Governing through the Senate

The Forum ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Byron E. Shafer ◽  
Raymond J. La Raja
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
Policy Action ◽  
Partisan Polarization ◽  
Speaker Of The House ◽  
State Senators

The Senate is often the institutional pivot for political conflict in the United States, so this issue of The Forum focuses on ‘governing through the Senate’. Charles O. Jones considers its inherent peculiarities as the institution meant to ‘go second’ in a separated system; Sarah Binder argues that the modern Senate is moving away from its constitutional role; Frances Lee considers the role of party competition in shaping senatorial behavior; Barry Burden asks about the influence of senatorial polarization and party balance within the bicameral context; and Daniel DiSalvo contrasts partisan polarization with divided government as influences on senatorial behavior. Randall Strahan observes one particular senator negotiating this complicated framework; Wendy Schiller and Jennifer Cassidy consider the dynamics of cooperation (or not) among same-state senators; and Andrea Hatcher contrasts a majority leader who lost re-election with another who won. Ryan Black, Anthony Madonna, and Ryan Owens examine a very private form of senatorial obstruction, ‘blue slip behavior’; Gregory Koger examines what is surely the best-known form of obstruction, the filibuster; Eric Schickler and Gregory Wawro argue that, whatever its collective impact, senators have multiple reasons to protect this filibuster; and James Wallner closes with a substantive realm, budgeting, where the absence of policy action by the Senate is critical. In book reviews, Joseph Cooper uses Matthew N. Green, The Speaker of the House: A Study in Leadership, to think about the study of Congress more generally, and Matthew Green responds; Amnon Cavari reviews B. Dan Wood, The Myth of Presidential Representation; and Philip Brenner reviews Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.

Book Reviews

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 809-818
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
The United States ◽  
Factor Endowments ◽  
University Of Wisconsin ◽  
European Colonization ◽  
The University ◽  
Relative Differences

Jeffrey G. Williamson of Harvard University and University of Wisconsin reviews “Economic Development in the Americas since 1500: Endowments and Institutions” by Stanley L. Engerman and Kenneth L. Sokoloff. The EconLit abstract of the reviewed work begins: Eleven papers explore differences in the rates of economic growth in Latin America and mainland North America, specifically the United States and Canada, and consider how relative differences in growth over time are related to differences in the institutions that developed in different economies. Papers discuss paths of development -- an overview; factor endowments and institutions; the role of institutions in shaping factor endowments; the evolution of suffrage institutions; the evolution of schooling – 1800–1925; inequality and the evolution of taxation; land and immigration policies; politics and banking systems; five hundred years of European colonization; institutional and noninstitutional explanations of economic development; and institutions in political and economic development. Engerman is John H. Munro Professor of Economics and Professor of History at the University of Rochester. The late Sokoloff was Professor in the Department of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles. Bibliography; index.

US Republicans will block Supreme Court appointment

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
The United States ◽  
Divided Government ◽  
Federal Regulation ◽  
Role Of Government ◽  
Content Type ◽  
To Come

Significance A new justice has the potential to change the tenor of the Supreme Court's rulings significantly for many years to come, on issues including the scope of federal regulation, campaign finance and the federal government's powers. Scalia was a vocal political and judicial conservative, and the upcoming political fight to appoint his successor will reflect the broader conservative-progressive debate about civil liberties, the scope of the Constitution and the role of government in society. Impacts The Obama administration is likely to see many of its administrative actions upheld, at least until his term ends next January. An open Supreme Court seat may boost turnout by conservative Republican voters worried about a moderate or liberal appointment. Appointment politics and numerous federal vacancies are likely to persist as a feature of divided government in the United States.

Feminine Beauty, National Identity and Political Conflict in Postwar Italy, 1945–1954

1999 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-378 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Gundle
Keyword(s):  
Political Leadership ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Consumer Society ◽  
Beauty Contests ◽  
Feminine Beauty ◽  
The Face ◽  
Postwar Italy ◽  
First Time

After 1945 the Italian tradition of feminine beauty was redefined in a democratic context in which women, for the first time, became full citizens. Faced with a far-reaching challenge from Hollywood, traditional criteria of beauty were first strenuously defended and then modified and commercialised. Beauty contests proved to be a vital vehicle in this transition, since they acted both as a forum for the reassertion of Italian beauty and as a vehicle for the displacement of old ideas centred on the face with a new concept based on the eroticised body. This transition became bound up with the ongoing political conflict between Catholics and the left for the moral and political leadership of the country. While both, with different emphases, championed ‘natural’ at the expense of American-style ‘manufactured’ beauty, competition led them to engage with, and in some way adopt, the sexualised beauty that was the hallmark of the role of the United States in furnishing new models for the consumer society that would develop rapidly in the later 1950s.

Book Reviews

2011 ◽  
Vol 49 (4) ◽  
pp. 1288-1289
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Time Use ◽  
The United States ◽  
Work Hours ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Western Michigan University ◽  
Maternal Caregiving

Sandra K. Danziger of University of Michigan reviews “The Time Use of Mothers in the United States at the Beginning of the 21st Century” by Rachel Connelly and Jean Kimmel. The EconLit abstract of the reviewed work begins, “Examines the time use of mothers of preteenaged children in the United States from 2003 to 2006. Discusses a descriptive look at mothers' time use; the nature of maternal caregiving--whether it is more like leisure or household production; husbands' influences on mothers' unpaid time choices; and the role of nonstandard work hours in maternal caregiving. Connelly is Bion R. Cram Professor of Economics at Bowdoin College. Kimmell is Professor of Economics at Western Michigan University and Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor. Index.”

The Structuring of Political Cleavages in Post-Communist Societies: The Case of the Czech Republic and Slovakia

1998 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geoffrey Evans ◽  
Stephen Whitefield
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Party Competition ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Transition Pathways ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Slovak Politics

Although sharing institutions for over seventy years, and transition pathways from communism, the two successor states of the former Czechoslovakia have faced distinct challenges in state-building and divergent economic fortunes. The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which these differing social economic problems have influenced the ideological bases of party politics and mass electoral behaviour in the two societies. Using data from national samples of the population of each country conducted in the spring of 1994, our analysis points to the existence of distinct issue cleavages dominating party competition in the two states: in the Czech Republic, partisanship relates mainly to issues of distribution and attitudes towards the West; in Slovakia, by contrast, these issues are only secondarily important in shaping voters' choice of party, while the main focus concerns the ethnic rights of Hungarians. The distinctive nature of the issue bases to politics in the two countries suggests one reason for the greater degree of political conflict evident in Slovak politics since the split and, more generally, provides evidence of the role of social conditions in shaping new political systems.

Book Reviews

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 1130-1132
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Job Quality ◽  
Massachusetts Institute Of Technology ◽  
University Of Michigan ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Work Index ◽  
Employment Standards ◽  
Institute Of Technology

Charles C. Brown of University of Michigan reviews, “Good Jobs America: Making Work Better for Everyone” by Paul Osterman and Beth Shulman. The EconLit Abstract of this book begins: “Considers how the United States can create better jobs and futures for workers by enacting policies to help employers improve job quality. Discusses myths about the low-wage job market—clearing the underbrush; whether you get what you deserve—the role of education and skill; how firms think; employment standards; voice and power; working with firms to upgrade work; and job quality on the ground—the story of green jobs. Osterman is NTU Professor of Human Resources and Management in the Sloan School of Management and a member of the Department of Urban Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The late Shulman was Senior Fellow at Demos, Chair of the Board of the National Employment Law Project, and the cochair of the Fairness Initiative on Low-Wage Work. Index.”

The Science of Marijuana

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Iversen
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cannabis Use ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Rapid Changes ◽  
The World ◽  
Recreational Use ◽  
The Brain

Marijuana (cannabis) is the most widely used recreational drug after nicotine and alcohol. This book reviews the rapidly growing body of scientific evidence on cannabis—how it works, the role of endogenous cannabinoids in the brain and body, and the opportunities for new medicines based on such knowledge. The regulation of cannabis use varies considerably throughout the world. This book reviews the rapid changes that have occurred in liberalizing the medical use of cannabis, and in some instances the full legalization of cannabis use, with an emphasis on events in the United States and Canada. The advantages and disadvantages of liberalizing the medical and recreational use of cannabis are discussed in a neutral manner, leaving the reader to decide.

Book Reviews

2014 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 862-864
Keyword(s):  
Sovereign Debt ◽  
The United States ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Global Policy ◽  
Research Fellow ◽  
Senior Research Fellow ◽  
Senior Research ◽  
Policy Institute

Ten papers explore the importance of emotions in the study and understanding of finance and money. Papers discuss magic thinking and panic buttons in the callous financial transaction chains (Helena Flam); immoral panic and emotional operations in times of financial fragility (Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis); how European sovereign debt became the new subprime—the role of confidence in the European financial crisis, 2009–10 (Richard Swedberg); shame and stock market losses—the case of amateur investors in the United States (Brooke Harrington); the grammar of trust (Susan Shapiro); revisiting the credit theory of money and trust (Geoffrey Ingham); methodology in Max Weber's economic sociology—what place emotions in Roman agrarian history and today's finance sector? (Sam Whimster); states of disorder—new reflections on sociology's contribution to understanding financial booms and crises (Shaun Wilson and Peter McCarthy); “nicotine for protein”—culture and the emotions of hard trading in Japanese prisoner of war camps (Benjamin Manning); and the emotions of money—assessing betrayal and reform (Jocelyn Pixley). Pixley is Professorial Research Fellow with the Global Policy Institute at London Metropolitan University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at Macquarie University.

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