Abstract: Do parties matters? Congressional scholars have for decades assumed they do; they have written about Congress as if parties are important and have provided what they believed was ample evidence that parties affect how Congress operates and, to varying extents, influence the substance of the legislation produced. Yet a number of prominent political scientists have contested what seemed obvious. My purpose here is to critically assess the argument that parties do not matter, suggest an alternative perspective and provide some supporting evidence. My tests focus primarily on special rules in the House, though I do present other bits of evidence that parties matter as well. I argue that indeed Congress can not be understood in the absence of parties and that parties do affect outcomes.

Abstract: Senator Hart delivered this lectuare as a UC Irvine Regents Lecturer in 1998. He discusses the theoretical traditions of American democracy and reform issues that face the United States.

Abstract: Based on what was known about the factors influencing turnout rates, there was good reason to expect that American turnout would gradually increase to around the high levels then experienced in most established democracies. The reasons why turnout should have increased in recent decades make perfect sense and there is little reason to believe that the underlying theories have proved to be wrong. But turnout has decreased over time. This paper examines the factors that explain who votes in the United States at present, and as compared to the early 1960s.

Abstract: Author(s): Newton, Lina Yvette | Abstract: Objective. This study explores factors that can either undermine or bolster political solidarity based on a shared "Latino" group identity by testing them within the context of Proposition 187. Methods. This research analyzes data from Field Polls conducted in October 1994, shortly before the general election where Proposition 187 appeared. Results. A set of multivariate analyses reveals that Latino support for 187 did not come from Latinos most likely to be economically threatened by immigration. Instead, Latinos who are non-citizens and who use Spanish as a primary language overwhelmingly opposed Proposition 187 because these are the Latinos who are most likely to face discrimination with the passage of the measure. Latinos who speak English and are citizens may have perceived no threat from 187, explaining why the supported the measure. The findings for Anglos corroborate other research showing that support for Proposition 187 was ideologically driven. Conclusion. The findings refine our understanding of the Latino population by 1) demonstrating that the group is not monolithic, and 2) identifying how issues of assimilation and cultural identity function to forge political divisions among Latinos.

Abstract: There is limited solid evidence on the determinants of partisan preference among Latinos in the United States. This study makes use of the Latino National Political Survey to explore the partisanship of Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, and Puerto Ricans on the mainland and, in comparison, that of non-Latino whites (Anglos). We particularly focus upon the relationships between learning, demographic factors and partisanship. Our national data generally validates the overall pattern of preferences found in more limited studies: strong Republican Party preferences among the Cuban-Americans and Democratic partisanship within the other two groups. We also find that the demographic correlates of preference vary substantially across these ethnic groups. One result that does hold for all three Latino groups is an increase in Democrat Party identification with experience of U.S. politics (as measured by age or time in the United States). This result supports a learning-theory view of Latino partisanship. We also find that those Latinos who are more integrated into their ethnic culture are more likely to support the party dominant for their group. When we turn our attention to factors that distinguish independents from partisans, we find fewer differences across groups. Higher education and older age tend to be associated with partisanship as has been found for the general US population. For both direction and independence, religion matters for Anglos and Puerto Ricans but not the other two groups. Finally, we examine strong versus weak attachment among partisans and again find age effects. This research demonstrates how learning theories of partisan identification can be elucidated by analyzing an understudied sub-population of Americans. It also underscores the importance of resisting the impulse of grouping all Latinos under a single heading in the study of their political behavior.

Abstract: Author(s): Solinger, Dorothy | Abstract: This paper the linkages between "globalization," an essentially economic set of processes, and such political outcomes as inclusion and membership within the community (or what could be labeled participation rights, properties arguably as critical for democratic societies as is the ability to contribute to the determination of the leaders and policies of the state)

Abstract: Drawing on a lifetime of comparisons between French and British experiences, this essay clears ground for a more general explanation of variation in the impact of regimes on contention, and vice versa, over Europe as a whole since 1650. Differences among Swiss, British, French, Dutch, Iberian, and other European experiences with regime change and contention set challenging empirical, conceptual, and theoretical problems. Considering the great variety of European trajectories, how can we possibly pinpoint important similarities and differences in the interplay among changes in social environments, alterations in governmental forms, histories of contentious politics, and approaches to (or retreats from) democracy? How can we single out the effects of varying patterns of military activity? What concepts will help discipline those comparisons and single out significant causal mechanisms? To what extent can we identify recurrent cause-effect relationships that operated throughout the range of European history since 1650? This paper's task is to lay out tools for pursuit of those questions.

Abstract: Although corruption poses fundamental challenges to both democratic governance and market economies, surprisingly little political science research addresses corruption in a comparative context. In this article we explain variation in the perceived level of corruption (defined as the misuse of public office for private gain) across fifty countries. We propose a set of hypotheses that explain variation in corruption levels in terms of domestic political-economic structures, democratic norms, and integration into the international economy. Levels of corruption, we propose, are higher: 1) the greater the extent of state control of the economy, 2) the weaker the democratic norms and values, and 3) the lower the degree of integration into the world economy. The multivariate data analysis broadly confirms our predictions, each of the independent variables is significant in the direction we expected.