Abstract: A considerable number of theories such as neo-functionalism and neo-institutionalism consider the European Commission a central actor in European Union (EU) politics. Yet, our theoretical understanding of the Commission is still limited. By taking recourse to principal–agent theory, this article argues that the European Commission should be considered neither a technocratic nor an overly independent actor in EU politics. The paper's theoretical focus is on member states' incentives to nominate and appoint particular types of European Commissioners and its likely effects on the Commission's policy preferences. The dataset used to test the theoretical claims was generated by the author for this purpose. It contains the theoretically relevant information on all European Commissioners appointed between 1958 and the present (N = 215) as well as relevant attributes of the nominating governments. I suggest that the Commission should be considered a political rather than a technocratic actor with close p...

Abstract: The process by which presidents decide whom to nominate to fill Supreme Court vacancies is obviously of far-ranging importance, particularly because the vast majority of nominees are eventually confirmed. But why is one individual selected from among a pool of presumably qualified candidates? In "Strategic Selection: Presidential Nomination of Supreme Court Justices from Herbert Hoover through George W. Bush", Christine Nemacheck makes heavy use of presidential papers to reconstruct the politics of nominee selection from Herbert Hoover's appointment of Charles Evan Hughes in 1930 through President George W. Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito in 2005. Bringing to light firsthand evidence of selection politics and of the influence of political actors, such as members of Congress and presidential advisors, from the initial stages of formulating a short list through the president's final selection of a nominee, Nemacheck constructs a theoretical framework that allows her to assess the factors impacting a president's selection process. Much work on Supreme Court nominations focuses on struggles over confirmation, or is heavily based on anecdotal material and posits the "idiosyncratic" nature of the selection process; in contrast, "Strategic Selection" points to systematic patterns in judicial selection. Nemacheck argues that although presidents try to maximize their ideological preferences and minimize uncertainty about nominees' conduct once they are confirmed, institutional factors that change over time, such as divided government and the institutionalism of the presidency, shape and constrain their choices. By revealing the pattern of strategic action, which she argues is visible from the earliest stages of the selection process, Nemacheck takes us a long way toward understanding this critically important part of our political system.

Abstract: We model and compare three different processes by which political parties nominate candidates for a general election: nominations by party leaders, nominations by a vote of party members, and nominations by a spending competition among potential candidates. We show that in equilibrium, non-median outcomes can result when two parties compete using nominations via any of these processes. We also show that more extreme outcomes can emerge from spending competition than from nominations by votes or by party leaders. When voters (and potential nominees) are free to switch political parties, then median outcomes ensue when nominations are decided by a vote but not when nominations are decided by spending competition.

Abstract: This research note addresses an increasingly popular topic in the EU literature, namely the measurement of policy preferences in the Council of Ministers. It aims to provide conclusions on three issues: (1) what data are in fact available from the Council, (2) how preferences are measured in other legislatures, and (3) whether these methods would be suitable for analyses of Council members' preference positions given the available data. Applying the popular scaling method NOMINATE and a Bayesian MCMC model to a data set consisting of all legislation adopted by the Council in 1999—2004, it is found that, although the two methods show similar voting patterns at the general level, the failure to report standard errors by NOMINATE in particular proves to be a severe problem when trying to identify individual governments' policy location. Conversely, the Bayesian approach provides a convincing method for analyses of Council decision records and is easily extended to include more advanced empirical information than merely the governments' decisions to support or oppose a proposal.

Abstract: We study a model where two parties, one from the left and one from the right, compete for position. The election is to be held in the near future and the outcome is uncertain. Prior to the election, the members of both parties nominate their prime ministerial candidates. Investors care about the outcome since they may invest in irreversible domestic production capital. We find that there is political convergence in the nomination process. In some circumstances, it is only the median voter of the left-wing party that elects a more moderate candidate. In other instances, the members of both parties nominate more "conservative" candidates, but there is still convergence. We also show that a higher probability of the left winning the election increases the degree of convergence, while a more globalised economy (greater capital mobility) reduces it.

Abstract: This article explores the performance of a Bayesian application of spatial voting models to the roll calls of the Fifth European Parliament (EP). Focusing on two distinct voting behaviours of membe...

Abstract: This paper presents one example of moments of tension from a yearlong ethnographic study conducted in a college intermediate Japanese-as-a-foreign-language classroom (Kumagai, 2004). I define moments of tension as those moments when conflicts arise between an instructor's teaching agenda and students' learning agenda. Conducting critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992) on such moments revealed that the moments of tension manifest interplay among textual representations, students' identities, and the instructor's discourses. Far from being seen as negative incidents to be avoided, moments of tension provided students with an opportunity to challenge the truth claims presented by the text, and to nominate and set a learning agenda that was relevant and significant, yet not a part of the instructor's original lesson plan. I argue that such moments present rich opportunities for conducting critical literacy practices in a foreign language classroom, helping students deepen their understanding of the soc...

Abstract: In the 1990s a movement emerged in France for the equal representation of women and men in political life. Proponents of ‘parity’ achieved reform of the Constitution in 1999 and the electoral law in 2000, which together require political parties to nominate 50 percent women and 50 percent men among their electoral candidates. Given the unusual set of theoretical arguments developed over the course of the campaign, many sources portray parity as a uniquely French answer to the under-representation of women in political life. I argue that the parity instead constituted a reaction to earlier failed attempts to promote women's political presence, shaped strongly by two influences from abroad — the Green movement and the Council of Europe — and one at home, the bicentennial of the French Revolution.

Abstract: President George W. Bush has argued that the Senate ought to hold final up-or-down floor votes on all of his judicial nominations rather than use various parliamentary procedures to prevent such action. Some scholars argue that there is no traditional mandate for such a demand, and that the Senate is well within its prerogatives to deny the president's request. This article revisits the question of Senate parliamentary procedures and the president's function to nominate individuals to the judicial branch. The article examines Founding-era debates to determine whether current practice comports with the logic and design of the system. By focusing on similar constitutional procedures from a separation-of-powers perspective, the article argues that filibusters of judicial nominations are not well founded in constitutional logic. The article concludes by evaluating whether such a change would lead to excessive presidential influence in staffing the judiciary.

Abstract: The chapter appears in a collection of original critical essays that explores how the US understands itself by looking in detail at films that nominate 'America' in their title. It investigates the historical, political and industrial context for the making of the 1951 MGM musical 'An American in Paris', linking it to America's perceived postwar mission to intervene in the future of Europe through such initiatives as the Marshall Plan. Focusing on visual design, it argues that the film manifests a profound ambivalence towards relations between America and France that undermines expectations of genre conventions.

Abstract: Pedro reminded me of the last call for Open Laboratory 2007, which prints the best blog items of 2007 in book form. The list of chemistry contributions is not so large yet, so go ahead and nominate some of cool chemical blog items of the last year. I will post my shortlist later this week.

Abstract: Abstract Two months had passed since the bloody day along Battle Road. It was June 14, and in sweltering Philadelphia John Adams wished to address the Continental Congress on an urgent matter. Rising from his chair, Adams took the floor in the stuffy Pennsylvania State House and told Congress that he wished to nominate a man to command an American army, a soldier who was “modest and virtuous, … generous and brave.” He sits “among Us and [is] very well known to all of Us,” Adams went on, “a Gentleman whose Skill and Experience as an Officer, whose independent fortune, great Talents and excellent universal Character [will] commend the Approbation of all America and unite … all the Colonies better than any other Person in the Union.” That man was Colonel Washington of Virginia.