Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this research we examine the trajectory patterns of all terrorist organizations with more than one year of activity or at least ten attacks from 1970 to 1997. By applying Nagin’s Group-Based Trajectory Method to terrorist organizations we are able, for the first time, to observe the different life-course patterns of terrorist organizations. However, because terrorist organizations differ considerably from the individuals for whom this method was designed, we apply two approaches to measuring the “age” of the organization. First, since terrorism is often expressed within a specific global context, we set “age” of the organization according to calendar time. This strategy offers insight into existing theories on “waves” of terrorism. Second, we examine the patterns of terrorism apart from the global context and set the “birth” of the terrorist organization to the year of first attack. Each strategy offers a unique contribution to our understanding of the life-course of terrorism organizations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A number of recent studies have focused their attention on the relationship between welfare states and inequality, considering the determinants of income distribution and the distributive consequences of particular welfare state regimes. In this paper we examine more directly the relationship between welfare state generosity and poverty levels in advanced industrial democracies in the last quarter of the twentieth century. We employ data from the Comparative Welfare State Entitlements Data Set, a new cross-national and time series data set containing programmatic data from a number of welfare state programs, as well as poverty data from the Luxembourg Income Study. Our results strongly suggest that more generous entitlements to social insurance programs are associated not only with lower relative poverty, but also lower absolute poverty. While our results do not refute the idea that more spending or left-leaning governments matter, they do offer a more explicit policy mechanism by which to affect poverty rates.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Rogowski and Kayser (2002) posited that electoral systems, because they modify the balance of consumer-producer power, also modify price levels. Cross-sectional analysis of OECD countries in 1990 demonstrated that majoritarian electoral systems lower real price levels by approximately 10 percent. This paper now extends that empirical analysis to panel data for twenty-three OECD countries over the period 1970-2000, taking advantage of the numerous changes in electoral systems during that period (France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand). The finding that majoritarian electoral systems lead to lower real prices is shown to be remarkably resilient, surviving demanding robustness tests. The short-run effect of switching to an SMD from a PR system in a given country is a reduction of about 1.2 index points; the long-run effect of having an SMD electoral system, in the average OECD country, is a reduction in real prices of at least 10 per cent.

Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The development of the field of performance art in the U.S. between 1970 and 2000 shows the re-articulation of the relationship between high art and popular culture. Evidence for this change lies in the changing dynamics between performance artists and their audiences. Based on field ethnography, content analysis, and historical methods, this paper maps changes in the relationships between performance artists, performance art networks, and audiences. Performance art practice in the 1970s embraced aspects of everyday life as a type of performance, thereby allowing anyone to be an artist if they defined their behavior as such and were recognized by others as such. Walking the line between conceptual art and theater, the field of performance art developed along both lines: gaining audiences and institutional affiliation from both kinds of art worlds. Performance art became a particularly salient type of cultural expression in night clubs during the 1980s, attracting more popular audiences and coming under scrutiny as it challenged traditional definitions of art. During the 1990s, as performance artists embraced the politics of identity they created works for audiences organized around identity rather than aesthetic or cultural interest.

By tracing the relationship between an art form and its audiences, especially a form as socially and aesthetically dynamic as that of performance art, we can begin to understand the complexity of the relationship between avant-garde art and popular culture.