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open access

Agenda-Setting by Minority Political Groups: A Case Study of American Indian Tribes

Description: This study tested theoretical propositions concerning agenda-setting by minority political groups in the United States to see if they had the scope to be applicable to American Indian tribes or if there were alternative explanations for how this group places its agenda items on the formal agenda and resolves them. Indian tribes were chosen as the case study because they are of significantly different legal and political status than other minority groups upon which much of the previous research … more
Date: May 1990
Creator: McCoy, Leila M. (Leila Melanie)
open access

The Effect of American Political Party on Electoral Behavior: an Application of the Voter Decision Rule to the 1952-1988 Presidential Elections

Description: The purpose of this study is to examine two major psychological determinants of the vote in presidential elections - candidate image and party orientation. The central thesis of this study is that candidate image, as measured here, has been a greater determinant of electoral choice in the majority of presidential elections since 1952 than has party orientation. One of the vices as well as virtues of a democratic society is that the people often get what they want. This is especially true in the… more
Date: August 1990
Creator: Lewis, Ted Adam
open access

A Time Series Analysis of the Functional Performance of the United States Supreme Court

Description: The focus of this investigation is the relationship of the United States Supreme Court's functional performance to its environment. Three functions of courts are noted in the literature: conflict resolution, social control and administration. These functions are operationalized for the United States Supreme Court. Hypotheses are developed relative to the general performance of these three functions by all courts. Box-Jenkins time series analysis is then used to test these hypotheses in relation… more
Date: August 1990
Creator: Haynie, Stacia L. (Stacia Lyn)
open access

The United States' Recognition of Israel: Determinant Factors in American Foreign Policy

Description: This thesis examines the critical factors leading to the 1948 decision by the United States government to extend recognition to the newly declared State of Israel. In the first of five chapters the literature on the recognition of Israel is discussed. Chapter II presents the theoretical foundation of the thesis by tracing the development of Charles Kegley's decision regime framework. Also discussed is the applicability of bureaucratic structure theory and K. J. Holsti's hierarchy of objectives… more
Date: August 1990
Creator: Farshee, Louis M. (Louis Michael)
open access

Political Economy of Industrial Keiretsu Groups in Japan and their Impact on Foreign Trade with the United States

Description: The postwar transformation of the international environment has caused economic issues to become a main source of contention among industrial states. The trade imbalance between Japan and its trading partners became a major source of conflict. Reciprocity of access and opening the market of Japan became the main point of debate and the major issue affecting relations between Japan and the United States. While the distinction between the domain of domestic and international politics increasingly… more
Date: August 1993
Creator: Nukumi, Tetsuro
open access

Canadian Supreme Court Decision-making, 1875-1990 : Institutional, Group, and Individual Level Perspectives

Description: Since its creation in 1875, the Canadian Supreme Court has undergone several institutional transitions. These transitions have changed the role of the Court toward a more explicit and influential policy making role in the country. Despite this increasingly significant role, very limited attention has been given to the Court. With this perspective in mind, this study presents several analyses on the decision making process of the Canadian Supreme Court. At the institutional level, the study foun… more
Date: May 1994
Creator: Sittiwong, Panu
open access

The President's Influence on Congress: Toward an Explanation of Senators' Support for Presidents Carter and Reagan

Description: This study examines the possible effect of the president's vote totals in states on Presidents Carter's and Reagan's support among senators. Using senators' Congressional Quarterly (CQ) presidential support scores as the dependent variable, this paper hypothesizes that Carter and Reagan's support is significantly and positively related to their electoral success in that Senator's state for the years 1977 through 1988. Several control variables are included to help explain support. There is qual… more
Date: May 1994
Creator: Endsley, Stephen C. (Stephen Craig)
open access

Trade Negotiations in Agriculture: A Comparative Study of the U.S. and the EC

Description: This study applies Destler's institutional counterweights to Putnam's two-level analysis, substituting Liberal Institutionalism and Realism for internationalism and isolationism, in a comparative case study of the roles played by the U.S. and the EC in multilateral trade negotiations in agriculture under the aegis of the General Agreement for Tariffs and Trade during the first half of the Uruguay Round. Using game theory as an analytical tool in the process, this present study demonstrates that… more
Date: December 1994
Creator: Gordon, H. William (Harold William)
open access

Hazardous Waste Policy: a Comparative Analysis of States' Enforcement Efforts

Description: The major purpose of this study is to analyze hazardous waste enforcement by the states as mandated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA). States' historical enforcement records from 1980 to 1990 are analyzed to determine the pattern of variations in enforcement. This study differs from previous studies on hazardous waste regulation in that it employs longitudinal data from 1980 to 1990 to analyze states' enforcement effort.
Date: May 1995
Creator: Okere, Lawrence N. (Lawrence Ndubuisi)
open access

Linkages between the Texas Supreme Court and Public Opinion

Description: This investigation sought to identify linkages between the Texas Supreme Court and public opinion through 1) a matching of written decisions with scientifically conducted public opinion polls; 2) direct mention of public opinion and its synonyms in Texas justices' decisions; 3) comparison of these mentions over time; and 4) comparison of 10 personal attributes of justices with matched decisions. The study moved the unit of analysis from the U.S. Supreme Court to the state court level by using c… more
Date: May 1995
Creator: Ragland, Ruth Ann Vaughan
open access

Municipal Bond Ratings and the Willingness to Issue Debt: A Pooled Cross-sectional Analysis of Texas Cities

Description: This dissertation deals with one aspect of how city officials respond to community needs. It is about the decisions of governments on how to secure the financial resources needed to fulfill their obligations to the public. The study explores the factors that influence officials' decisions to issue debt. It is different from other municipal bond studies in that it focuses on the behavior of bond issuers rather than bond investors and the rating agencies.
Date: December 1995
Creator: Laosirirat, Phanit
open access

The Role of the U.S. Mass Media in the Political Socialization of Nigerian Immigrants in the United States

Description: A mail survey of Nigerian immigrants in Dallas, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois, was conducted during October and November 1995. Four hundred and sixty-eight Nigerian immigrant families in the two cities were selected by systematic sampling through the telephone books. Return rate was approximately 40% (187). The variables included in the study were media exposure variables, general demographics, immigration traits, U.S. demographics, Nigerian demographics, and political and cultural traits. New v… more
Date: August 1996
Creator: Okoro, Iheanyi Emmanuel
open access

Out with the Old? Voting Behavior and Party System Change in Canada and the United States in the 1990's

Description: This study has attempted to explain the dramatic challenges to the existing party system that occurred in Canada and the United States in the early 1990s. The emergence of new political movements with substantial power at the ballot box has transformed both party systems. The rise of United We Stand America in the United States, and the Reform Party in Canada prompts scholars to ask what forces engender such movements. This study demonstrates that models of economic voting and key models of par… more
Date: December 1997
Creator: Rapkin, Jonathan D.
open access

The Determinants of Federal Spending for the Administration of Justice

Description: This study develops and empirically tests a model of the determinants of federal spending for crime-fighting policies. An inter-disciplinary approach to building the model is utilized that merges ideas from budgeting, policy analysis and criminology. Four factors hypothesized to impact federal spending for the administration of justice are operationalized as eight variables and tested using ordinary least squares regression analysis on time series data. The factors hypothesized to impact federa… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Gabriano, Gina
open access

Presidential Support and the Political Use of Presidential Capital

Description: This research incorporates a decision-making theory which defines the linkage between the public, the media, the president and the Congress. Specifically, I argue that the public holds widely shared domestic and international goals and responds to a number of external cues provided by the president and the media in its evaluation of presidential policies. Although most studies examine overall presidential popularity, there are important differences in the public's evaluations of the president's… more
Date: December 1998
Creator: Ault, Michael E.
open access

Immigration Beliefs and Attitudes: A Test of the Group Conflict Model in the United States and Canada

Description: This study develops and tests a group conflict model as an explanation for international immigration beliefs in the United States and Canada. Group conflict is structured by evaluations concerning group relationships and group members. At a conceptual level group conflict explains a broad range of policy beliefs among a large number of actors in multiple settings. Group conflict embodies attitudes relating to objective-based conditions and subjective-based beliefs.
Date: August 1999
Creator: McIntyre, Chris, 1964-
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