State Political Leaders Research Articles

State Contexts for a Public Health Emergency: The Divergence of Politics and Administration in COVID-19 Vaccination Rates

Amid the array of challenges prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the policy response of governments proved vital. Different states in the U.S. pursued varied policy approaches that demonstrated distinct divergences in impact. Particularly, contrasting state contexts produced markedly assorted frameworks for the delivery of public health services, which indicate potential effects for COVID-19 policy implementation. Using the rates of COVID-19 vaccination as a measure of policy execution, the purpose of this study is to examine the political and administrative influences contributing to differences in COVID-19 public health policy outcomes among the states in the U.S. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models included data sources of nationally representative information pertaining to state public health attributes of politics and administration during the height of the pandemic and vaccine campaign. The findings suggest that state political leadership and fiscal capacity display significant associations with COVID-19 vaccination disparities, while other administrative indicators did not. The results signal important policy implications for the politics–administration dynamic within the COVID-19 pandemic and offer further understanding toward the roles of federalism and governance in future public health emergencies.

THE INFLUENCE OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF WAR CRIMES ON THE EUROPEAN INTEGRATION OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA

The aim of the article is to study the impact of war crimes committed in the 1990s and early 2000s on the territory of the republics of former Yugoslavia on the European integration processes and aspirations of these states. Factors that directly influence the European integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia are analyzed. It was noted that Slovenia did not have similar problems, so its European integration was not related to solving the problem of war crimes. The author also emphasizes that this issue was unimportant in North Macedonia. Therefore, it had no impact on European integration. The scientific novelty of this investigation consists of an attempt to comprehensively highlight the interdependence of the consequences of war crimes and the aspirations of the post-Yugoslav countries to become members of the European Union. The article states that this topic requires a separate historiographical study since no works in Ukrainian and foreign science would reveal various aspects of the topic. The conclusions emphasize that for Croatia, the problem of settling war crimes and their consequences was one of the critical problems for joining the EU. European integration began to progress only after the state's political leadership changed and started to develop relevant legislation and actively cooperate with the International Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The author emphasizes that the problem of war crimes is quite acute for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Every year, the European Commission underlines that the country's leadership must change its approach to solving such problems. However, the dynamics of conviction of war criminals, as well as the investigation of human rights violations, remain low. It does not directly impact the European integration of Bosnia and Herzegovina since the country received candidate status only in 2022. As the author notes, Serbia and Montenegro are characterized by ignoring the problem of war crimes, their consequences, and the punishment of the guilty. The political leadership of both countries is taking purely demonstrative steps that would meet the requirements of the European Commission.

Структурные изменения ВМФ и ротация военно-морской элиты Великобритании в годы Первой мировой войны

Great Britain, due to geographical location and the need to maintain dominance on the seas, emphasized the actions of its Royal Navy during military conflicts. The realities of World War I forced Great Britain’s military and political leadership to reconsider the country's traditional role in international military conflicts. A pressing issue facing the military and political elite was the development of military plans aimed at harnessing Great Britain’s Naval Forces. Proposed drafts by British Admiralty representatives such as J. Fisher, W. Churchill, and J. Jellico often met with obstruction from the state's political leaders and the Army elite. On the eve of the war and during the hostilities, representatives of the elite proposed various plans for the use of the country’s Royal Navy, the implementation of which led both to the fleet's structural changes and to the rotation of the military elite.

Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016 by Leanne Kang

Reviewed by: Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016 by Leanne Kang Jeffrey R. Henig Leanne Kang. Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016. New York: Teachers College Press, 2020. Pp. 132. Index. Notes. Paperback: $34.95. The world of education policy often is portrayed in quick flashes and disconnected contemporary events. This or that proposal is enacted by this or [End Page 148] that school board or state. A new study shows that this or that policy initiative is working, or that it's not. This or that new school superintendent (state legislator, or "education governor") is showing the country what can be done. But these flashes and vignettes can distract from important trends that are slow-moving with long and loopy causal chains. In Dismantled: The Breakup of an Urban School System: Detroit, 1980-2016, Leanne Kang provides an alternative perspective, linked to a concise and clearly presented history of a nearly four-decade erosion of locally controlled public education in Detroit. This is a compact book: 94 pages of text (132, including footnotes and references). As such, it seems more designed for interested citizens or students rather than historians wanting deep and original scholarship. Kang, an assistant professor of educational foundations at Grand Valley State University, weaves a mélange of "newspaper and magazine articles, reports, websites, government documents, pamphlets and a body of secondary sources" (7) into a compelling narrative that she grounds in the political science concept of "regime change." (4-6) Broad changes in governance institutions, in her telling, both reflect and further feed a shift in the array of political interests with access and influence over Detroit's fate. The core of the book is organized around four key episodes of governance change. The first, Proposal A, championed by then-governor John Engler, was approved by Michigan voters in 1994. On its face, this was a school finance reform intended to replace a system of high and inequitable local property taxes with state revenues, but the shift to state funding also constituted a sharp shift to state-driven initiatives at the expense of local district control. The second, mayoral control, was an on-again (1999), off-again (2004) state-led experiment to shift power over education policy from the elected school board to the mayor. The third key policy was the 2009 naming of Robert Bobb as emergency financial manager for Detroit schools; although prompted by the school system's severe fiscal problems, Bobb attempted to use his office to broadly restructure the system in ways that had academic and political ramifications as well. Bobb's tenure sparked backlash and ultimately his resignation, but then-governor Rick Snyder opted to double-down on the belief that salvation and progress depended on keeping locally elected representatives on the margins. In 2011, he signed a state law super-charging the position of emergency manager to explicitly include authority over academic and curriculum matters and then established a new body—the Educational Achievement Authority—to fully take over the district's schools. Kang does a good job of explicating the political currents propelling these seemingly distinct governance shifts. The Michigan reformers' [End Page 149] animating vision was not anchored in ideas or evidence about teaching and instruction; it had less to do with ideas about what should happen in Detroit's classrooms than ideas about who should be calling the shots. Local educators, the teachers' union, the traditional school board and, by extension, the parents who elected the school board, were seen as witting or unwitting defenders of a dysfunctional system. National reformers, philanthropists, private education providers, state political leaders, and business and civic elites would start over and do better. Most favored a more market-oriented approach to education: contracting with provide providers, propagating charter schools and other parental choice options, weakening the constraints on imposed by collective bargaining on hiring, evaluating, firing, and rewarding teachers based on measured student gains. Kang doesn't romanticize the old regime and corruption, patronage, and mismanagement that helped make Detroit an easy target for those with idealistic or self-interested motives to push aside the old structures and their occupants...

Political Leaders’ Communication: A Twitter Sentiment Analysis during Covid-19 Pandemic

<p class="Default"><em><span>The pandemic made it critical for political leaders to intensify measures in fight against Covid-19 and one such measure was building trust among public through communication. With exponential growth in reach of social media, while state political leaders have progressively used internet for election campaigns, limited studies have explored as to how leaders use this medium to communicate during crisis, what kind of information do they share and what are common issues addressed. This paper, using qualitative research design, analyses Indian political leaders’ communication on Twitter. Sentiment Analysis was carried to identify and extract subjective information in leaders’ communication using 29 Indian political leaders, wherein 12,128 tweets were extracted. Subjectivity scores depicted more than half of leaders had shared fact-based information, and Polarity scores indicated that almost 90% of leaders shared positive or neutral information thus leading to an inference that leaders share more of facts based and positive or neutral information rather than statements in form of opinions.</span></em></p>

The ethics of penal amputation.

Malaysia is a South East Asian country with a racially diverse population. Islam is the state religion and about 60% of the population is Muslim, but the rights of other religious groups are protected by law. The Parti Islam se Malaysia, which has ruled the state of Kelantan since 1999, and believes that Malaysia should be ruled by Sharia law, recently proposed the implementation of Hudud laws in Kelantan. However, the federal government has ruled out its implementation. The suggestion stirred up a controversy among the physician community and the Malaysian Medical Association rejected a proposal by the state's political leadership to utilise the services of qualified surgeons to carry out punitive limb amputations. Several Islamic states such as Sudan, Saudi Arabia, and Iran practice Islamic penal justice, including amputations. The question therefore arises: how should a modern medical practitioner approach this ethical question? This study focuses mainly on Malaysia, but draws upon practices in other Islamic countries also.

Flames of Discontent: The 1916 Minnesota Iron Ore Strike

Gary Kaunonen introduces his study of Minnesota's 1916 iron ore strike with reminiscences of childhood visits to his Finnish American grandparents' homestead, where he heard the political and economic discussions that infused him with proletarian values and an appreciation for class conflict. Flames of Discontent, its title taken from the Industrial Workers of the World (Iww) “Little Red Songbook” (1909), draws on this background to interpret the strike from the perspective of the largely immigrant work force. Kaunonen's account of their struggles shows a personal yet not chauvinistic connection to their plight and convincingly tells their story. The 1916 strike occurred on Minnesota's Mesabi Range, a primary provider of the iron ore for the U.S. steel industry. From the onset of commercial mining, immigrants had dominated the work force and built the surrounding communities. They also endured the region's exploitative working conditions. Previous strikes had failed to improve their lot, in part because employers could find “newer” immigrants to replace striking workers. In 1916, however, a united labor force, led by the Iww, hoped to prevail against the “steel trust.” Unfortunately for the workers, the mine operators effectively aligned with the state's political leaders to crush the strike.

Herbert H. Lehman: A Political Biography by Duane Tananbaum

Reviewed by: Herbert H. Lehman: A Political Biography by Duane Tananbaum William Hogan Herbert H. Lehman: A Political Biography By Duane Tananbaum. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2016, 959 pages, $44.95, Cloth. Throughout much of the twentieth century, New York State was fortunate to have uncommonly effective political leaders. Duane Tananbaum's voluminous biography demonstrates convincingly that Herbert Lehman deserves a place in the top tier of Empire State political leaders. Tananbaum portrays Lehman as an exemplary public servant who consistently showed vision, integrity, and political courage. He notes that, "Despite his important role in American political life from the late 1920s through the early 1960s, Herbert Lehman has been largely ignored by scholars and forgotten by the general public" (xiv). Lehman has been overshadowed by more charismatic New York governors, including Al Smith, Franklin Roosevelt, Thomas Dewey, and Nelson Rockefeller. Tananbaum has produced a comprehensive scholarly work that is likely to remain the definitive political biography of Lehman. Noted historian Alan Nevins's Herbert Lehman and His Era, published in 1963, was the last full-scale biography of Lehman. Unlike Nevins who covered Lehman's early life and background in detail, Tananbaum—a professor of American History at Lehman College of the City University of New York—focuses on his subject's political career. The product of meticulous research, the book comprises 657 pages of narrative, nearly 200 pages of notes, and an extensive bibliography. Tananbaum relied heavily on Lehman's letters and speeches, oral histories, and government documents. The author effectively synthetizes a massive amount of material into a compelling biography of Lehman. By chronicling Lehman's political career against the backdrop of his times, Tananbaum is able to provide informative overviews of the Great Depression, New Deal, relief efforts during and after World War II, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement, and conflicts between political bosses and reformers in New York during the late 1950s and early 1960s. The author highlights Lehman's interactions with such notables as Al Smith, Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Joseph [End Page 136] McCarthy, Adlai Stevenson, Lyndon Johnson, and John Kennedy. He demonstrates Lehman's influence at both the state and national levels during a period when New York State was at the pinnacle of its political power. Tananbaum identifies Lillian Wald—the founder of the Henry Street Settlement House—as a significant early influence in reinforcing Lehman's social conscience. Lehman became involved in politics as a key supporter of Al Smith and a major contributor to his campaigns. Although Lehman and Smith came from disparate backgrounds, they shared "the belief that government should help people overcome the problems resulting from industrialization, urbanization, and immigration" (14). Although Lehman was Smith's first choice to succeed him as governor, he instead ran on the Democratic ticket with Roosevelt in 1928 and won the lieutenant governorship by a mere 14,000 votes. Four years later Lehman was elected governor by 840,000 votes, which was the largest victory margin by a Democrat in New York State up until that time. Roosevelt and Lehman formed an effective partnership that developed into a lasting friendship: "Lehman's conscientious, almost compulsive, attention to detail complemented Roosevelt's focus on the big picture" (42). Roosevelt relied on his lieutenant governor's business experience to deal with bank failures and mediate labor disputes. Lehman believed that Roosevelt "was the greatest man of my time" (37). Despite his high regard for Roosevelt, Lehman did not hesitate to publicly disagree with his political mentor. Lehman aroused the ire of Roosevelt and ardent New Dealers when he publicly opposed FDR's court-packing plan. Governor Lehman's "Little New Deal" in New York State mirrored Roosevelt's New Deal. Lehman used the power of state government to assist people in coping with the Great Depression. Significant accomplishments included assistance to the unemployed, public housing, lower utility rates, and help for farmers. One of the highlights of Lehman's decade in office was turning back a strong challenge from Thomas Dewey in the 1938 gubernatorial election. In November 1942, Lehman joined the Roosevelt administration as head of the Office of Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations...

Kebijakan Pendidikan Sebagai Kebijakan Publik dalam Sistem Politik di Indonesia

In the history of Indonesian, education policy has always been dynamic. Before independence until the reform era of education policy can not be separated from the political system. We know that education policy as part of education policy is a political product. Political configuration in every era of state political leadership has always changed according to the political wind and the configuration of political rulers. However, forces outside the governance system, such as educational community groups, will give color to the education system. When the political system demands the centralization of power, the education system will also concentrate on a centralized government. With the flow of reforms, it has spawned many changes in the education system. Several articles, even the law which, according to the public, lack attention to the aspect of education itself, are sued to the Constitutional Court. Along with the policy of regional autonomy, education policy must be able to adjust to the development of society in autonomous regions. This necessarily requires the creativity of leaders in the region in terms of promoting education in the region in accordance with the aspirations of the community.

Scope, functioning, current problems and future of Peripheral Cancer Centers (PCCs) in India

Public sector PCCs in India are sanctioned for and established in different geographical regions of its administrative states. PCCs are usually located away from the state’s capital with the aim of increasing access of patients to common cancer therapy and to improve the cancer out-reach activities. Away from state capital in remote locations, these PCCs may escape political and administrative surveillance and may subsequently become non-functional. However, non-functional PCCs can be made functional by collective national parliamentary, state political leadership’s and bureaucratic efforts. Continuous effective functioning and non-repetitiveness of past .i.e. dysfunction or cessation of function of PCCs are strongly dependent on the bureaucratic and professional commitment of the local staff.

Hacia un marco analítico explicativo de las políticas de los estados de la Unión Americana respecto a la inmigración indocumentada

A mediados de la primera década del siglo XXI, en los estados de la Unión Americana proliferaron políticas respecto a los inmigran- tes indocumentados, leyes y otras medidas generalmente en su contra. El objetivo del presente trabajo es desarrollar los elementos de un marco analítico que permita explicar la existencia y el sentido restrictivo de tales políticas. El trabajo está dividido en tres partes. En la primera se expone sucintamente el contexto histórico-político de las políticas estatales en contra de los inmigrantes indocumentados. En la segunda se describen los factores que suponen el apoyo de los ciudadanos a las mismas. En la tercera, los diferentes motivos que condujeron a los líderes políticos estatales a promoverlas y aprobarlas.

Developing age-friendly cities and communities in Australia.

The aim of the study is to present case studies and assess the impact of political, policy, consultative, and research processes used to implement Age Friendly Cities (AFC) initiatives in Australia. A review and interpretation was conducted based on public documents, community consultations, survey analyses, and participant observation. Governments in Australia have drawn on World Health Organization (WHO) concepts to establish AFC initiatives. In Melbourne, state political leadership established Positive Ageing plans that have reinforced local government actions. In Canberra, a baseline survey and an Older Persons Assembly were followed by modest positive ageing plans. In Sydney, a State Ageing Strategy developed a whole-of-government plan that has yet to be incorporated into budget processes. AFC initiatives in Australia have had promising and varied starts with some aims to benefit disadvantaged older people. Notwithstanding the potential benefits, AFC influence on mainstream actions of government has been limited by uncertain political commitment and growing fiscal austerity.

In the Eye of the Beholder: How Leaders and Intelligence Communities Assess the Intentions of Adversaries

How do policymakers infer the long-term political intentions of their states' adversaries? A new approach to answering this question, the “selective attention thesis,” posits that individual perceptual biases and organizational interests and practices influence which types of indicators a state's political leaders and its intelligence community regard as credible signals of an adversary's intentions. Policymakers often base their interpretations on their own theories, expectations, and needs, sometimes ignoring costly signals and paying more attention to information that, though less costly, is more vivid (i.e., personalized and emotionally involving). In contrast, intelligence organizations typically prioritize the collection and analysis of data on the adversary's military inventory. Over time, these organizations develop substantial knowledge on these material indicators that they then use to make predictions about an adversary's intentions. An examination of three cases based on 30,000 archival documents and intelligence reports shows strong support for the selective attention thesis and mixed support for two other approaches in international relations theory aimed at understanding how observers are likely to infer adversaries' political intentions: the behavior thesis and the capabilities thesis. The three cases are assessments by President Jimmy Carter and officials in his administration of Soviet intentions during the collapse of détente; assessments by President Ronald Reagan and administration officials of Soviet intentions during the end of the Cold War; and British assessments of Nazi Germany before World War II.

A Visual Critique of Racism: African American Art from Southern California

A Visual Critique of Racism: African American Art from Southern California

State Politics and the Right to Counsel: A Comparative Analysis

One of the most significant recent developments in the study of crime and justice is the emergence of theoretical explanations for the dramatic changes in criminal justice policy over the past few decades. These theoretical accounts address not only highly visible developments, such as the meteoric rise in incarceration rates, but also less-conspicuous shifts in due process and civil liberties, and they do so by attributing more-repressive policies to the emergence of a political culture that has substantially redefined crime and justice. This article focuses on an important due process issue, the legal representation of indigent defendants in criminal courts. We describe the state of indigent defense policy, particularly structure and funding, across the states in 2002, and analyze variation on two dimensions where states may exercise discretion: the extent to which states assume responsibility for funding services (rather than relying on local governments), and the generosity with which these programs are funded overall. We test hypotheses that link funding for services with the ideology of state political leadership, public values about tolerance and race relations, and states' public welfare policy climates. We find little support for the prediction that a welfare climate shapes more progressive indigent defense policies. However, the results suggest that the racial threat hypothesis helps account for spending on indigent defense, and that Republican control of the statehouse results in the perpetuation of local responsibility for program funding. Normative literature on indigent defense suggests that the patterns we observe may have important consequences for the quality of indigent defense services across states. Further, the findings reported here suggest that the politics of the punitive turn, as it has played out across the states, may be responsible not only for shifts in crime control policy, but for due process policy as well.

The Peculiar Democracy: Southern Democrats in Peace and Civil War (review)

Reviewed by: The Peculiar Democracy: Southern Democrats in Peace and Civil War Walter L. Buenger The Peculiar Democracy: Southern Democrats in Peace and Civil War. By Wallace Hettle. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2001. Pp. 240. Cloth $50.00.) Wallace Hettle offers a useful corrective to the tendency to break analysis of Southern politics in 1861, to focus on explaining secession to the neglect of understanding Civil War politics. Combining social and cultural history with a sure understanding of state level politics, Hettle focuses on the region's dominant Democratic party. He argues that the Democrats, especially their leaders, were torn between the egalitarian roots of the party and the reality that it functioned in a hierarchical slave society. For Hettle, "equal participation in a system characterized by inequalities is not possible" (4). During a war that demanded an enormous sacrifice from common people, from nonslaveholding whites, the gulf between the ordinary citizen and the slaveholding leadership widened. As a result, "the South increasingly lacked a popular foundation for the struggle" (10). Hettle stops short of insisting that the South lost the Civil War because of politics but argues that the increasingly high desertion rates and the lack of will to continue the fighting in 1865 derived in part from a political system that could no longer balance defending slavery and individual rights. Every chapter deals in one way or another with "the complexity of the interaction between planters and yeoman in the Civil War era" (39). Hettle begins with an extended discussion of the ongoing role of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson in the antebellum Democratic party. Jackson gave the party a highly gendered base—the image of an iron willed and independent man who dominated all others. Jefferson famously elevated yeoman farmers and the egalitarian society in which they lived to an ideal type. Few who came after Jackson, however, possessed his adroit balance of a defense of the yeoman with a display of manly strength and independence. Instead as secession approached and the Civil War unfolded leaders of the Democratic party often sought manly control and dominance at the expense of equal rights and equal participation by [End Page 325] the yeoman. Hettle uses case studies of John C. Rutherford of Virginia, Joseph Brown of Georgia, Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina, Jeremiah Clemens of Alabama, and Jefferson Davis of Mississippi to illustrate his point and to explain the variations and similarities between the Southern states. In each of these case studies, Hettle deftly explains both high politics and low politics: the overarching tension between elite control and democracy and the particular feuds, divisions, and issues that divided the public in individual states. For example, Hettle attributes the creation of a dictatorial Executive Council in wartime South Carolina to prewar schisms caused by such issues as conflict over legislative apportionment and the connection of South Carolinians to the national Democratic party. Yet even in South Carolina, devotion to Jacksonian principles and the need to ensure up-country support of the war caused the state's political leaders to retreat from aristocratic control symbolized by the Executive Council. In the end, however, Hettle's major contribution to our understanding of the Civil War and of Southern politics is to remind us of the role of slavery in all aspects of Southern life. The tension between elite control and manly dominance on one side and democracy and egalitarianism on the other grew from this. As Hettle puts it, "The peculiar institution produced a peculiar democracy, distorted by a culture of mastery and social inequality" (171). This democracy as well as the Democratic party that expressed it disintegrated during the war, weakening the political will and the ideological foundation of Southern citizens and the Southern government. By connecting wartime politics with prewar politics, by illuminating the distinctive features of each state, and most importantly by focusing on the political stress created by slavery, Hettle adds to our understanding of southern politics and to the debate over why the South lost the war. Walter L. Buenger Texas A&M University Copyright © 2006 The Kent State University Press

Playing the Board Game: An Empirical Analysis of University Trustee and Corporate Board Interlocks

The past decade has been marked by an increasingly entrepreneurial and commercial approach to the management and finance of postsecondary institutions (Kirp, 2003; Marginson, 1997; Pusser & Doane, 2001; Pusser, Gansnede, Gallaway & Pope, 2005; Slaughter & Leslie, 1997; Slaughter & Rhoades, 2004). The widely noted pressure for universities to rely on emerging corporate models of organization and to raise substantial amounts of income from private sources highlights a number of concerns relating to the missions and social responsibilities of these institutions (Bok, 2003; Ehrenberg, 2000; Press & Washburn, 2000; Pusser, 2002, forthcoming). The retreat of collective support and state block funding for public higher education has been well documented (Breneman, 2003; Callan, 2001). As unrestricted monies for higher education constrict, institutions have altered their resource-seeking patterns to compete for new, more competitively allocated funds Pusser & Wolcott, in press. To respond to new opportunities, research universities in the United States have also shifted away from basic research toward more applied science and technology--efforts that are considerably more competitive and that can yield more immediate financial returns to the institution (Geiger, 2004; Kirp, 2003; Slaughter & Leslie, 1997). Combined with intense internal pressure to shift to new funding sources, universities in the United States--large and small-are increasingly being viewed--and promoted--as engines of state and regional economic development (Geiger, 2004; Kirp, 2003; Pusser & Doane, 2001). Eager to gain comparative advantage, college administrators and state political leaders increasingly tout linkages between private sector entities and postsecondary institutions within their regions. Such alliances more often than not involve varying degrees of corporate access to faculties, students, laboratories, and the intellectual capital of the university-resources substantially underwritten by the public at-large (Bok, 2003). While the political-economic contexts shaping universities' revenue-seeking behaviors are well known, the process by which environmental demands are translated into institutional policies is much less well understood. The role of university trustees--the stewards of these institutions-in the negotiation of these new demands and opportunities has been little examined (Nicholson-Crotty & Meier, 2003; Ordorika, 2003; Pusser, 2003, 2006). As a key site for deliberation and the enactment of a wide range of institutional policies, governing boards provide a key source of data on the ways in which broader market forces may influence institutional behavior (Pusser & Turner, 2004). This study focuses on trustee interlocks, the pattern of multiple board memberships held by individual trustees at the nation's top public and private research universities. We argue that in keeping with a number of contemporary theories of organization, the trustees of university governing boards are significant sources of information and legitimacy for institutional policymaking. Consequently, the number and types of boards with which university trustees are affiliated provides a key window into sources of information, networks of legitimacy and authority, and normative understandings of effective institutional organization and behavior. The data collected here represent the linkages between trustees of 20 of the United States's most productive research universities and the broader corporate universe. We detail these linkages by empirically examining the number and nature of simultaneous memberships on the boards of trustees of these institutions and the boards of directors of some of the nation's largest corporations as well as the nation's most powerful research corporations. Research on Corporate Boards There is not a great deal of theoretical literature on postsecondary boards of trustees. …

Bridging the Achievement Gap: A Bridge Too Far?

Mr. Mathis exposes four fallacies that are the basis of the destructive argument that schools can single-handedly close the achievement gap. SEEKING TO cut off German access to the Rhine, Allied commanders dropped a small force of lightly armed paratroopers deep behind enemy lines. They were to seize a key bridge in Holland. Because of poor planning, inadequate support, overextended lines, and dropping the paratroopers into the middle of two crack Panzer divisions, the Allied venture was doomed. It was a bridge too far. Of course, the moral imperative was right. And of course, it is the moral obligation of all educators to bridge the achievement gaps between rich and poor, between boys and girls, and between brown, black, and white. Half a century after Brown v. Board of Education, we can mark the great progress we have made. But the gap remains. Some federal and state political leaders have made gung-ho proclamations about leaving no child behind. Yet they send in too few troops, too lightly supported, and with too little planning. The vaunted historic investments actually increase total education spending by less than 1%. The mandates were air-dropped into inner cities without social, community, school, or occupational networks to overcome the effects of ingrained poverty. The law then says the troops will be punished if they don't succeed. If we are to bridge the achievement gap, then we must view our social and educational obligations in a far richer and more expansive light. Are We Bridging the Gap? There is some good news about the achievement gap. While the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores in reading and math have increased between four and six points over the past five years for white students, the scores for minority groups have increased six to 13 points during this same period.1 Likewise, college entrance rates have increased by 5% for white students over the past decade, while the rates for black students have increased by 12%. Increases for Hispanic students match those for white students.2 The achievement gap cannot be completely closed, however, by simply carrying out more intensely some program that zealous adherents claim will close it. Certainly, some reforms have shown positive long-term effects when administered consistently over time. Nevertheless, to deal effectively with the gap means that we must deal with the underlying problems of society.3 As any inner-city teacher can tell us (and many rural and suburban teachers as well), to pretend that schools can single-handedly overcome a lifetime of deprivation through a whole-school action plan or through rigorous and intensive adherence to a particular reading program is more an exercise in ritualistic magic than a realistic solution to social, economic, and personal problems. Yet many politicians and educators contend -- explicitly or implicitly and perhaps even complicitly -- that the schools can and must go it alone. Four central fallacies are employed to argue that schools can do this job by themselves. 1. The fallacy of the successful example. Countless profiles, filled with fine praise, have been written about successful schools. Typically, federal and state politicians stage a high-visibility media event to recognize a poor school that has registered high test scores despite the handicaps of poverty and inadequate facilities. (The norm is for the politician to be photographed reading to children of color.) The media message is that, because this school has achieved success through hard work, all similarly situated schools can do the same. Thus closing the achievement gap requires no additional resources. It is simply a matter of will and effort. Certainly, there are thousands of teachers, aides, and principals across our land who are genuine heroes. They do miraculous work in impossible circumstances. …

Leadership and voting: the connection at the state level

While it is now well established that Australian party leaders at the national level influence political choice in federal elections, little systematic study has been undertaken of the equivalent role that State Premiers and Opposition Leaders might play. In the 2001 Australian Election Study (n=2010), questions were asked of a national probability sample of voters about respondent feelings towards their State Premier and State Opposition Leader, in addition to equivalent questions about Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley and other major political figures in federal politics. The data generated by this survey thus provide an opportunity to investigate the impact that contemporary State political leaders have on electoral choice. The analysis produces mixed results, but the findings show that State leaders generally do have an impact on voting behaviour in State elections, although in some cases this influence is eliminated when account is taken of voter attitudes towards the federal leaders. The analysis also affords an opportunity to test the extent of crossover between State and federal politics, in terms of how much State leaders influence federal voting and vice versa. While the results are somewhat uneven, they do indicate that some State leaders influence federal voting and that the federal leaders do influence voting in some States.

The Political Economy of Litigation and Settlement at the WTO

In 1995, following the Uruguay Round of trade talks, the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into being. Included in the infrastructure of the WTO was the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU), a mandatory dispute resolution system. From its inception in 1995 through July 2002, the DSU handled 262 cases and affected the content of international trade obligations. Despite its central role in the trading system, however, we are only just beginning to understand how the DSU affects state behavior and litigation patterns. Of particular note, we do not have a coherent model of litigation and settlement at the WTO that can explain why some cases settle while others do not. This paper provides such a model. In the domestic context, models of litigation and settlement turn on informational asymmetries. At the WTO, however, the informational assumptions required to explain the observed pattern of settlement are unrealistic, so an alternative approach must be explored. The relevant costs and benefits for a state involved in WTO litigation are political in nature. As such, benefits enjoyed by one party are unlikely to equal the costs borne by the other. This is true of both the impact of a panel ruling, and the impact of the delay that is built into the WTO system. Both of these factors affect the payoffs received by a state's political leaders. This paper show how these asymmetric political payoffs affect the pool of cases that proceeds to a panel. Of the 82 cases that have generated a panel ruling, 90% have resulted in a complainant win. Combining this remarkably high win rate with the theory developed in this article allows us to draw inferences about the political costs and benefits facing states as they decide whether to settle or proceed to a panel.