The Vanishing Marginals and Electoral Responsiveness

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Ansolabehere ◽  
David Brady ◽  
Morris Fiorina
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
Sharp Decline ◽  
The Us ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Safe House

Nearly two decades ago researchers pointed out the sharp decline in marginal districts in elections for the US House of Representatives. That observation led to an outpouring of research describing the electoral changes, explaining their bases and speculating about their consequences for the larger political system. Recently Gary Jacobson has offered a major corrective to that line of research, arguing that ‘House incumbents are no safer now than they were in the 1950s; the marginals, properly defined, have not vanished; the swing ratio has diminished little, if at all; and competition for House seats held by incumbents has not declined’. While Jacobson advances an extremely provocative argument, there are complicating patterns in his evidence that support additional and/or different interpretations. We argue that the marginals, ‘properly defined’ have diminished, the swing ratio has declined, and party competition for House seats held by incumbents has lessened. While fears that the vanishing marginals phenomenon would lead to lower responsiveness on the part of ‘safe’ House incumbents have proved groundless, the collective composition of Congress does appear to be less responsive to changes in popular sentiments. Thus, the vanishing marginals have contributed to the occurrence of divided government in the United States and in all likelihood do have the effects on congressional leadership and policy-making that many analysts have claimed.

Strange Bedfellows: Cooperative Policy Making in a Divided Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 25-46
Author(s):  
Jongkon Lee
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
Brand Name ◽  
Majority Party ◽  
System A ◽  
Minority Party

It is widely believed that the lack of bipartisanship between the executive and legislative branches in the United States is deleterious to policy making. However, a divided government is perhaps more productive than a unified government because it can facilitate electoral gains for the minority party. Policy created by a divided government can be seen as the collaborative outcome of the majority and minority parties, but that of a unified government is perceived as the exclusive work of the majority party. Further, successful policy making on the part of the unified government could have the effect of compromising the minority party’s brand. Thus, the minority party has more incentive to negotiate with the majority party and participate in policy making in a divided government. To the extent that party brand name assumes greater importance in elections in a polarized political system, a divided government could be more conducive to policy making than a unified government.

Interaction of Ukrainian Diaspora and the USA Government Regarding Celebration of Ukrainian Independence Day on January 22

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (47) ◽  
pp. 136-145
Author(s):  
Halyna Shchyhelska
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
The United States ◽  
100Th Anniversary ◽  
Totalitarian Regime ◽  
The Public ◽  
Us Congress ◽  
The Us ◽  
Public Consciousness ◽  
The Usa

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of Ukrainian independence. OnJanuary 22, 1918, the Ukrainian People’s Republic proclaimed its independence by adopting the IV Universal of the Ukrainian Central Rada, although this significant event was «wiped out» from the public consciousness on the territory of Ukraine during the years of the Soviet totalitarian regime. At the same time, January 22 was a crucial event for the Ukrainian diaspora in the USA. This article examines how American Ukrainians interacted with the USA Government institutions regarding the celebration and recognition of the Ukrainian Independence day on January 22. The attention is focused on the activities of ethnic Ukrainians in the United States, directed at the organization of the special celebration of the Ukrainian Independence anniversaries in the US Congress and cities. Drawing from the diaspora press and Congressional Records, this article argues that many members of Congress participated in the observed celebration and expressed kind feelings to the Ukrainian people, recognised their fight for freedom, during the House of Representatives and Senate sessions. Several Congressmen submitted the resolutions in the US Congress urging the President of United States to designate January 22 as «Ukrainian lndependence Day». January 22 was proclaimed Ukrainian Day by the governors of fifteen States and mayors of many cities. Keywords: January 22, Ukrainian independence day, Ukrainian diaspora, USA, interaction, Congress

Notes and Comments

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 173-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
JAMES C. GARAND ◽  
MARCI GLASCOCK LICHTL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
The Political ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Growth Industry ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Political Media

In recent years the study of divided government has been a growth industry. Numerous scholars have sought to explain patterns of divided government in the United States, while others have attempted to explore the consequences of the phenomenon. No doubt this scholarly interest in the subject is due in large part to the attention paid by the political media to divided control of the presidency and Congress during the 1980s, as well as the resulting ’gridlock‘ that dominated policy making in Washington during that time period.

The Violence of Inequality: Race and Lobbying in the Politics of Crime and Criminal Justice in the United States

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-93
Author(s):  
Sappho Xenakis ◽  
Leonidas K. Cheliotis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reciprocal Relationship ◽  
Criminal Justice Policy ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Us

There is no shortage of scholarly and other research on the reciprocal relationship that inequality bears to crime, victimisation and contact with the criminal justice system, both in the specific United States context and beyond. Often, however, inequality has been studied in conjunction with only one of the three phenomena at issue, despite the intersections that arguably obtain between them–and, indeed, between their respective connections with inequality itself. There are, moreover, forms of inequality that have received far less attention in pertinent research than their prevalence and broader significance would appear to merit. The purpose of this chapter is dual: first, to identify ways in which inequality’s linkages to crime, victimisation and criminal justice may relate to one another; and second, to highlight the need for a greater focus than has been placed heretofore on the role of institutionalised inequality of access to the political process, particularly as this works to bias criminal justice policy-making towards the preferences of financially motivated state lobbying groups at the expense of disadvantaged racial minorities. In so doing, the chapter singles out for analysis the US case and, more specifically, engages with key extant explanations of the staggering rise in the use of imprisonment in the country since the 1970s.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 330-334
Author(s):  
Rush Doshi
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Competitive Position ◽  
The Us

This concluding chapter discusses China strategy amid present debates over whether America is in decline. It argues that decline is not a product of immutable historical forces, but a choice, and that fatalism about the US competitive position relative to China is premature. It explains that the United States has faced four waves of “declinism” in the last century and has rallied after each of them, with “declinists” playing a role in preventing that which they predicted. This time, the downward path runs through the country’s polarized political system, and the path away from decline may run through a rare area susceptible to bipartisan consensus: the need for the United States to rise to the China challenge. The chapter argues that the arrival of an external competitor has often pushed the United States to become its best self and that, handled judiciously, it can once again.

scholarly journals The legend of Saint Alan: Larnaudie and Stiegler in the Oversight Committee Room

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-184
Author(s):  
Calum Watt
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Financial Crisis ◽  
Federal Reserve ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Government Reform ◽  
The Us ◽  
Oversight Committee ◽  
Bernard Stiegler

Ten years on from the 2008 global financial crisis, this article sets in dialogue two French treatments – by the novelist Mathieu Larnaudie and the philosopher Bernard Stiegler – of footage of the 2008 testimony of Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the US Federal Reserve, before the United States House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. The article introduces and compares the concepts of ‘effondrement’ and ‘prolétarisation’ developed by the two writers in relation to the Greenspan hearing, and analyses how both understand the question of ideology as it emerges in the hearing. Informed by interviews conducted by the author with Larnaudie and Stiegler, the piece concludes by discussing the notion common to both writers that Greenspan is a ‘saint’ of the crisis.

scholarly journals New in US-Canadian Relations and Ratification of the USMCA Agreement

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 78-96
Author(s):  
I. A. Sokov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
North American ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Trade Agreement ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Evolutionary Development ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
National Parliaments ◽  
The Us

Abstract: The article reviews through chronological analysis key issues in US-Canadian relations in the context of new trade agreement USMCA replacing NAFTA during Trump's presidency. It identifies a new model of relations between the closest North American partners in the context of a new paradigm which is called “America First”. This model leads to a crisis the US-Canadian relations, which is aggravated by the increased partisan rivalry in light of the upcoming US presidential elections, the impeachment process initiated in the House of Representatives.The article comes to the following conclusions. The evolutionary development of the free trade agreement (NAFTA), its rejection and acceptance of the USMCA preferential agreement is a gradual and consistent process of protecting North American countries from global market, which started during the presidency of George W. Bush and continued by the subsequent American presidents. This is also connected with the trade war between the United States and China, that was repeatedly emphasized both in the US Administration and in the Congress during D. Trump's presidency. The United States-Canadian relations have worsened significantly, although the countries' leaders do not recognize it publicly during the agreement's preparation and its ratification, for almost three years. The USMCA agreement is not a final version, subject to further ratification. It took more than a year for the parties to find compromise solutions on the USMCA with the protocols' preparation to the agreement and its submission to the national parliaments. Moreover, in the agreed version, the USMCA agreement meets primarily the interests of the United States. The US pressure on Canada was unprecedented. As a result, we should expect the continued growth of political and trade contradictions between the United States and Canada, as well as the revision and addition of new additional agreements in the USMCA agreement.

Six Notions of ‘Political’ and the United States Supreme Court

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Hodder-Williams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Political System ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
Appellate Court ◽  
United States Supreme ◽  
The Supreme Court ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Supreme Court

Six different notions of ‘political’ are commonly used in discussions of the US Supreme Court. All six are familiar, but the distinctions among them are seldom carefully drawn. The six are: (1) purely definitional, in the sense that the Supreme Court, as an appellate court of last resort inevitably authoritatively allocates values; (2) empirical, in the sense that litigants use the Court to try to achieve their political purposes; (3) influence seeking, in the sense that the justices have a natural desire to prevail in arguments within the court; (4) prudential, in the sense that the justices frequently consider the probable consequences of their decisions; (5) policy-oriented, in the – usually pejorative – sense that justices are said to use the Court and the law as a cover for pursuing their own policy and other goals; and (6) systemic, in the sense that the Court's decisions frequently, as a matter of fact, have consequences for other parts of the American political system. These six notions are considered in the context of recent abortion decisions.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Watson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Us South ◽  
The Us ◽  
Observation Program ◽  
The 1950S

The introduction summarizes the process of decolonization in the British and French Empires and the role of the United States. Anthropology became a more professionalized discipline, raising the barriers to interdisciplinary conversations between anthropologists and other intellectuals and making it less desirable for colonial intellectuals to choose anthropology, as a significant number had done earlier in the twentieth century. Nevertheless, exchanges continued between literature and anthropology. I argue that the literary-anthropological dynamics of the 1950s and 1960s were prefigured by three examples in the 1930s and 1940s: Zora Neale Hurston’s fieldwork among African Americans in the US South, Michel Leiris’s account of Marcel Griaule’s 1930s anthropological expedition from Dakar to Djibouti, and the establishment of the Mass-Observation program to document British everyday life. The introduction analyzes Claude Lévi-Strauss’s Tristes tropiques as a key text in the flourishing of a new literary anthropology in the 1950s.

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