Article Abstracts

James C. Clingermayer. Electoral Representation, Zoning Politics, and the Exclusion of Group Homes. Political Research Quarterly, December 1994.

This paper examines how ward representation affects zoning policies with respect to group homes that house or care for the mentally retarded, juvenile offenders, recovering alcoholics and/ or drug users. The analysis is motivated by an interest representation model that contends that constituency homogeneity should cause elected officials to be attentive to revealed preferences of their constituents. As predicted, ward representation, which enhances constituency homogeneity, is strongly associated with the exclusion of group homes in municipal zoning ordinances. The median household income of a city, relative to that of its metropolitan area, also has some exclusionary effect. Other demographics and socioeconomic characteristics of communities, which have been the primary focus of prior research on the siting of group homes, have not a statistically significant effect in this analysis.

George Tsebelis and Roland Stephen. "Monitoring Unemployment Benefits in a Comparative Perspective." Political Research Quarterly, December 1994.

Most economic theories predict a rise in unemployment when unemployment benefits increase. The reason is that more people will be willing to exit from work, and fewer people will enter the work force, when benefits are high. We argue that these theories oversimplify the situation because they do not take into account the way benefits are monitored. We present a model of monitoring benefits which leads to three conclusions that are different from standard economic theory: (1) Size of unemployment benefit has no effect on unemployment; (2) Duration of unemployment benefit has a positive effect on unemployment; (3) Size of unemployment benefit has a positive effect on the monitoring of benefits. We present historical evidence in favor of these propositions from a series of countries, and test them cross- nationally with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data.

William A. Maloney, Grant Jordan, Andrew M. McLaughlin. "Interest Groups and Public Policy: The Insider/ Outsider Model Revisited." The Journal of Public Policy, Vol.14, No.1.

This paper examines the place of groups in the consultative process in British policymaking. It stresses the importance of consultation even under the Thatcher government and distinguishes between consultation, bargaining, and negotiation. This paper identifies the important divide between the relatively few groups with the privileged status and the greater number of groups who find themselves consigned to less influential positions. The discussion revisits the insider/ outsider typology often used to differentiate interest group strategies and status in policy development. It suggests that the insider group term is associated with a particular style of policy making, and offers amendments to the existing use of terms to avoid the difficulties which occur from conflation of group strategy and group status.

John T. Woolley. "The Politics of Monetary Policy: A Critical Review." The Journal of Public Policy. Vol.14, No.1.

The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States is a pre-eminent banking institution, and an institution that has been subject to scrutiny from a wide variety of scholarly perspectives. The object of this article is to review prominent works dealing with the politics of the Federal Reserve, particularly its relations with other institutions and their effects on monetary policy. The review shows that the formal legal independence of a central bank such as the Fed does not mark the end of monetary politics, and its record suggest a greater measure of modesty and caution on the part of enthusiasts for independent central banks.

Susana Aguilar Fernandez. "Convergence in Environmental Policy?: The Resilience of National Institutional Designs in Spain and Germany" The Journal of Public Policy, Vol.14, No.1.

This article unveils the resilience of national institutional designs in the process of European unification; more specifically, the article stands out the pervasiveness of the pattern of relationship between the government and industry in the environmental policy of two countries: Spain and Germany. Although the European Union (EU) is increasingly influential in environmental policy, these designs have only recently undergone slight changes. This can be explained not only by the lesser importance that the EU has heretofore attached to the connection between the systems of interest intermediation and the fulfillment of Community policy goals, but by the strength of the historical arrangements and cultural traditions on the national level.

Paul Sabatier, John Loomis, and Catherine McCarthy. "Hierarchical Controls, Professional Norms, Local Constituencies, and Budget Maximization: An Analysis of U.S. Forest Service Planning Decisions." American Journal of Political Science, February 1995.

Multiple theories of bureaucratic behavior are integrated for this study. Planning decisions made by the U.S. Forest Service are a function of hierarchical controls, bureaucratic conservatism, the professional/ policy orientation of agency officials, the strength of local constituency groups, and officials' alleged desire to maximize budgets. Output levels contained in a set of forest plan alternatives and a survey of the perceptions of approximately 1090 agency officials involved in the planning process are used for data analyses. The results show pressures for the status quo and the activities of local amenity coalitions were more important than hierarchical controls from Congress, OMB, and the National Office.

Kathleen M. McGraw, Samuel Best, and Richard Timpone. "What They Say or What They Do?: The Impact of Elite Explanation and Policy Outcomes on Public Opinion." American Journal of Political Science, February 1995.

The causal impact of public policy-including both policy consequences and the surrounding political rhetoric-on public opinion is explored. Evaluations of new policies as well as the officials responsible for the enactment of those policies is a function of perceptions of policy consequences ("what they do") as well as an acceptance of the explanation provided to account for policy decision ("what they say"). An experimental design was used to independently manipulate the consequences of a controversial budgetary bill (i.e., as negative sum or zero sum outcomes) and the explanations provided by a representative who voted for the bill. Analyses of variance and multiple regression were used to examine the extent to which these two factors, as well as a number of critical mediating variables, influence opinions about the policy and the representative. Both policy outcomes (particularly perceptions of national, rather than personal impact) and the representative's explanation for his vote (mediated by individual- level acceptance of the account) influenced opinions about the policy and the representative.

David Lowery and Virginia Gray. "The Population Ecology of Gucci Gulch, or the Natural Regulation of Interest Group Numbers in the American States" American Journal of Political Science, February 1995.

The theory of population ecology (in contrast to economic theories of groups) is used to predict the number of interest groups in the American states. Interest group density is a function of potential constituents, potential government goods and services, the stability of the political system, government age , and government size. Regression analysis of the U.S. state data for interest groups in construction, agriculture, manufacturing, welfare, the environment, and local governments. Interest group density conforms to the predictions based on population ecology (constituents, government goods and services, and political stability), but not those based on economic theories of group mobilization..

Kim Quaile Hill, Jan E. Leighley, Angela Hinton- Anderson. "Lower -Class Mobilization and Policy Linkage in the U.S. States." American Journal of Political Science, February 1995.

Political participation by lower class voters should create pressures for government to respond with supportive policies. We assert that lower class voting is associated with more generous state welfare policies. Political forces and institutions structure this relationship. Included in this paper is a pooled time series analysis for the fifty U.S. states from 1978- 1990. We demonstrate an enduring relationship between the degree of mobilization of lower-class voters and the generosity of welfare benefits provided by state governments. This relationship can be vitiated by remarkable political and economic events such as the "new federalism" and the economic recession in the early 1980s. Finally, the importance of lower-class mobilization for redistributive policy is enhanced by the liberalism and competitiveness of state Democratic parties.

Kenneth R. Mayer. "Electoral Cycles in Federal Government Prime Contract Awards: State-Level Evidence from the 1988 and 1992 Presidential Elections" American Journal of Political Science, February 1995.

The political business-cycle theory is used to test for state-level accelerations in contract awards and deobligations induced by presidential elections. The hypotheses is that government contracting agencies accelerate contract awards, and reduce the level of deobligations, immediately before presidential elections. The cycles should not involve any total increase in spending. Regression analysis of a pooled time series of data set of the monthly dollar value of Department of Defense and civilian agency contract awards and deobligations in each state between October 1985 and December 1992. Both contract awards and deobligations behave as expected. Civilian agency contract awards rise immediately before presidential elections and primaries, and both Department of Defense and Civilian agency deobligation activity virtually halts as the elections approach. Although the total level of activity is unchanged in election years, the cycles are clear. This supports the notion that the cycles are important politically even though they have little macroeconomic impact.

Bruce Western. "Institutional Mechanisms for Unionization in Sixteen OECD Countries: An Analysis of Social Survey Data." Social Forces, December 1994.

A key debate in studies of unionization concerns the influence of structural characteristics of labor markets on labor organizing. Studies of national survey data reveal strong relationships between unionization and demographic, industrial, and occupational structures. By contrast, comparativists analyzing highly aggregated union density data emphasize the institutional determinants of labor organization. In this article I synthesize structural and institutional explanations of unionization in a multilevel analysis that combines social survey data and comparative institutional information from sixteen OECD countries. This analysis indicates that highly centralized collective bargaining and union-managed unemployment insurance schemes are associated with high and distinctively solidaristic patterns of unionization. More generally, the results suggest that institutions that displace market allocation with political control assist working class organization in trade unions.

Mike McMullen. "Religious Politics as Institutions." Social Forces, December 1994.

This article explores the application of neo-institutional theory to religious organizations, looking especially at how institutionalized myths and rituals of ecclesiastical authority influence members' behaviors and attitudes toward organizational policy. Research done on hierarchical and decentralized religious polities (which are structures of church government) reveal differential processes of informing parishioners about church policy. Hierarchical (or "tightly structured") religious institutions foster knowledge of organizational policy because of the myths and rituals of recognized ecclesiastical authority, while decentralized (or "loosely structured") religious institutions, whose myths and rituals focus on local autonomy, rely upon members' external motivation for awareness of organizational policy. In part, this article argues for the theoretical usefulness of the application of neo- institutional theory to various organizational fields, such as religious organizations.

Frank J. Popper and Deborah E. Popper. "Great Plains, Checkered Past, Hopeful Future." Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Winter 1994.

The Great Plains, which extends over large parts of ten states, stretching from Montana and North Dakota in the north to Texas and New Mexico to the south, has suffered from too many people, farms, ranches, towns, railroads, and roads for the land to take. Restoring the health of this troubled region may require "recreating" elements of the 19th century. This paper contends that such restoration could be achieved through an initiative dubbed Buffalo Commons. Buffalo Commons would tap local and federal governments, American Indian Tribes, and the private sector to restore the Great Plains by tearing down fences, replanting native shortgrass, and restocking buffalo along with other native species. This initiative has won the support of the Nature Conservancy, which is now purchasing large tracts of land in the Plains to be used to raise buffalo and boost eco-tourism. Though few of the region's agriculturists openly support the project, many acknowledge that humankind's efforts to tame the Plains have wrought environmental damage.

Dave Egan and Bill Whitney. "Buffalo Commons: Model or Metaphor?" Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Winter 1994.

The fragile ecosystem of the U.S. Great Plains has suffered decades of abuse from government efforts to settle the region and exploit its resources. though Frank and Deborah Popper have introduced the Buffalo Commons initiative as a way to restore the Plains to health, they have failed to translate their project from an academic vision into real-life policies. In fact, the Popper's scheme is more metaphor than model for the restoration of the Great Plains. Although, the Poppers have placed the issue of restoring the Plains before the people.

Clinton V. Oster, John S. Strong, and C. Kurt Zorn. "How Safe is Air Travel at Home and Abroad?" Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Winter 1994.

Fatal accident rates for international airline travel have declined by 50 percent over the past thirty years. Nevertheless, the airline safety records of some developing nations- among them those in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America- are poor compared to those of North American carriers. These countries' airline safety records have suffered because of poor maintenance, aging aircraft fleets, and limited access to sophisticated navigation and safety equipment. The transfer of used aircraft from carriers in the developed countries to their counterparts in developing nations places older, less-reliable aircraft in the hands of less capable pilots who fly in the most challenging operating environments. Though terrorism has attracted media attention worldwide, equipment failure- and not terrorist bombs- is the biggest factor affecting airline safety.

Clyde V. Prestowitz, Jr., and Saul Goldstein. "Trade Policy Shifts to Reflect New Era." Forum: For Applied Research and Public Policy, Winter 1994.

In a post-Cold War world, trade policy will come to reflect economic goals rather than a geopolitical agenda as it has in the past. Since the end of the World War II, the U.S. State Department consistently has used trade policy to achieved its foreign-policy objectives of firmly cementing our trading partners into the free-world camp. Now instead of continuing to pursue our political goals through trade policy, we should look to trade to raise our productivity and, thereby, increase our standard of living. For role models, we might turn to Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, and other countries that integrate their technology, industrial, and trade policies with broader macroeconomic goals.

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