Midwest Journal of Political Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 161-164). Photocopy.

This book consists of a series of original case studies which developed from a year-long environmental policy seminar held at the University of Washington. Each chapter surveys a recent piece of legislation to determine how Congress has handled a particular environmental problem. Focusing on issues of highway beautification, water quality control, wilderness preservation, and aircraft noise abatement, each study outlines the problem, the nature of the proposed legislation, modifications of legislation in the course of congressional decision making, strengths and weaknesses of the final legislative product, and general ability of Congress to respond to the issue at hand. Broader issues consider the problem of meeting and distributing the costs of a quality environment, conflicts between local and national interests, and the need to balance private property rights with the public good. Overall, it provides a useful perspective on the obligation of each generation to use the environment in a way that will not impair the natural endowment of future generations. (BL)

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1965. Bibliography: l. 80-84.

Leo Strauss argued that the most visible fact about Machiavelli's doctrine is also the most useful one: Machiavelli seems to be a teacher of wickedness. Strauss sought to incorporate this idea in his interpretation without permitting it to overwhelm or exhaust his exegesis of The Prince and the Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy. "We are in sympathy," he writes, "with the simple opinion about Machiavelli [namely, the wickedness of his teaching], not only because it is wholesome, but above all because a failure to take that opinion seriously prevents one from doing justice to what is truly admirable in Machiavelli: the intrepidity of his thought, the grandeur of his vision, and the graceful subtlety of his speech." This critique of the founder of modern political philosophy by this prominent twentieth-century scholar is an essential text for students of both authors.

Bibliogr. s. 351-362

Renewed interest in change as a research focus in comparative government sharpens the contrast between two viewpoints about the nature of political systems. One is a data analysis viewpoint found in many cross-national, quantitative studies in comparative government. The other is a process viewpoint consistent with but largely implicit in many theoretical and case studies. The conventions of data analysis associated with the former viewpoint generate misleading or fallacious theoretical inferences about the processes which, in the latter viewpoint, are assumed to have generated the data. Statistical tools are useful primarily for descriptive and exploratory purposes in the study of system change.

This paper employs content analysis to examine the loci of inter-party cleavage in the United States from 1844 to 1968. It attempts, further, to assess the relationship between changes in the structure of inter-party cleavage and changes in electoral cleavage during periods of critical electoral realignment. Findings indicate the existence of three distinct systems of inter-party cleavage between 1844 and 1968. These systems are linked to each other and to a previous, unidentifiable system by periods of cleavage system transition during which significant and long-term party shifts occur. Systems of inter-party cleavage are linked to electoral alignments by an index of what is termed "critical conflict." It is proposed that periods during which the parties exhibit high degrees of critical conflict, 1852, 1896 and 1932, represent attempts by one or the other party to mobilize some segment of the electorate, and to restructure the electorate by translating the dominant locus of inter-party cleavage into a new electoral alignment.

It is suggested in this paper that students of legislative systems might gain much valuable information by studying persistence of legislatures. In this connection, the Senate of 1849-1850 is compared to that of 1859-1860 on the basis of voting patterns. Such variables as the arrangement of cleavages, the proportion of brokers, and the cohesion of various types of units such as brokers, sections, and legislative parties are analyzed for their relevance to this problem.

This article examines the multi-dimensionality of state socioeconomic structures and the stability of relevance of social factors to political characteristics of the states. Twenty-one socioeconomic variables are found to contain two major dimensions which are stable in their composition between 1890 and 1960. But the relevance of these social factors to public expenditures, voter turnout, and partisan preferences of state electorates is highly fluid over time. On the basis of these findings, the author questions the validity of causal theories which are based on assumptions of stable social-political correlations.

This study examines longitudinal trends in state-level support for Republican presidential candidates across fifteen time spans. This is done by computing the difference between state and national Republican percentages in each election since 1896 and fitting a regression line to the resulting percentages of difference. The earliest election in the series is dropped and the regression is recomputed. This cycle is repeated until outcomes have been obtained for the time spans 1896-1968, 1900 ... 1952-68. The beta coefficients of the linear regression equations are used as indicators of Republican trend and are correlated with selected sociopolitical variables to identify the types of states that are changing in their support of G.O.P. presidential nominees. Finally, the several dimensions that underlie the degree to which states deviate from their expected normal behavior are sought by factor analyzing the regression residuals of forty-five states for the period 1896-1968.

This article seeks primarily to examine two widely held assumptions: (1) that American governors have recently become more politically vulnerable; and (2) that vulnerability is related to certain non-political variables. Four measures of vulnerability have been employed to test the initial proposition, and then two of these measures are related to state economic and demographic data by means of simple linear correlation analysis. Finally, the study inquires into the impact of presidential races on the success of incumbent gubernatorial candidates. The major conclusion of the study is that the vulnerability of governors has remained about the same over the last 70 years, but their visibility has apparently increased greatly.

Detailed comparison of congressional action on State Department budgets (1933-1965) and domestic bureau budgets (1947-1962) supports the general view that Congress is more generous with domestic bureaus than it is with the State Department, despite some general similarities in State Department and domestic bureau budget decisions. Comparison focuses on House and Senate Appropriations Committee action, and, in addition, data is presented which describes what happens to State Department budgets when control of the House, Senate, and White House changes party hands. No explanations are offered for congressional action, but lines of inquiry are suggested based on the assembled data.