Note from the Editors

Abstract

We begin this final issue of Politics & Policy's first six-issue volume by once again expressing our sincere gratitude to all those individuals and groups whose many and varied contributions to the journal this year have continued to enhance its stature and disseminate the research of its authors. Now the journal is a bimonthly publication with a page budget that has grown to nearly three times its size when we took over as editors in 2005. In addition, our recent move to electronic journal management through Manuscript Central (accessed at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/polpol) is expected to contribute greatly to the Politics & Policy submission rate as well as speed up turnaround time significantly. Needless to say, the changes involved have been far reaching and as one would expect, the number of people involved in processing all submissions and in producing, refining, and polishing the accepted articles has grown exponentially. Managing and coordinating all the facets of this very large contributing force has therefore become an even more central function of the editorial office than in previous years. We could not have kept on top of the expansion without the continuing help, professionalism, and limitless energy of our editorial office team, headed by Cynthia Villegas. Our editorial assistants, Marcela Orraca, Daniela Dib, and also this year, Erik Meijer, have risen admirably to the increased challenges the development of Politics & Policy has brought. In particular, they have made our move to Manuscript Central far less daunting and easier to configure and operate than either of us has envisaged. As always, we express our deepest thanks to the growing consortium of state political science associations that back the journal and without which Politics & Policy just would not be. By generating such quality submissions, providing the bedrock of our reviewer pool and editorial board, sending in book reviews, citing Politics & Policy articles, and producing two well-received special issues in this volume, their support of the journal this year, as in the past, continues to be of the highest caliber. Thank you, too, to all the members of Politics & Policy's editorial board who have participated so actively in the review process, in honing our editorial policy and procedures so effectively, and in continuing to support and invigorate the editorial focus we have all chosen to place on the high quality of the original research selected for publication. Again, it has been an enormous pleasure to work with you this year. We also wish to underscore our appreciation of the Policy Studies Organization for their ongoing financial support of the journal and for skillfully inveigling so many new and improved services for us to take advantage of in their recent negotiations with Politics & Policy's publisher, Wiley-Blackwell. These services include the free online access to Politics & Policy we have been proud to offer all our peer reviewers this year and which we are assured will be maintained as a reviewer benefit in the future. The technical support and consummate trouble-shooting skills of the Politics & Policy production team at Wiley-Blackwell are, in our view, without parallel. They continue to be an enormous asset to the journal. However, most editors would agree that the greatest assets a journal can have are the peer reviewers who devote such energy and sterling work to assisting the selection and refining the quality of the research published in Politics & Policy. Those reviewers whose rigorous peer reviews contributed so much to the articles processed and/or published in 2008 are listed here. We hope they, and all our readers, enjoy the fruits of their labors in the pages of volume 36 of Politics & Policy as much as we have, and we continue to urge you to submit your best manuscripts to us online via Manuscript Central at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/polpol.