articles+ search results

Congrès, Congress, Culture, Discours politique, Political Speech, Revendication, Claim, Savoir, Knowledge, Science, Symbolisme, Symbolism, Taxation, Courbe de Laffer, Politics, Symbols, Taxes, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Comportement politique, Political behaviour, Methods and statistics, and Méthodes et statistiques

Political debates over knowledge claims often become emotionally charged, with two sides not only disputing what is true but seeing those on the other side as deluded or worse. By looking at use of the term Laffer curve in the U.S. Congress from 1977 to 2010, we draw attention to two ways such debates over knowledge claims can evolve. The Laffer curve is a simple schematic representation of the relationship between tax rates and government revenue that was influential in U.S. tax policy in the late 1970s. Early on, Republicans and Democrats faced off over the Laffer curve as a cognitive symbol to be debated with argument, evidence, and reference to experts. Over time, Republicans continued to treat the Laffer curve as a cognitive symbol, but for Democrats it became a polluted expressive symbol that could be dismissed without debate. Democrats also articulated the Laffer curve as part of an ironic narrative about the failure of the Reagan administration, which ended the possibility of serious deliberation. We suggest that the dynamics seen here may also be present around other politicized knowledge claims, such as the claim that human activity is causing climate change.

Attitude politique, Political attitude, Niveau d'information, Information Level, Opinion publique, Public Opinion, Pouvoir législatif, Legislative Power, Préférence, Preference, Sénat, Senat, Débat politique, Polarisation, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, and Public opinion

Recent studies of the U.S. Congress have demonstrated a substantial difference between the level of partisan polarization displayed by legislators' votes and that shown in citizens' survey responses about those votes. Perhaps public polarization would increase if citizens were more attentive to political debates in Congress. Using natural variation in citizens' levels of political information, I show that citizens who are informed about the partisan alignment of issues have a preference distribution similar to that of Congress, even after the sample is reweighted to resemble the entire public in their political, social, and demographic characteristics via matching. In contrast, using a survey experiment, I show that cue and argument treatments only partially reduce the discrepancy between the views expressed by the public and the voting behavior of Congress on the same issues. Both experimental and observational studies have significant limitations for measuring counterfactuals involving public opinion, and so our understanding of the polarization gap remains unfortunately limited.

Congrès, Congress, Latino-américain, Latino-American, Minorité ethnique, Ethnic Minority, Représentation politique, Political Representation, Système politique, Political system, Sociologie, Sociology, Cultures et civilisations, Cultures and civilizations, Groupes ethniques. Acculturation. Identité culturelle, Ethnic groups. Acculturation. Cultural identity, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Systèmes, partis et institutions politiques, and Political systems, parties and institutions

Objectives. This study updates and extends research on substantive Latino representation in the U.S. Congress. An improved method of measuring Latino interests is proposed. Methods. Using a scorecard from the National Hispanic: Leadership Agenda as the dependent variable, standard OLS regression is employed to determine the variables that best predict how members of the 108th Congress vote on issues that are salient to the Latino community. Results. The findings indicate that Latinos are substantively represented overwhelmingly by Democrats and those from majority-Democratic districts or states, while religion and level of constituency poverty also play a notable role. Conclusion. This study adds strong support to the party as a substantive representative model of minority representation. It also shows that Latinos are not more likely to be substantively represented by fellow Latinos, nor do larger Latino constituencies affect a lawmaker's propensity to vote in favor of Latino interests.

Action politique, Political action, Congrès, Congress, Lien social, Social link, Loi, Act of Parliament, Pouvoir politique, Political Power, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Systèmes, partis et institutions politiques, and Political systems, parties and institutions

Knowing how campaign contributors influence policymaking is important for understanding political power, but the existing literature—much of it outside sociology—has mixed findings. Using data on Political Action Committee (PAC) contributors and roll call voting in eight U.S. Houses, 1991-2006, I approach the issue using a novel, sociological approach that focuses on social ties between lawmakers and mutually shared contributors. The findings show consistent, statistically significant contributor influence via these ties in seven of the eight Houses. I discuss the implications of these findings for contributor-lawmaker reciprocal exchange, the social embeddedness of policymaking, and political power.

Congrès, Congress, Mouvement social, Social movement, Organisation non gouvernementale, Non-governmental organization, Politique, Policy, Audition, hearings, interest groups, policy, social movement organizations, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Systèmes, partis et institutions politiques, Political systems, parties and institutions, Mouvements sociaux. Révolutions, and Social movements. Revolutions

Interest organizations are hypothesized to strongly affect public policy, but the evidence that they do so is mixed. This article argues that one reason for the disparity is a gap between theory and research: theory suggests that information provided by interest organizations should strongly influence elected officials, but there is no systematic research on its impact. We examine a potentially important source of information for members of the U.S. Congress-testimony at committee hearings-to ascertain if it affects the enactment of policy proposals. The data, based on content analysis of almost 1,000 testimonies on a stratified random sample of policy proposals, describe who testifies, their arguments, and the evidence they provide. Supporters of a proposal emphasize the importance of the problem being addressed, while opponents claim the proposed policy will be ineffective and try to reframe the debate. Information-particularly information regarding policy effectiveness-does affect the likelihood that a policy proposal will be enacted.

Comportement électoral, Voting Behaviour, Congrès, Congress, Environnement, Environment, Homme politique, Politician, Idéologie, Ideology, Noir, Black people, Politique de l'environnement, Environmental Policy, Race, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Comportement politique, and Political behaviour

Objective. This article examines long-term trends in the environmental voting behavior in Congress and attempts to identify the factors that account for racial differences in voting patterns. Methods. Hypotheses about the various possible influences on environmental voting behavior are tested using longitudinal analyses and path analysis techniques. Results. Findings indicate African American members of Congress have been consistently more supportive of proenvironment legislation than either Republican or Democrat colleagues from 1981 to 1998. The data further suggest that much of these overall differences are explained by an especially large racial gap in proenvironmental voting among members from the South. Although such a gap among members from outside the South is eliminated by controlling for ideology and other variables, it remains substantial among Southern members. Conclusions. Based on the strong and consistent support for environmental legislation by African American members of Congress in the past, we expect significant racial differences in environmental voting to endure. Although results suggest that ideology plays a partial role in explaining such differences, future research will be needed to identify the reasons for the especially large racial gap in proenvironmental voting among members from the South. Given the growth in their numbers, their relatively safe seats, and their potential to chair important committees as they gain seniority, we expect African American legislators to play an increasingly important role in shaping and deciding the fate of national environmental policy in the future.

Bibliothèque nationale, National library, Biblioteca nacional, Collection, Colección, Etude comparative, Comparative study, Estudio comparativo, Livre, Book, Libro, Madison (J.), library of Congress, Sciences exactes et technologie, Exact sciences and technology, Sciences et techniques communes, Sciences and techniques of general use, Sciences de l'information. Documentation, Information science. Documentation, Gestion des services d'information, Information service management, Gestion des bibliothèques et des centres de documentation, Library and documentation centre management, Gestion des collections, Collection management, Acquisition et accès : politique de développement, licences, censure, Acquisition and access: development policy, licenses, censorship, Sciences de l'information et de la communication, Information and communication sciences, and Documentation

This essay compares a catalog that James Madison proposed to the Continental Congress in 1783 as the foundation for a congressional library with the list of books that were actually purchased in 1800 for the original Library of Congress. While one might assume that these lists would be fairly similar in scope, we found that they are surprisingly different in many important respects. After evaluating and comparing the lists, we offer a number of possible reasons for the differences.

Etude utilisation, Use study, Estudio utilización, Réseau social, Social network, Red social, Legislateur, Twitter, Sciences exactes et technologie, Exact sciences and technology, Sciences et techniques communes, Sciences and techniques of general use, Sciences de l'information. Documentation, Information science. Documentation, Sciences de l'information et des bibliothèques. Etude d'ensemble, Library and information science. General aspects, Etudes d'utilisateurs et d'utilisation. Besoins d'information, Use and user studies. Information needs, Sciences de l'information et de la communication, Information and communication sciences, Cognition, Documentation, Computer science, and Informatique

Twitter is a microblogging and social networking service with millions of members and growing at a tremendous rate. With the buzz surrounding the service have come claims of its ability to transform the way people interact and share information and calls for public figures to start using the service. In this study, we are interested in the type of content that legislators are posting to the service, particularly by members of the United States Congress. We read and analyzed the content of over 6,000 posts from all members of Congress using the site. Our analysis shows that Congresspeople are primarily using Twitter to disperse information, particularly links to news articles about themselves and to their blog posts, and to report on their daily activities. These tend not to provide new insights into government or the legislative process or to improve transparency; rather, they are vehicles for self-promotion. However, Twitter is also facilitating direct communication between Congresspeople and citizens, though this is a less popular activity. We report on our findings and analysis and discuss other uses of Twitter for legislators.

Agriculture, Agricultura, Diffusion de la connaissance, Spread of knowledge, Difusión del conocimiento, Smithonian Institution, Histoire des sciences et des techniques, History of science and technology, Sciences de la terre, Earth sciences, Action de l'homme, Human action, Techniques agricoles, Agricultural techniques, XIXe siècle, 19th century, and History of science technology

James Smithson's bequest to the United States in 1829 to establish an institution in Washington to increase and diffuse knowledge initiated an extended debate in Congress about the use of his legacy. The new nation was largely agricultural and it is not surprising that one of the major proposals was to use a large portion of the funds to establish an agricultural institute along German lines. This led to a broader proposal in Congress, of a more scientific nature, which would have encompassed agriculture. Neither proposal was adopted, but both stimulated and helped shape mid-century debate about the need to improve agricultural education and research. This culminated in federal legislation in 1862 and 1887 as well as complementary state actions. By the turn of the century, a substantial institutional structure was in place at both federal and state levels, which was beginning to have a measurable impact on agricultural productivity and serve as an example for other nations.

Coopération internationale, International Cooperation, Economie, Economy, Politique internationale, International policy, Relations internationales, International relations, Sécurité, Security, Bush (G. W.), Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, Seizième Congrès du Parti communiste chinois, Sociologie, Sociology, Sociologie politique, Political sociology, Social anthropology and ethnology, and Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

The leadership changes carried out at the Chinese Party and Government congresses over the past year were widely perceived to have reinforced China's recent moderate approach toward the United States. Few would have predicted such favorable U.S.-China relations given the poor state of relations only two years earlier. Specialists differed on what caused the shift. Some emphasized the change in the Bush administration policy; others, including this A., gave more emphasis to the design of the Bush administration policy. It effectively undercut the previous utility of Chinese pressure tactics toward the United States. Concurrent international circumstances - notably the unprecedented rise of U.S. power and influence throughout China's periphery, as well as Chinese domestic preoccupations associated with incomplete leadership transition at the Party and Government congresses - reinforced good U.S.-China relations. Specialists appeared more uniform in warning that U.S.-China cooperation was contingent, as the recent smooth relationship had done little to resolve major differences in the interests of the two powers. Managing those differences over Taiwan, Korea, and a range of bilateral and other issues represent the essence of the challenges China's new leaders face as they deal with the United States in the first decade in the twenty-first century.

Analyse comportementale, Behavioral analysis, Análisis conductual, Comportement, Behavior, Conducta, Conditionnement instrumental, Instrumental conditioning, Condicionamiento instrumental, Homme, Human, Hombre, Intervalle renforcement, Reinforcement interval, Intervalo refuerzamiento, Recherche appliquée, Applied research, Investigación aplicada, Congrès Américain, Programme renforcement, Sciences biologiques et medicales, Biological and medical sciences, Sciences biologiques fondamentales et appliquees. Psychologie, Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology, Psychologie. Psychophysiologie, Psychology. Psychophysiology, Généralités, General aspects, Psychologie. Psychanalyse. Psychiatrie, Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry, Psychology, psychopathology, psychiatry, and Psychologie, psychopathologie, psychiatrie

It has been suggested that the work environment of the United States Congress bears similarity to a fixed-interval reinforcement schedule. Consistent with this notion, Weisberg and Waldrop (1972) described a positively accelerating pattern in annual congressional bill production (selected years from 1947 to 1968) that is reminiscent of the scalloped response pattern often attributed to fixed-interval schedules, but their analysis is now dated and does not bear on the functional relations that might yield scalloping. The present study described annual congressional bill production over a period of 52 years and empirically evaluated predictions derived from four hypotheses about the mechanisms that underlie scalloping. Scalloping occurred reliably in every year. The data supported several predictions about congressional productivity based on fixed-interval schedule performance, but did not consistently support any of three alternative accounts. These findings argue for the external validity of schedule-controlled operant behavior as measured in the laboratory. The present analysis also illustrates a largely overlooked role for applied behavior analysis: that of shedding light on the functional properties of behavior in uncontrolled settings of considerable interest to the public.

Disparités régionales, Regional disparities, Géographie politique, Political geography, Législation, Legislation, Réglementation, Regulation, Découpage électoral, Représentativité, Bgi / Prodig, Géographie humaine, Human geography, Géographie politique et économique, and Political and economic geography

Les AA. déterminent comment les plans étatiques de redécoupage varient dans le domaine de la protection de la fonction. Exemple de l'année 2000. Ils notent des variations régionales entre les Etats au niveau des principes de redécoupage. Quelques principes traditionnels politiquement neutres, et des processus moins politisés, contribuent de manière significative à diminuer cette protection.

Comparaison, Comparison, Science, Ciencia, Troisième Reich, Third Reich, Tercer Reich, Congrès scientifique, Histoire des sciences et des techniques, History of science and technology, Généralités, General points, Histoire de l'organisation sociale de la science et de la recherche scientifique, History of social organization of science and scientific research, Sciences, and History of science technology

Analyse spatiale, Spatial analysis, Comportement, Behaviour, Législation, Legislation, Méthodologie, Methodology, Politique, Policy, Théorie, Theory, Bgi / Prodig, Géographie humaine, Human geography, Géographie politique et économique, Political and economic geography, Géographie politique, Political geography, Geography, and Géographie

Les modèles de l'étendue spatiale sont appliqués à l'analyse des coalitions de co-parrainage à la Maison des Représentants aux Etats-Unis. Analyse simultanée de l'espace idéologique et de l'espace géographique. Examen de deux caractéristiques des coalitions : l'ampleur et le regroupement.

Bibliographie, Bibliography, Ecole géographique, Geographic school, Histoire de la géographie, History of geography, Recherche, Research, Bgi / Prodig, Partie historique, Historical section, Histoire des sciences et des découvertes géographiques, History of geographical sciences and discoveries, 18-20e s. Biographies. Ecoles nationales, 18th-20th centuries. National schools, Geography, and Géographie

Ce rapport aborde plusieurs points particuliers : les systèmes globaux, la dimension européenne, l'hétérogénéité en géographie humaine, les problèmes d'environnement en géographie physique.

Analyse critique du discours, Critical discourse analyse, Anglais, English, Identité sociale, Social identity, Idéologie, Ideology, Langue minoritaire, Minority language, Politique linguistique, Linguistic policy, Sociolinguistique, Sociolinguistics, Language ideology, United States Congress, corpus linguistics, critical discourse analysis, language policy, nationalism, Sciences du langage, Linguistics, Sociolinguistique et ethnolinguistique, Sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics, Politiques linguistiques, Linguistic policies, and Linguistique

Utilizing a combination of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis, the article describes ideologies of United States (U.S.) national identity based in civic and ethnic nationalisms. These ideologies circulated during debates and hearings in the U.S. Congress concerning the 2006 reauthorization of provisions of the Voting Rights Act requiring that multilingual voting materials be made available for language minorities in certain jurisdictions. The article argues that although those legislators supporting the use of multilingual voting materials construct an ideology of civic nationalism that promotes inclusion of language minorities, they are still greatly influenced by the dominant language ideology. Those opposing multilingual voting materials construct a U.S. national identity that places stringent requirements on newcomers to assimilate and learn English. These legislators simultaneously attempt to avoid the suspicion of ethnic nationalist ideologies by arguing that English is a neutral entity, detaching it from its dominant linguistic community. The findings suggest that despite Congressional support for multilingual voting materials, the language ideologies present in Congress are not necessarily favorable to the rights of language minorities. These findings have language policy implications in that they suggest opposition to a right to language for linguistic minorities in the U.S.

Bgi / Prodig, Europe, Etudes générales et plurirégionales, General and multiregional studies, Economie, and The economics

Vue d'ensemble des implications essentielles de la construction du marché unique européen sur le plan spatial. L'accent est mis sur la politique à l'égard des technologies et des infrastructures de transports. L'A. explore les évolutions envisageables d'un système dynamique multirégional-multinational à l'aide d'un modèle de type chaotique à propriétés fractales.

Américain, American, Congrès, Congress, Drogue, Drug, Expertise, Police, Politique étrangère, Foreign Policy, Solidarité, Solidarity, Voyage, Travel, Militarisation, Militarization, Policy, United States, expertise, militarization, travel, Ethnologie, Ethnology, Structure et relations sociales, Social structure and social relations, Organisation sociale, organisation et pouvoir politiques, relations avec l'Etat, Social organization, political organization and power, relations with the State, Amérique, America, Relations sociales. Relation interculturelles et interethniques. Identité collective, Social relations. Intercultural and interethnic relations. Collective identity, Cognition, Social anthropology and ethnology, and Anthropologie sociale et ethnologie

In the late 1990s, the Colombian National Police became the central channel for U.S. material and symbolic support to that country, thanks in large part to the work of a cohort of Republican members of Congress known as the 'drug warriors.' In the Congressional sphere, debates over the impact of illicit drug use often began with the abused bodies of American youth, but debates over the appropriate response frequently focused on the bodies of Colombian police and military as the site of suggested state intervention. Drawing on Judith Butler's analysis of what deaths are grievable in the public sphere, I examine how the Colombian National Police came to be positioned as the central object of policymaker solidarity. Travel played a central role in the construction of distinct sensory, affective and moral geographies: Congressional delegations focused on militarized technology, weaponry and enacted scenarios of counternarcotics operations. These excursions were channeled into larger political fields valorizing militarized expertise and delineating the boundaries of appropriate policy debates. This analysis illuminates the ways in which Congressional debate and practice played a central role in U.S. foreign policy during this period, through an examination of how Congressional expertise was constructed and deployed, which foreign policy actors were selected as the object of U.S. official solidarity, and how the boundaries of policy debate was constructed through a focus on military knowledge.