Polity articles from September 2002

Polity archives from September 2002

The United States Army, natural resources, and political development in the nineteenth century.
September 22, 2002... Scholars of American political development rightly emphasize that prior to the early twentieth century, the administrative capacity of the executive branch was diminutive. Yet, throughout the nineteenth century the federal government undertook...

U.S. presidential elections in the nineteenth century: why culture and the economy both mattered.
September 22, 2002... I. Introduction Political scientists have made a persuasive statistical case that economic conditions have influenced U.S. presidential elections since at least the end of World War II. (1) Most political scientists assume that economic...

The politics of statutory rape laws: adoption and reinvention of morality policy in the states, 1971-1999.
September 22, 2002... Strong correlative effects have been found between public opinion and morality policy outcomes. These morality policies are often symbolic, emotional issues that tend to be highly salient to the general public. (1) Because each person feels he...

When bad things happen from good people (and vice-versa): Hume's political ethics of revolution.(David Hume)
September 22, 2002... David Hume's History of England should be regarded as his most important work of political theory. Although most people (in Hume's time as now) get their main impressions of Hume's political positions from his Essays, the essays' accessibility...

Natural happiness, sensation, and infancy in Rousseau's Emile.
September 22, 2002... Until very recently, Jean-Jacques Rousseau has widely been regarded by political theorists as that philosophic hero (or culprit, depending on one's cup of tea) who is responsible for dethroning nature and installing will as the foundation of...

Activism and restraint on the Rehnquist Court: timing, sequence, and conjuncture in Constitutional Development *.
September 22, 2002... In this essay, I seek to explain a tension on the contemporary Supreme Court that has been widely noted but not well understood. Though constitutional conservatives have long advocated judicial restraint, the Rehnquist Court has exercised its...

Bush v. Gore: popular sovereignty, fundamental law, and the post-election battle for the presidency.
September 22, 2002... I. Introduction On November 7, 2000 more than 100 million Americans voted for president. (1) None of them could have imagined the result. Vice-President Al Gore, the Democratic nominee, was anticipating victory once the major television...