Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The political atmosphere in Congress following Reconstruction through the early 1920s, was marked by high levels of partisan polarization. More specifically, we observe significant intraparty homogeneity coupled with interparty heterogeneity. Most inquiries about the role of parties during the era, though, focus almost exclusively on the Republicans and the leadership of Reed and Cannon. Little has been done to explore the behavior of congressional Democrats during the era. In this paper, we compare Democratic and Republican party cohesion scores to determine whether Democratic leaders utilized some of the tools associated with Conditional Party Government. We analyze the parties’ committee assignments to determine whether service on committees was contingent on party loyalty. We find significant differences between the parties’ assignment practices and found that Republicans placed a premium on party loyalty, while the Democrats did not. We conclude that important differences in Democratic and Republican constituencies best explains the different effects.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: There is little empirical or formal research conducted by political scientists on freedom of information (FOI) laws. Those who have studied FOI laws have portrayed them as tools that help legislatures monitor bureaucracies at a lower cost than direct monitoring. In this paper, I formally model the effects of FOI laws to argue that such monitoring comes at a cost: it brings agency actions to the attention of the public, leading to a shift of policy toward the preferences of the median voter. In some cases, this shift is in the legislature’s interest. But in others, it is not. Self-interested, rational legislators therefore do not always have the incentive to adopt and expand FOI laws. I support this analytical finding with examples from the 40-year legislative history of the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, and lay out additional testable hypotheses that are yielded by my theory.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper investigates institutional differences between the IMF and the World Bank as an important explanatory factor in their approaches to alleviating and understanding poverty as a human rights issue. The results indicate that IMF publications that discuss poverty alleviation will most likely involve macroeconomic issues that affect the poor such as high inflation and slower economic growth. World Bank publications on the other hand, are more likely to include developmental issues as they relate to poverty and input from stakeholders, including the poor themselves. The Bank has evolved to be able to address and understand poverty as a societal and human rights issue, while the Fund continues to focus on poverty, not as a human rights issue, but as a macroeconomic issue. This is due to the fact that while the IMF and the World Bank share a similar beginning and history, they focus on different aspects of poverty and development.

Supporting Publications:
Supporting Document

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper represents an exploratory analysis of the relationships between democracy
and different forms of ethnic conflict. Only recently have scholars sought to unpack ethnic
conflict and take seriously the variations in causes and dynamics of different forms of dissent.
This article continues in this direction by considering how institutions interact with various kinds
of ethnic strife. We consider three different forms of ethnic conflict—protest, conflict among
groups, and violence against the state. We focus on whether ethnic conflict rises or falls due to
the dynamics of election cycles, and find that each form of dissent is, indeed, distinct, and that
elections are not as destabilizing as expected. We discuss our results and the implications for
broader debates about political institutions and ethnic conflict.

Publication Type: Proceeding