Presidential Address:

Ties That Bind: The Link Between Public Administration and Political Science
Mary E. Guy [Abstract]

Articles:

Recruitment of Chief Justices on State Supreme Courts: A Choice Between Institutional and Personal Goals
Laura Langer, Jody McMullen, Nicholas P. Ray, Daniel D. Stratton [Abstract]

Framing Support for the Supreme Court in the Aftermath of Bush v. Gore
Stephen P. Nicholson, Robert M. Howard [Abstract]

Sowing the Seeds of Conflict: The Effect of Dispute Settlements on Durations of Peace
Paul D. Senese, Stephen L. Quackenbush [Abstract] [Supplemental Materials]

Political Responsiveness and Equity in Public Education Finance
B. Dan Wood, Nick A. Theobald [Abstract]

Democratic Self-Criticism and the Other in Classical Political Theory
Gerald M. Mara [Abstract]

The Divided Electorate: Media Use and Political Involvement
Kees Arts, Holli A. Semetko [Abstract]

Follow the Leader? Presidential Approval, Presidential Support, and Representatives' Electoral Fortunes
Paul Gronke, Jeffrey Koch, J. Matthew Wilson [Abstract]

Economic Exit, Interdependence, and Conflict
Mark J. C. Crescenzi [Abstract]

Gender Stereotyping in State Executive Elections: Candidate Selection and Success
Richard L. Fox, Zoe M. Oxley [Abstract]

Position Taking and Position Avoidance in the U.S. Senate
David R. Jones [Abstract]

Counting on the Past or Investing in the Future? Economic and Political Accountability in Fujimori's Peru
Jana Morgan Kelly [Abstract]

Voided Ballots in the 1996 Presidential Election: A County-Level Analysis
Stephen Knack and Martha Kropf [Abstract]

Term Limits, Professionalization, and Partisan Control in U.S. State Legislatures
Scott R. Meinke, Edward B. Hasecke [Abstract]

Abstracts:

Ties That Bind: The Link Between Public Administration and Political Science
Mary E. Guy, Florida State University
A century ago two fields, political science and public administration, were one. Over the years, their paths diverged as public administration created its own professional organization at the 1939 meeting of the American Political Science Association. This presentation outlines the divergence, parallel paths, and convergence that link these fields. Methods and models of inquiry are discussed as they affect the influence of the fields on civil society.

Recruitment of Chief Justices on State Supreme Courts: A Choice Between Institutional and Personal Goals
Laura Langer, University of Arizona
Jody McMullen, University of Arkansas
Nicholas P. Ray, University of Arizona
Daniel D. Stratton, University of Arizona
We examine career patterns of 257 associate state supreme court justices and the conditions under which some of these justices were elevated to chief justice. We posit that recruitment of chief justice is used to advance judges' personal policy preferences in some instances, but in other states recruitment of this position is used to appease actors who can punish judges for objectionable decisions. We further hypothesize that chief justice control over opinion assignment shapes the recruitment process and the probability any given justice will become chief justice. Results show that the recruitment process leads associate justices to choose chief justices based on policy goals when this position is afforded the power to control opinion assignment. In these states, the median member of the court has the greatest probability of becoming chief justice. Alternatively, when the chief justice lacks opinion assignment control, institutional goals influence the decisions made by associate justices.

Framing Support for the Supreme Court in the Aftermath of Bush v. Gore
Stephen P. Nicholson, Georgia State University
Robert M. Howard, Georgia State University
Public support for political actors and institutions depends on the frames emphasized in elite debate, especially following a political controversy. In the aftermath of Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court made itself the object of political controversy because it effectively ended the 2000 presidential election. Opponents of the decision framed the Supreme Court ruling as partisan and "stealing the election," while supporters framed it as a principled vote based on legal considerations. Using survey data, we examine how framing the controversy in these terms shaped the Court's public support. In so doing, we examine the distinction between specific support (e.g., confidence in officeholders) and diffuse support (e.g., institutional legitimacy). We find that framing the decision in terms of partisan decision making influences specific support, but it does not affect diffuse support. However, framing the justices' motives in terms of ending the election, a specific consequence of the decision, reduces diffuse support.

Sowing the Seeds of Conflict: The Effect of Dispute Settlements on Durations of Peace
Paul D. Senese, University at Buffalo, SUNY
Stephen L. Quackenbush, University at Buffalo, SUNY
We apply formal models of deterrence developed by Zagare and Kilgour (2000) to examine the impact of dispute settlements on future discord. Our theory of recurrent conflict, based primarily on how levels of satisfaction lead to different types of deterrence, allows us to formulate explicit expectations for the relative stability of militarized conflict settlements. We conceptualize peace periods following dispute settlements as situations of mutual or unilateral deterrence, depending on the method of resolution applied to the preceding dispute. Relations following imposed settlements are modeled as unilateral deterrence situations, while affairs subsequent to negotiated settlements and disputes ending without a settlement are viewed as instances of mutual deterrence. We derive hypotheses regarding durations of peace and test them through survival analyses of the periods of peace following 2,536 dyadic militarized interstate disputes between 1816 and 1992. Our results strongly support the theory's expectations, with disputes characterized by an imposed settlement being followed by significantly longer durations of peace than disputes followed by either a negotiated settlement or no settlement at all.

Political Responsiveness and Equity in Public Education Finance
B. Dan Wood, Texas A & M University
Nick A. Theobald, Texas A & M University
This study explores how politics affects the propensity of the American states to pursue equity in local outcomes. Using state education finance as an object of analysis, we develop a theoretical model that emphasizes the social welfare implications of equity versus allocative efficiency and distributive politics. We then hypothesize that the relative liberalism of a state's citizens and institutions should affect the weight attached to equity in the social welfare function, as well as the ability of the courts to alter those weights. Using a panel design, we explain state funding allocations to 8,048 local school districts from 1992 through 1996. The statistical results show that the relative emphasis on equity differs substantially across states based on political values. States with conservative citizens and institutions place less emphasis on revenue equity than states with liberal citizens and institutions. Judicial mandates are generally unsuccessful in producing more equal allocations, but are more successful when accompanied by receptive citizens and institutions. The larger implication is that responsiveness to political values is a major determinant of state propensity toward equalizing outcomes across local jurisdictions.

Democratic Self-Criticism and the Other in Classical Political Theory
Gerald M. Mara, Georgetown University
In supporting possibilities for democratic self criticism, postmodern democratic theory resists what it calls fundamentalist efforts to establish regulative conceptions of the human based on some absolute ground of authority and to demonize non-conforming practices as expressions of some "other". Instead, it proposes an ethos of critical pluralism, supporting democratic institutions that encourage non-conforming experiments in living. This political culture converts threatening otherness into stimulating difference. Yet postmodern democratic theory also recognizes a need to guard against political forms of otherness that threaten democracy. It therefore divides its attention to the other into a welcoming of the different and an exclusion of the truly threatening. In so doing, postmodernism suggests that healthy democratic politics requires a prior solution to problems concerning the other and the human. In insisting on this sort of closure, postmodernism is surprisingly similar to the fundamentalisms it opposes. This paper uses texts from Thucydides and Plato to suggest that the problems connected with the other and the human are permanent features of political life. As such, they are not barriers against, but principal concerns of democratic politics. In providing this insight, the texts of Thucydides and Plato seem more connected with the concerns of democratic citizens than do either postmodernism or its fundamentalist adversaries.

The Divided Electorate: Media Use and Political Involvement
Kees Aarts, University of Twente
Holli A. Semetko, University of Amsterdam
Research examining media effects on political attitudes has put forth broadly conflicting explanations: media use diminishes knowledge and involvement and contributes to political cynicism and declining turnout; media use contributes to learning, political involvement, trust, efficacy, and mobilization. We address these explanations with detailed measures for The Netherlands in 1998. A dual effects hypothesis is supported: regularly watching television news on the public service channels has positive effects on cognition, efficacy and turnout, whereas regularly opting for commercial television news has negative effects. Viewing behavior thus separates the more knowledgeable, the efficacious and the politically involved from those who are not, revealing what might be described as a "virtuous circle" for some and a "spiral of cynicism" for others.

Follow the Leader? Presidential Approval, Presidential Support, and Representatives' Electoral Fortunes
Paul Gronke, Reed College
J. Matthew Wilson, Southern Methodist University
Jeffrey Koch, State University of New York-Geneseo
While the link between presidential approval and congressional election outcomes is long established, scholars have generally ignored the role of a member's own voting record in mediating these effects. If voters truly use the congressional ballot to express support or opposition toward the President, then they should not reward or punish all of his fellow partisans equally. Instead, the degree of reward or punishment meted out by voters ought to depend on the member's level of support for the President's legislative initiatives. Using data from the 1993, 1994, and 1996 National Election Studies, we demonstrate two key points: that representatives' actual levels of support for the President are the single greatest predictor of their perceived levels of presidential support, and that perceived levels of presidential support interact powerfully with citizen presidential approval to shape attitudes toward congressional incumbents. These effects dwarf simple partisan heuristics in explaining congressional vote choice, suggesting that citizens are much more discriminating than is typically assumed in using the congressional vote as a referendum on presidential policy.

Economic Exit, Interdependence, and Conflict
Mark J. C. Crescenzi, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This article examines the question of whether economic interdependence constrains or motivates interstate conflict. The theoretical model predicts when and how interdependence influences conflict, using exit costs to separate economic interdependence from less binding economic interaction. Analysis of the model suggests that when exit costs exceed an endurance threshold for at least one state, the threat of exit becomes a viable but limited bargaining tool. Exceeding this threshold increases low-level conflict as states use economic and diplomatic tools to resolve demands; but it decreases high-level conflict because states take advantage of more efficient means of dispute resolution. If the stakes are too high, however, exit costs fail to check conflict and the economic relationship becomes an ineffective bargaining arena. Empirical analysis provides support for the hypotheses derived from the model.

Gender Stereotyping in State Executive Elections: Candidate Selection and Success
Richard L. Fox, California State University, Fullerton
Zoe M. Oxley, Union College
Research on gender stereotypes has found that voters ascribe certain beliefs and traits to candidates based on the candidates' sex. Most of this research relies on experimental data and examines stereotyping solely in terms of voter decision-making. In contrast, we examine state executive office elections to determine if stereotypes influence both candidate selection and success. State executive elections are ideal for studying gender stereotypes, as many of the offices focus on specific policy issues that correspond with stereotypic competencies of male and female candidates. We find considerable support for our expectation of an interaction between candidate sex and office type in candidate selection: women are less likely to run for offices that are inconsistent with their stereotypic strengths and, beginning in 1990, somewhat more likely to run for stereotypically-consistent offices. In terms of candidate success, however, we do not find that women's likelihood of winning varies strongly across office types. Ultimately, our work demonstrates that stereotyping is more likely during candidate selection than has previously been documented, and strongly suggests that we must examine more closely the processes by which women become candidates for elective office.

Position Taking and Position Avoidance in the U.S. Senate
David R. Jones, Baruch College, CUNY
Why do some legislators take fewer positions on roll call votes than others? Do these omissions occur by chance, or is it possible that certain legislators avoid taking positions intentionally? This study analyzes whether differential electoral considerations affect the level of position taking among legislators. In particular, it examines whether electoral considerations may actually lead some legislators to avoid taking positions on roll call votes in an effort to conceal their issue preferences from constituents. Based on US Senate data from 1979-1996, the results suggest that unwillingness to take positions on roll call votes is not random. Instead, it is significantly related to factors such as diversity of constituents' opinions, pursuit of higher office, electoral marginality, retirement decisions, and visibility within the institution.

Counting on the Past or Investing in the Future? Economic and Political Accountability in Fujimori's Peru
Jana Morgan Kelly, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This article strengthens and extends economic theories of presidential approval, assesses accountability in Peru's "delegative democracy," and explores the political feasibility of economic policies. The analysis finds that prospective evaluations shape presidential approval in Peru, demonstrating the utility of economic theories in the developing world. Peruvians hold politicians accountable not only for the economic past, but also for future implications of past actions, which suggests that vertical accountability exists and that this type of accountability encourages forward-looking policy choices. Finally, the analysis indicates that important political events, including the capture of the Sendero Luminoso guerrillas and Fujimori's autogolpe, influence Peruvians' approval of the president.

Voided Ballots in the 1996 Presidential Election: A County-Level Analysis
Stephen Knack, University of Maryland and The World Bank
Martha Kropf, University of Missouri-Kansas City
This county-level study examines factors associated with the rate of voided presidential ballots in the 1996 elections. Evidence indicates that voided ballots are significantly more prevalent in counties with higher percentages of African Americans and Hispanics. The relationship between voided ballots and African Americans disappears, however, in counties using voting equipment that can be programmed to eliminate overvoting. The rate of voided ballots is lower in larger counties, and in counties with a higher percentage of high school graduates. The rate of voided ballots declines as the number of presidential candidates on the ballot increases, but only up to a point, and then rises with further increases. Lever machines generate the lowest rates of voided ballots among types of voting equipment, with punch card systems generating the highest rates.

Term Limits, Professionalization, and Partisan Control in U.S. State Legislatures
Scott R. Meinke, Bucknell University
Edward B. Hasecke, Cleveland State University
As states across the country have adopted term limits provisions for their state legislatures, political scientists have analyzed how mass unseatings of incumbents are affecting legislative composition, capacity, and activity. Yet this reform may impact legislatures not only directly through forced retirements but also indirectly by changing the incentives to prospective candidates. Following hypotheses suggested by Fiorina (1994, 1996), we argue that term limits have changed the incentive structure for typical Democratic candidates in some legislatures. This change in incentives has, in turn, affected the partisan composition of statehouses just as the professionalization movement affected incentives and partisan composition a generation ago. We provide quantitative evidence that supports Fiorina's conjectures about term limits, suggesting that the presence of term limit provisions even before they take effect creates an environment that is less attractive to Democratic candidates.