Sweating the Vote: Heat and Abstention in the US House of Representatives

2012 ◽  
Vol 45 (01) ◽  
pp. 74-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Cohen
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Voting Turnout ◽  
Mass Public ◽  
Summer Heat ◽  
The Us ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractSeveral recent studies noted systematic links between weather conditions and voting turnout amid the mass public. This article extends this logic to the elite level by exploring the relationship between summer heat and abstentions in the US House of Representatives. In controlled multivariate regressions, heat is a significant predictor of abstentions across all votes held between 1991 and 2000. This finding provides new insight into legislative behavior as well as the motivation behind some abstentions, which could inform the understanding of the literature on legislative shirking.

scholarly journals Arbitrage hedging in markets for the US lean hogs and the EU live pigs

2013 ◽  
Vol 59 (No. 11) ◽  
pp. 505-511
Author(s):  
M. Ziegelbäck ◽  
G. Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Cointegration Analysis ◽  
Monetary Benefit ◽  
Price Adjustments ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Economic Interpretation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Price Differences ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
The Eu

  The paper describes an attempt to gain insight into the relationship between cash and futures markets for US lean hogs and EU live pigs, and the opportunity of arbitrage hedging. In doing so, the authors use newer methods of threshold cointegration analysis for time series from 1999 until 2008. Besides the existence of a long-run equilibrium, asymmetric price adjustments can be demonstrated. This is especially the case for the EU live pigs, where price variations of the basis are higher and exhibit lower standard deviation. The results also perfectly show that cash prices follow the futures market more than the other way round. Furthermore, a grid search has revealed that the residual-based threshold in either market is near zero and therefore coherent with economic interpretation. Thus, at least theoretically, arbitrageurs in those markets are able to exploit the price differences between the two markets and reap no-risk monetary benefit. Hence, the results are in line with the statement that “speculating the basis” generates a better return.

scholarly journals Diffusion in Congress: Measuring the Social Dynamics of Legislative Behavior

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-527 ◽  
Author(s):  
René Lindstädt ◽  
Ryan J. Vander Wielen ◽  
Matthew Green
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Process ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Peer Pressure ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Recent Innovation ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Rational Evaluation

While there is a substantial literature highlighting the presence of social dynamics in legislatures, we know very little about the precise processes that generate these social dynamics. Yet, whether social dynamics are due to peer pressure, frequency of interaction, or genuine learning, for example, has important implications for questions of political representation and accountability. We demonstrate how a recent innovation can be used to study the diffusion of behavior within legislatures. In particular, we study diffusion within the US House of Representatives by looking at the dynamic process underlying discharge petitions. The discharge procedure shares many characteristics with other forms of legislative behavior, yet it has one important advantage when it comes to studying social dynamics: we can observe when members decide to sign petitions. Based on data from 1995 to 2014, we find that the social dynamics underlying the discharge procedure tend to involve the rational evaluation of information conveyed by the behavior of previous petition signatories.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-22
Author(s):  
Andrea F. Bohlman
Keyword(s):  
Political Action ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
International Perspectives ◽  
The Us ◽  
Solidarity Movement ◽  
Party Members ◽  
Political Agents ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

The introduction defines “political action” and “solidarity” theoretically, as frameworks for organizing and dispersing the relationship between music and protest. It also introduces the Polish opposition to state socialism, giving an overview of the political agents (activists, critics, citizens, priests, bureaucrats, Party members, journalists) who are the main protagonists of this history and who guide the musics and scenes upon which the book focuses. One cabaret anthem, Jan Pietrzak’s “So That Poland Will Be Poland,” serves as an orientation point. The song’s text, key performances in Warsaw, and use by the US Information Agency for propaganda give insight into national and international perspectives on the Solidarity movement and its historiography from the 1980s into the present.

The social silos of journalism? Twitter, news media and partisan segregation

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 815-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Wihbey ◽  
Kenneth Joseph ◽  
David Lazer
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
News Media ◽  
Social Media Networks ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Us ◽  
Standard Text ◽  
Media Ecosystem ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Modest Correlation

The present work proposes social media as a tool to understand the relationship between journalists’ social networks and the content they produce. Specifically, we ask, “what is the association between the partisan nature of the accounts journalists follow on Twitter and the news content they produce?” Using standard text scaling techniques, we analyze partisanship in a novel dataset of more than 300,000 news articles produced by 644 journalists at 25 different US news outlets. We then develop a novel, semi-supervised model of partisanship of Twitter following relationships and show a modest correlation between the partisanship of whom a journalist follows on Twitter and the content she produces. The findings provide insight into the partisan dynamics that appear to characterize the US media ecosystem in its broad contours, dynamics that may be traceable from social media networks to published stories.

Elite-level issue dynamics

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Lee ◽  
Rachel A Schutte
Keyword(s):  
Political Conflict ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Culture War ◽  
Roll Call ◽  
Comprehensive View ◽  
The Us ◽  
Ideological Polarization ◽  
Elite Level ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Compare And Contrast

We analyze elite-level issue dynamics of culture war issues in the US from 1971 to 2008 to compare and contrast three theories of issue change: issue evolution, conflict extension, and ideological polarization. Previous studies often conflate these perspectives by only focusing on increased partisanship as evidence of issue change. We argue that these theories differ on a key aspect of issue conflict: dimensionality, that is, the relationship between political conflict on the issue in question and conflict on other issues. We analyze changes in the dimensionality of roll call voting in the US House on the environment, women’s rights, gun control, abortion, and immigration to present a more comprehensive view of issue dynamics. Our results suggest that these perspectives need further clarification and can complement one another. In particular, considering degrees of an issue evolution is beneficial. Although most issues became more partisan as they were simply absorbed into existing partisan cleavages, which is not consistent with some descriptions of an evolution, the more prominent culture war issues, such as abortion and gun control, showed more distinctive and prominent characteristics.

Cosponsoring and Cashing In: US House Members’ Support for Punitive Immigration Policy and Financial Payoffs from the Private Prison Industry

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Jason L. Morín ◽  
Rachel Torres ◽  
Loren Collingwood
Keyword(s):  
Immigration Policy ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Private Interests ◽  
Immigration Legislation ◽  
The Us ◽  
Private Prison ◽  
Immigrant Detention ◽  
Bill Cosponsorship ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Prison Industry

Abstract The private prison industry is a multi-million-dollar industry that has increasingly profited from the detention of undocumented immigrants. As a government contractor, therefore, the industry has a natural interest in government decision making, including legislation that can affect its expansion into immigrant detention. In this article, we examine the relationship between campaign donations made on behalf of the private prison industry and an untested form of position taking—bill cosponsorship—in the US House of Representatives. We hypothesize the private prison industry will reward House members for taking positions that benefit the industry. We also hypothesize the private prison industry will also reward House members who incur greater political risk by taking positions out of sync with the party. To test our hypotheses, we focus on punitive immigration legislation that has the potential to increase the supply of immigrant detainees over the course of eight years. We find support for our second hypothesis, that private prison companies are more likely to reward House Democrats who cosponsor punitive immigration policies even after accounting for possible endogeneity. The findings have important implications regarding the relationship between House members and private interests.

Diplomacy with Fundamentalists: The United States and the Taliban

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 209-234
Author(s):  
Juergen Kleiner
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gas Pipeline ◽  
The Us ◽  
Osama Bin Laden ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractAfter the Taliban had become a permanent factor in Afghan politics at the beginning of 1995, the US administration started talking to them, mainly through the American Embassy in Islamabad. Declassified documents about the administration's dealings with the Taliban, which were obtained and published by the National Security Archive, give insight into the relationship between the two unlikely partners. The Americans discussed various issues with the Taliban, such as peace in Afghanistan, the fight against narcotics, human rights, the proposed Unocal gas pipeline from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan, and terrorism. The Taliban demanded recognition as Afghanistan's legitimate government and wanted access to additional revenue. American talks with the Taliban survived the deterioration of the relationship from original friendliness to opposition to the promotion of sanctions and finally to threats. Since the end of summer 1998, a solution to the issue of Osama Bin Laden has been the US administration's top issue. The Americans asked the Taliban with urgency to take Bin Laden into custody or to expel him. The US administration, however, did not offer the Taliban anything in return. Persuasion was not enough to achieve the desired result and the administration's strategy was self-defeating.

scholarly journals Rethinking the Role of the Speaker: Power, Institutional Development, and the Myth of the “Impartial Moderator” in the Early US House of Representatives

2021 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
DANIEL PEART
Keyword(s):  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Institutional Development ◽  
Party Government ◽  
The Us ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThe early Speakers of the US House of Representatives, most historians and political scientists have agreed, aspired only to facilitate legislative business; the office served as an “impartial moderator,” its functions were “largely ceremonial,” and its occupants of no more consequence than a mere “traffic cop.” This article challenges that conclusion by presenting episodes from the tenures of four early Speakers—Jonathan Dayton, Theodore Sedgwick, Nathaniel Macon, and Joseph B. Varnum—to illustrate their contributions to debates that still occupy us today: the relationship between Congress and president; the scope of federal power; the extent of constitutional freedoms; and the functions and limitations of party government. At a moment when scholars are showing renewed interest in the historical mechanics of lawmaking, this article argues for reinserting the Speakership back into the heart of that process, where it has always belonged.

Skeletal elements of crinoid echinoderms: High-resolution structural and microanalytical results

1983 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
pp. 194-195
Author(s):  
D. F. Blake ◽  
L. F. Allard ◽  
D. R. Peacor
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Marine Invertebrates ◽  
Sea Urchins ◽  
Structural Features ◽  
Sea Stars ◽  
High Resolution Tem ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Insight Into

Echinodermata is a phylum of marine invertebrates which has been extant since Cambrian time (c.a. 500 m.y. before the present). Modern examples of echinoderms include sea urchins, sea stars, and sea lilies (crinoids). The endoskeletons of echinoderms are composed of plates or ossicles (Fig. 1) which are with few exceptions, porous, single crystals of high-magnesian calcite. Despite their single crystal nature, fracture surfaces do not exhibit the near-perfect {10.4} cleavage characteristic of inorganic calcite. This paradoxical mix of biogenic and inorganic features has prompted much recent work on echinoderm skeletal crystallography. Furthermore, fossil echinoderm hard parts comprise a volumetrically significant portion of some marine limestones sequences. The ultrastructural and microchemical characterization of modern skeletal material should lend insight into: 1). The nature of the biogenic processes involved, for example, the relationship of Mg heterogeneity to morphological and structural features in modern echinoderm material, and 2). The nature of the diagenetic changes undergone by their ancient, fossilized counterparts. In this study, high resolution TEM (HRTEM), high voltage TEM (HVTEM), and STEM microanalysis are used to characterize tha ultrastructural and microchemical composition of skeletal elements of the modern crinoid Neocrinus blakei.

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