Political Processes and Public Expenditures: A Re-examination Based on Theories of Representative Government

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1127-1135 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Kenneth Godwin ◽  
W. Bruce Shepard
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Single Equation ◽  
Public Expenditures ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Translation Error ◽  
Political Variables

Studies attempting to predict public expenditures using political variables have generally incorrectly assumed that political, like socioeconomic, variables function as determinants of policy levels and types. If one assumes, however, that the function of the political process in representative government is to translate citizens' demands for various levels of services as accurately as possible, then political variables must be conceptualized as mediating in character. In the absence of knowledge of whether public services are being oversupplied or undersupplied in relation to citizen demands, the effects of political variables can therefore, be better tested by moving beyond single-equation regression models.An alternative method for examining impacts of political variables is presented by integrating them with conventional theories of political representation. This leads to a concept of “translation error,” and ways of examining relationships between this concept and political variables are explicated. Finally, the greater theoretical utility of this reformulation for the study of public policy is examined, and empirical studies which indicate its validity are cited.

Silence of the Land: On the Historical Irrelevance of Territory to Congressional Districting and Political Representation in the United States

2001 ◽  
Vol 15 (01) ◽  
pp. 53-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Rehfeld
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
House Of Representatives ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Government ◽  
Congressional District ◽  
Congressional Districts ◽  
Communities Of Interest

Every ten years, the United States “constructs” itself politically. On a decennial basis, U.S. Congressional districts are quite literally drawn, physically constructing political representation in the House of Representatives on the basis of where one lives. Why does the United States do it this way? What justifies domicile as the sole criteria of constituency construction? These are the questions raised in this article. Contrary to many contemporary understandings of representation at the founding, I argue that there were no principled reasons for using domicile as the method of organizing for political representation. Even in 1787, the Congressional district was expected to be far too large to map onto existing communities of interest. Instead, territory should be understood as forming a habit of mind for the founders, even while it was necessary to achieve other democratic aims of representative government.

scholarly journals Common concern for the global ecological commons: solidarity with future generations?

2021 ◽  
pp. 004711782110362
Author(s):  
Marianne Takle
Keyword(s):  
Political Process ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Four Dimensions ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Collective Orientation ◽  
Scholarly Contribution ◽  
Analytical Tools ◽  
Normative Content

This article elaborates on ideas concerning future generations and whether they are useful in understanding some aspects of the concern for the global ecological commons. The article’s main scholarly contribution is to develop analytical tools for examining what a concern for future generations would require of current generations. It combines the scholarly literature on future generations with that of solidarity. The ideas concerning future generations are interpreted in terms of an ideal typical concept of solidarity with future generations. This concept is divided into four dimensions: the foundation of solidarity, the objective of solidarity, the boundaries of solidarity and the collective orientation. By applying these four dimensions in the context of the political process leading to Agenda 2030, the potentials and limitations of the concept are evident. The article concludes that the absence of reciprocity between current and future generations and uncertainty about the future are both crucial issues, which cut across the four dimensions. We cannot expect anything from people who have not yet been born, and we do not know what preferences they will have. This shows the vulnerability of forward-looking appeals to solidarity with future generations. Nevertheless, such appeals to solidarity may give global political processes a normative content and direction and can thereby contribute to understanding common concerns for the global ecological commons.

Testing Single-Equation Least Squares Regression Models for Autocorrelated Disturbances

Econometrica ◽  
1968 ◽  
Vol 36 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 626 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard C. Henshaw
Keyword(s):  
Least Squares ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Single Equation ◽  
Least Squares Regression

METAPHOR OF «DESTROYED WORLD» IN THE POLITICAL PROJECTION OF WORLD-SYSTEM ANALYSIS

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-86
Author(s):  
V.E. BAGDASARYAN ◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
System Analysis ◽  
Political Process ◽  
World System ◽  
World Order ◽  
World Systems ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Catastrophe ◽  
Systemic Nature ◽  
World Center

The purpose of the article is to present an analysis of modern global political processes characterized by the unipolarity of the destruction of the former world system. The current situation of political transit is assessed as a failure of technologies of controlled chaos and transition to a state of turbulence. The basic approach of the research was the methodology of world-systems analysis. The article provides arguments that substantiate the systemic nature of the crisis of the World Center, the problematic nature of the restoration of the unipolar system of the world order. Four scenario perspectives of further development of the world political process are considered: 1. restoration of the leadership legitimacy of the World Center; 2. change of the core of the world system; 3. transition of a state of chaos to a global catastrophe; 4. the establishment of a system of a multilateral world of civilizations. It is indicated that the West-centered world-system has paradoxically diverged at some stage from the values of the Western civilization itself. And it is obvious that the transition to a multilateral world should be linked to the basic civilizational values of the world-systems, their differences from the values of other communities. As a result, practical recommendations are presented for the activity steps of building a system of multilateral world order as a desirable prospect for overcoming the state of turbulence and preventing a new geopolitical hegemony.

Forging Women's Substantive Representation: Intersectional Interests, Political Parity, and Pensions in Bolivia

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-459 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christina Ewig
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Research ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The Political ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Substantive Representation ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Pension Reforms ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Political Intersectionality

AbstractLacking tools to measure substantive representation, empirical research to date has determined women’s substantive representation by identifying “women’s interests” a priori, with little attention to differences across race, class, or other inequalities. To address this problem, I develop the concept of intersectional interests and a method for identifying these. Intersectional interests represent multiple perspectives and are forged through a process of political intersectionality that purposefully includes historically marginalized perspectives. These interests can be parsed into three types: expansionist, integrationist, and reconceived. Identification of intersectional interests requires, first, an inductive mapping of the differing women’s perspectives that exist in a specific context and then an examination of the political processes that lead to these new, redefined interests. I demonstrate the concept of intersectional interests and how to identify these in Bolivia, where I focus on the political process of forging reconceived intersectional interests in Bolivia’s political parity and pension reforms.

scholarly journals O Problema do Poder Efetivo na Câmara dos Deputados

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renan Barbosa de Morais ◽  
Mário César San Felice ◽  
Pedro Henrique Del Bianco Hokama ◽  
Gabriel Ávila Casalecchi
Keyword(s):  
Game Theory ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Power Index ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Mathematical Concept ◽  
The Political ◽  
Effective Power ◽  
The One ◽  
Index Problem

Proportionality in political representation is an essential theme forrepresentative democracy. In Brazil, this debate appears in the contextof non-proportionality between a federative unit’s populationsize and its number of representatives in the Chamber of Deputies.In other words, the number of deputies in a state is not proportionalto its number of inhabitants, which violates the "one man, one vote"principle.Discussions around this disproportionality have motivated scholarsto develop empirical research that aims to identify the causesand consequences of the phenomenon and to analyze the impactthat the rule introduces in the political process. This article seeksto contribute to this debate by measuring the effective power ofeach Brazilian federation’s entity and proposing alternatives ofdistribution for the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.To this end, we use a mathematical concept from game theory,called Power Index, which allows quantifying the existing representationaldiscrepancies. After evaluating several distributions, wesolved the Inverse Power Index Problem (IPIP) to obtain a distributionof chairs that reduces such disparities. To solve the IPIP, whichis computationally hard, we use an evolutionary heuristic. As anobjective function to minimize the discrepancy, we use the linearShapley rule, in which the power index of each state is proportionalto its population.

Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling

1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Regression ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Women In Parliament

This article reports the results of a survey of women in legislatures and executives around the world as they were constituted in 1998 (N = 180). The chief hypotheses regarding the factors hindering or facilitating women's access to political representation were tested by multivariate regression models. The regression models juxtaposed a cocktail of institutional, political, cultural, and socioeconomic variables with the following dependent variables: (1) the percentage of MPs who are women and (2) the percentage of cabinet ministers who are women.A number, although not all, of the cited hypotheses were statistically confirmed and more finely quantified. The socioeconomic development of women in society has an effect on the number of women in parliament but not in the cabinet. A country's length of experience with multipartyism and women's enfranchisement correlates with both the legislative and the executive percentage. Certain electoral systems are more women friendly than others. The ideological nature of the party system affects the number of women elected and chosen for cabinet posts. And last, the state's dominant religion, taken as a proxy for culture, also statistically relates to the number of women who will make it to high political office. However, other long-held hypotheses were not proved. The degree of democracy is not a good indicator of the percentage of women who will make it into the legislature or the cabinet, nor is the dichotomy between a presidential or parliamentary system.

Independent Candidates and Political Representation in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 112 (3) ◽  
pp. 678-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
SACHA KAPOOR ◽  
ARVIND MAGESAN
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voter Turnout ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Vote Share ◽  
The Political ◽  
Standard Deviation Increase ◽  
Percentage Points ◽  
Independent Candidates

We estimate the causal effect of independent candidates on voter turnout and election outcomes in India. To do this, we exploit exogenous changes in the entry deposit candidates pay for their participation in the political process, changes that disproportionately excluded candidates with no affiliation to established political parties. A one standard deviation increase in the number of independent candidates increases voter turnout by more than 6 percentage points, as some voters choose to vote rather than stay home. The vote share of independent candidates increases by more than 10 percentage points, as some existing voters switch who they vote for. Thus, independents allow winning candidates to win with less vote share, decrease the probability of electing a candidate from the governing coalition by about 31 percentage points, and ultimately increase the probability of electing an ethnic-party candidate. Altogether, the results imply that the price of participation by independents is constituency representation in government.

Rethinking democratic representation: eight theoretical issues and a postscript1

2019 ◽  
pp. 21-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dario Castiglione ◽  
Mark E. Warren
Keyword(s):  
21St Century ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Political Practice ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Input And Output ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Theoretical Issues ◽  
The Way

This chapter offers here a sketch of eight theoretical issues that are fundamental to rethinking the problems and potentials of political representation under emerging conditions. The issues include: (1) the relational character of representation; (2) the role that trusteeship plays in forms of democratic representation; (3) an assessment of representation in terms of both input and output; (4) representation considered as a political practice; (5) the way in which representation is constituted by and within political processes; (6) the objects of representation: who and what are represented; (7) the question of who is a democratic representative; and (8) the relationship between authorization and accountability in informal representation. In each of these dimensions the theory of representation in democracies needs refurbishing, a task that requires returning to the concept of representation in a more systematic way, also taking on board theoretical intuitions from deliberative, participatory and radical populist conceptions of democracy. The postscript takes stock of some of these developments and suggests that rethinking political representation is part of the pressing task to reconsider democracy in the 21st century.

Blockchain-Based Voting in the US and EU Constitutional Orders: A Digital Technology to Secure Democratic Values?

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-358
Author(s):  
Desmond JOHNSON
Keyword(s):  
Civic Participation ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Democratic Legitimacy ◽  
Public Confidence ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
The Us ◽  
Right To Vote ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Eu

The right to vote and participate in the political process is a quintessential feature of any democratic society. Systematic risks to the integrity of US elections and passive civic participation in the EU political process present fundamental threats to the constitutional aspirations and the democratic ideals connected to “We the People” in the US and “United in Diversity” in the EU. The existence of power imbalances, social inequalities and information asymmetries in electoral and political processes illustrate that both jurisdictions are in peril and in risk of democratic backsliding. Blockchain-based voting can transform existing electoral and political processes in the digital age. This raises the question whether blockchain-based voting can be utilised as a digital tool to enhance the democratic legitimacy of US and EU electoral and political systems. Accordingly, this article aims to examine the prospects and limits of blockchain technology to secure foundational democratic norms connected to the right to vote and civic participation at the heart of contemporary constitutionalism. It contends that the decentralised, immutable, accessible, transparent, and secure processes of blockchain technology have the potential to enhance the legitimacy of the US and EU constitutional orders, since blockchain-based voting can act as a forum for enhanced civic participation, public deliberation, and democratic contestation. Nevertheless, the article concludes that a number of important steps must be taken to fully realise the potential of blockchain-based voting in a manner that combats the risks associated with the technology, strengthens public confidence in electoral and political processes and secures a balanced system of governance in the US and the EU constitutional orders.

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