Volume 127 - Number 4 - Winter 2012-2013

Geographic Distribution of the Federal Stimulus of 2009
JAMES G. GIMPEL, FRANCES E. LEE, and REBECCA U. THORPE investigate why the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 did not always focus additional resources on areas where the recession’s downturn was most severe. They examine whether funds were allocated according to pork barrel politics or instead via “policy windows” through which advocates steered a diverse group of programs long desired for reasons unrelated to the recession. They find some support for both theories, but policy window effects were more important than pork barrel politics in accounting for distributional outcomes. 

Volume 127 - Number 3 - Fall 2012

Do Presidents Control Bureaucracy? The Federal Housing Administration during the Truman–Eisenhower Era
Charles M. Lamb and ADAM W. NYE show how the Federal Housing Administration continued to permit racial segregation in its mortgage insur­ance program for years after the Truman administration indicated that it must alter that policy. They argue that the case once again illustrates that presidential control has its limits as bureaucracy successfully defied presiden­tial preferences and continued on a policy trajectory opposed by the president. 

Volume 127 - Number 3 - Fall 2012

Making Migrant–Government Partnerships Work: Insights from the Logic of Collective Action
GUSTAVO A. FLORES-MACÍAS analyzes government efforts to attract col­lective remittances for development. Building on insights from the literature on collective action and illustrating with the cases of Mexico and El Salvador, he concludes that leadership incentives, positive inducements in the form of private good, and certain trust-enhancing rules play a key role in the success of government–migrant partnerships. 

Volume 127 - Number 2 - Summer 2012

Rethinking the Development of Legitimate Party Opposition in the United States, 1793–1828
Jeffrey S. Selinger reassesses the rhetoric of anti-partisanship of the early national period. The election of 1800 demonstrated that a mechanism had been invented for changing government, personnel, and policies without violence and destructiveness. The election rendered parties legitimate and was the functional equivalent of a revolution. This achievement, however, did not become widely accepted by Americans for at least another quarter of a century.
 

Volume 127 - Number 2 - Summer 2012

Skeletons in White House Closets: A Discussion of Modern Presidential Scandals
SCOTT BASINGER and Brandon Rottinghaus list and classify presidential scandals occurring since 1972. They examine the different types of scandals and analyze news coverage of these scandals and their durations. They conclude that a small, unrepresentative set of scandals accounts for most news coverage, generating the misperception of scandals as drawn-out affairs involving large numbers of officials.

Volume 127 - Number 1 - Spring 2012

Republican Elites and Foreign Policy Attitudes
Joshua W. Busby and Jonathan Monten analyze opinion polls, focusing on the degree of congruence between Republican elites and the general public on foreign policy. They find Republican elites to be consistently more internationalist than the public on most dimensions.

Volume 127 - Number 1 - Spring 2012

Accomplished and Embattled: Understanding Obama's Presidency
Theda Skocpol and Lawrence R. Jacobs assess the policy accomplishments and shortfalls of President Barack Obama since 2009. They highlight the obstacles with which Obama and his political allies have had to contend and challenge commentators who claim that Obama has accomplished little. They explain why conservative and Republican opposition to Obamaʼs presidency has been fierce and unremitting.

Volume 126 - Number 4 - Winter 2011-12

Democratic Divisions in the 1960s and the Road to Welfare Reform
Eva Bertram analyzes the effects of welfare reform initiatives undertaken by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. She argues that liberalizing reforms of the 1960s created opportunities for conservative Democratic lawmakers to seize the policy agenda, laying the groundwork for a turn toward workfare that would culminate in the 1990s.

Volume 126 - Number 3 - Fall 2011

What Happened to Obama? An Opinion Piece
DREW WESTEN analyses the leadership style of President Barack Obama. He argues that the President’s aversion to conflict and his failure to understand “bully” dynamics led him to miss a historic opportunity to change the dynamics of a political and economic system dominated by corruption and inequality not seen since the eve of the Great Depression. This is an article of opinion and the Editors welcome submissions from those with a different point of view.

Volume 126 - Number 3 - Fall 2011

Dysfunctional Doctrines? Eisenhower, Carter and U.S. Military Intervention in the Middle East
JEFFREY H. MICHAELS examines several of the analytical and practical problems of U.S. presidential foreign policy doctrines by looking specifically at the Eisenhower and Carter doctrines. He concludes that presidential doctrines are usually overrated as new statements of principle, and that the elevation of a presidential statement into doctrine can have unintended consequences.