PS: Political Science & Politics articles from March 1996

PS: Political Science & Politics archives from March 1996

The study of politics: what does replicability have to do with it?
March 1, 1996... The purpose of this rejoinder is twofold. The first is to question the call to extend a "replication standard" for qualitative research in political science. (See Golden, 1995a). The second is to question how useful the focus on "replicability"...

Toward the integrated study of political communications, public opinion, and the policy-making process.
March 1, 1996... During five decades of research on political communications and democratic politics in the United States, scholars have offered different accounts regarding the impact of the mass media on public opinion. During the 1940s, the media were credited...

Bridging the disciplinary divide. (political science and communication)
March 1, 1996... Academic disciplines see research questions through the biases created by their presuppositions and preferred methods. Political science and communication are no different. In the past, political scientists more often focused on outcomes and the...

Bad news, period. (negative political coverage)
March 1, 1996... What did Newt Gingrich do to deserve such awful coverage? Although the Contract With America moved at unprecedented speed through the House of Representatives, statements about Gingrich from national reporters and their sources during the first...

The mass media as political actors.
March 1, 1996... One can imagine several ways in which media organizations - that is, individual media outlets, chains, networks, or umbrella corporations - might pursue policy objectives. One way could involve standard interest-group techniques for influencing...

Electronic advocacy: interest groups and public policy making.
March 1, 1996... Political advertising by interest groups attempting to influence public policy has proliferated in recent years. Formerly the preserve of election campaigns, advertising has spread to nonelectoral arenas, such as policy debates about abortion,...

Toward theory-based research in political communication.
March 1, 1996... Political communication has emerged as a coherent and energetic subfield of political science. Research is burgeoning, papers appear regularly in established scholarly publications, professional meetings feature multiple panels devoted to the...

The 'new' media and politics: what does the future hold?
March 1, 1996... Beyond new technological advances, what makes the 'new' media new? I contend that the chief change brought about by the new media is the empowerment of media users. They now have greater control over incoming and outgoing messages, and their...

Of time and presidential election forecasts.
March 1, 1996... How far in advance can one predict the next presidential election? Forecasting as late as election eve is trivially easy, at least since the advent of polling. Forecasting as early as two or four years in advance is virtually impossible (see,...

Northern Bourbons: a preliminary report on the National Voter Registration Act.
March 1, 1996... Since January 1995, when the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) went into effect, people have been registering or updating their voting addresses at the rate of nearly one million per month in 42 states.(1) Based on early figures, we expect...

The politics of 'SimCity'. (simulation software)
March 1, 1996... Years ago, when Robert Caro's magisterial biography of Robert Moses was first published, I remember reading it with mixed emotions. On the one hand, it reinforced every lesson I tried to convey in my course on urban politics. On the other hand,...

Political scientists examine civics standards: introduction.
March 1, 1996... "World Class Standards" in core academic subjects was the first objective of the Accountability Package of AMERICA 2000: An Education Strategy, the long-range plan announced in 1991 by the Bush administration to achieve national educational goals...

Review of national standards for civics and government.
March 1, 1996... Should there be national standards for civics and government for students in primary and secondary school, and if so, what shall they be? Responding to a congressional declaration of national education goals in the Goals 2000: Educate America Act...

Symbols as substance in national civics standards.
March 1, 1996... In the first chapter of his path-breaking The Making of Citizens Charles Merriam observed, ". . . every modern state develops a far-reaching program designed to maintain the morale of its constituent members at a point where their activities will...

Civics is not enough: teaching barbarics in K-12.
March 1, 1996... Like most college-level teachers of political science, we have been known to complain about the knowledge level of students who enter our classrooms. These students, who have already had at least 12 years of schooling, sometimes lack the most...

Old habits die hard: the textbook presidency is alive and well. (government textbook depictions of American presidents)
March 1, 1996... In their treatments of the presidency, American Government textbooks routinely provide direct evaluations of the 40 individuals who have held the office. Although introductory textbooks represent a huge portion of the books published on American...

Local news, presidential campaigns, and citizenship education: a reform proposal.
March 1, 1996... The 1992 presidential election campaign highlighted the ability of national campaigns to bypass experienced national political reporters. Both the Bush and Clinton campaigns used the latest technology to send their messages to local media markets...

The 'American Political Science Review' Hall of Fame: assessments and implications for an evolving discipline.
March 1, 1996... Now that baseball has returned as a cherished American pastime, although with a tarnished image from the 1994-95 strike, one can again invoke the "Hall of Fame" concept for outstanding performance. Induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame is a...