个人的幸福",政治学的公正立法使人获得一种亲近德性的道德,服务于政治学的伦理学的目的是使"个人的善"同一于最高善——"城邦的善"。德性不仅仅是"一种合乎明智的品质",而是"与逻各斯一起发挥作用";德性的养成要靠个体在健全的法律下获得一种亲近德性的道德,德性的养成是一个持续的心理禀赋过程,最终养成"明智德性"。只有灵魂的德性的实现活动才是幸福,它是完善的和自足的;人的幸福有两种:一是"第一好"的幸福,属于沉思的理智的幸福;二是"第二好"的幸福,属于实践的理智的幸福。     

Does Seniority Matter? The Conditional Influence of State Methods of Judicial Retention*

Objective. Capitalizing on attention directed to judicial agreement and the associated consequences of judicial elections, this article conducts an examination of the effects of seniority and state methods of judicial retention on decisions by state supreme court justices to dissent. Methods. Using data drawn from the State Supreme Court Data Archive, this research analyzes decisions by individual justices to dissent in 33,582 tort cases from 1995 to 1998. GEE logistic analysis with cases as the clustering unit is the estimation procedure. Results. While the seniority of justices is positively connected to dissent, the findings illustrate that seniority's effect is nuanced and conditioned by a state's method of judicial retention. The impact of a justice's seniority relative to his or her colleagues is most powerful in appointive courts where justices serve without fear of electoral retaliation. Alternatively, within elective courts, justices respond to elections by pursuing a consensual approach regardless of their seniority. Conclusion. The dissent characteristics of justices in state supreme courts are intricately tied to the length of careers and the methods by which states keep justices in office.     

Culture Wars in State Education Policy: A Look at the Relative Treatment of Evolutionary Theory in State Science Standards*

Objectives. Students of public policy have recognized that not all policies are completely or mostly shaped by socioeconomic factors. Some policies, known as morality policies, derive from the deeply held values and beliefs of effective participants in the policy‐making process. To better understand this distinct policy category and where it exists, policy analysts must test for the impact of both socioeconomic forces and explanatory factors developed in morality politics theory (particularly religious contexts). This study attempts to explain differences in state science education standards with regard to stipulated instruction in evolutionary theory as morality policy. Methods. A cross‐sectional study of the American states employing ordinary least squares and logistic regression analysis assesses the impact of popular evangelical adherence over the presence of evolution‐friendly state science standards, ceteris paribus. Results. Socioeconomic factors inadequately explain the variation in state science standards. Furthermore, these standards are morality policies with clearly defined religious implications and are better explained by state religious divisions than by other cultural forces such as state ideological context. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that some policies have clear implications for religious beliefs and may represent a subcategory of morality policy. These kinds of policies are better explained by religious contexts than other political and cultural determinants of morality policies.     

“九·一八”后舆论空间与集权政治的关系（1931-1935）—以《独立评论》与《时代公论》为中心

“九·一八”后,为应对国难,舆论界出现了评议时政的热潮。他们以某一刊物为聚集地,形成了宽泛的舆论空间。在众多新创刊物中,以《独立评论》与《时代公论》为典型代表。舆论界尽管有着强烈的民主宪政的呼声,但随着时局的发展,对领袖权威的推崇逐渐达成了共识,赞成建立强力政府,主张实行集权政治。1935年,军事权威蒋介石兼任行政院院长,集权政治形成。然而,舆论空间与集权政治存在着一个二律背反的矛盾。如何保持一个自由的舆论空间,加强舆论对政府监督,是国民政府一直未能解决的难题。     

Legislating morality outside of the legislature: Direct democracy,voter participation and morality politics

Twenty-four states currently use some form of the initiative and referendum in an effort to give Americans the opportunity to make laws directly and vote on proposals given to them by their state legislatures. In one area in particular, morality policy, voters have historically used the ballot box to craft important and often controversial legislation. These have included items concerning gambling, alcohol, abortion, narcotics, obscenity and religion. This research examines two important aspects of the direct democracy issue: does the initiative and referendum increase voter participation in the states giving this option to voters and what is the impact on participation levels when morality issues are considered? For the first question a unique data set is developed to test voter turnout on ballot issues using the state as the unit of analysis. Results of this ordinary-least-squares analysis suggest direct democracy does increase voter turnout rates. In the second part of the analysis, however, several state ballots from 1972 to 2006 are analyzed suggesting that voter interest is strongest when they face morality issues. Hence, ‘legislating morality’ takes on a new meaning here since we commonly associate the phrase only with legislative institutions. As shown, over time citizens have been legislating morality directly in their own unique way. Theoretically, while advocates of direct democracy contend the process increases voter participation, it is argued here that the participation is often skewed toward certain morality issues and not toward issues as a whole. The data support this contention and raise normative questions concerning voters and their propensity to ‘legislate morality’.     

Of politics,self-preservation,and symbolism: An investigation of jurisdiction-stripping and legislative redistricting

Jurisdiction-stripping has long been a questionable component of Congress's power to supervise the judiciary's policymaking role. It has gained notoriety in recent debates surrounding judicial involvement in areas including religious establishment and privacy issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Most scholarship equates the advocacy of jurisdiction-stripping measures with symbolic position-taking that is unmotivated by the goal of traditional policy success. This work, a quantitative case study of the first such measure to pass the House of Representative since Reconstruction, seeks to isolate legislative motivations for exerting jurisdictional controls against the Supreme Court. Legislators’ votes on this measure were multifaceted. While those decisions were guided in part by the symbolic and representational considerations that traditionally underlie the advocacy of such legislation, there is also evidence more substantive motivations played a part. The study highlights the evolving objectives of jurisdiction-stripping's advocates and, more broadly, Congress's objectives vis-à-vis the courts.     

Public health care in the balance: exploring popular support for health care systems in the European Union

Which factors explain intra‐ and inter‐country variations in levels of public support for national health care systems within the European Union, and why? We propose that public opinion towards public health care is dependent on (1) the type of welfare state regime to which the various European welfare states belong, (2) typical features of the national care system and (3) individual social and demographic characteristics, which are related to self‐interest or morality oriented motives. To assess the explanatory power of these factors, data from the Eurobarometer survey series are analysed. Support for public health care appears to be particularly positively related to social‐democratic attributes of welfare states, whereas support drops with increasing degrees of liberalism and conservatism. Further, support for public health care proves to be associated with wider coverage and public funding of national care services. We also find higher levels of support in countries with scarce social services for children and the elderly, and larger proportions of female (part‐time) employment. Lastly, with respect to individual characteristics, we find remarkably little evidence for self‐interest oriented motives affecting the preference for solidary health care arrangements.     

Fusion ballots as a candidate-centered reform: Evidence from Oregon

This article argues that fusion balloting, or the ability of multiple parties to nominate a single candidate for office, can be viewed as a candidate-centered and incumbent-oriented reform. Using the recent passage of fusion legislation in Oregon in 2009 and its subsequent use in 2010 state legislative elections as a test case, I study the factors behind supporting fusion legislation in both chambers of the state legislature and how these same factors affected, or did not affect, the incumbents that received cross-nominations in the 2010 elections. Overall, I find that party did not play a direct role in determining which legislators supported fusion, though female legislators were less supportive. When it came to obtaining nominations, the main finding is that incumbent candidates who voted yes to fusion were generally more likely to receive nominations. Still, legislators from the group that most opposed fusion, Democratic women, attempted to win cross-nominations once the 2010 elections approached. These findings suggest that candidate factors, more than party dictates, affected support for fusion and the ability of incumbents to receive cross-endorsements. Thus, the willingness of major-party candidates to adopt fusion can be understood through theories of candidate-centered elections and political parties.     

Regional Variations in the Realignment of American Politics, 1944–2004*

Objective. Perennial questions in electoral studies are what constitutes realignment, and when and where do realignments occur? Using the concepts of critical and secular realignments as a framework, we model change in the end product of realignment, election outcomes. We test for secular and critical changes in partisan strength across six geographic regions of the United States, focusing on office‐holding data at both the federal and state legislative level. Methods. Using an interrupted time‐series model, we examine evidence for secular realignment and posit five critical interventions that have affected American politics since World War II. Results. Our findings suggest that there are elements of both critical and secular realignments at work with different patterns in each region, and that different regions have been affected by a variety of elections associated with critical events since 1944. Conclusions. The collapse of Republican hegemony in the Northeast and Pacific West has gone largely unnoticed, buried in the intense examination of the growth of the Republican Party in the American South. The 1994 election is the most prominent in terms of its impact on seat holding by the parties at both the state and national level, and constitutes a realigning election.     

Assessing the value of state legislative experience and legislative professionalism in national election performance, 1974–2010

State legislative experience and chamber professionalism have been shown to benefit state legislators as they decide and prepare to run for national office in American Congressional elections. Yet, what are the effects of these two factors on national election performance? I test the implications from the literature that state legislative experience and chamber professionalism should impact national election outcomes on all two-party contested elections from 1974 to 2010. I find that state legislative experience enhances candidates’ vote shares, though differently for different candidates. Yet, surprisingly professionalism plays no moderating role. Such effects present at the earlier stages of elections wash out as elections come to a close.     

Municipal elections and community media

Local elections are held more often and more frequently than any other type in American politics and are more often the first stepping stone to higher election office. But the “lost world” of municipal governments still remains lost because of political scientists’ and media scholars’ preoccupation with national voting behavior and presidential “personality” contests. Fifty-nine mayoral elections from 1986 to 1998 in 15 rural New Mexico communities without TV stations are examined. When the powerful incumbency variable is eliminated, community journalism’s influence is positively correlated via newspaper endorsement and local radio advertising in predicting winners of local elections. This study also operationalizes from scientific measurement 19 other independent variables that have been identified in predicting the winners of municipal races.