Simplicial Pivoting Algorithms for a Tractable Class of Integer Programs

We present a tractable class of integer feasibility problems. This class of max-closed IP problems was studied in somewhat restricted form by Glover, Pnueli, Hochbaum and Chandrasekaran and has a logic counterpart known as the class of Horn formulas. First we modify the existing algorithms in order to avoid the related recognition problem. Then we show that in order to solve these max-closed IP problems, simplicial path following methods can be used. This is important because these methods are flexible with respect to starting conditions, which make them more suitable than the top-down truncation algorithms that have been suggested.     

Pursuit of mission: The rise and fall of elite nonprofit leadership

The University Circle Development Foundation (UCDF) was created in 1957 to implement a master plan for the development of Cleveland's University Circle district. Run by the presidents of three major institutions, UCDF was successful in coordinating land use and construction projects in its early years. However, its elite authority structure proved insular and inflexible when dealing with students, faculty, and adjacent neighborhoods, and it was dissolved in 1970.     

Rational voters in a partisanship model

This paper examines a voter model for the US which is interconnected with the partisan theory. In our model, voters are rational and forward-looking. They are perfectly informed about the preferences of political parties and about the state of the economy. The predictions of our voter model differ from the predictions of conventional voter models, according to which the incumbent benefits from low unemployment and low inflation, irrespective of its political colour. In a partisan setting, the democratic party benefits from high unemployment and the republican party benefits from high inflation. Regressions of presidential approval rates indicate that the predictions of both the partisan voter model and the conventional model are consistent with the data.     

Environmental Politics: the Structuring of Partisan and Ideological Cleavages in Mass Environmental Attitudes*

This paper explores the impacts of political party identification and political ideology on two dimensions of mass environmental beliefs—awareness of environmental problems and support for environmental reform. We argue that while the environmental movement's mobilization of public awareness of environmental problems was essentially non-partisan, more recent movement efforts to achieve environmental reforms have taken a discernible “reform liberal” stance of advocating state regulation of the private sector. Neither political party identification nor political ideology has a substantial effect on awareness of environmental problems. Anti-laissez-faire political liberalism proves to be highly correlated with support for environmental reform, particularly among the middle class. Despite the major impact of political liberalism on support for environmental reform, there are no partisan differences in such support. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the notion that political-ideological differences in support for environmental reform exist despite political parties.     

Obscenity Reactions: Toward a Symbolic Interactionist Explanation

It is suggested that there is a syndrome of reactions elicited by stimuli people define as obscene and that these reactions can be explained within a symbolic interactionist framework. More specifically, it is argued that they are reactions to the denial or destruction of a person's ability to achieve and/or maintain an identity that is socially acceptable to him within a particular situation.