Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This study attempts to demonstrate a causality between the level of economic development and the level of bioethics by comparing national bioethics committees in China, South Korea, and the United Kingdom.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Occupational stress is inherent in positions like policing, because of the experiences and situations on the job. However, in addition to these situational stressors, other variables can affect an officers perception of stress. In addition, however, every individual officer, by definition, works for a particular police department, and organizational factors of that department also affect individual officers’ stress levels. Previous literature has already shown that occupational stress differs for officers depending upon their race. This paper seeks to further the literature by measuring whether occupational stress for police officers differ depending more upon the individual race of the officer (level 1) or the racial makeup of the police department for which these officers work (level 2). In addition, this paper will explore whether other both individual level variables, (education, experience in law enforcement, gender, and in-group/out-group status), as well as agency level variables (state, number of officers in the agency, and city/county) affect the officers’ perception of occupational stress. Preliminary results show that stress differs between agencies for Hispanic officers, but not for Black or White officers, but stress differs within agencies for all three races. This finding is important considering the fact that many studies have dichotomized race as White and Other, and emphasizing the importance of breaking out these races in studies further than just this dichotomy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The extant literature suggests that the racial and/or ethnic makeup of a legislative district is associated with turnout in U.S. House elections (Bobo and Gilliam 1990; Barreto et al. 2004; Leighley 2001; Vanderleeuw and Utter 1993). The current res

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A robust macro-level association has been observed between economic development and democratic stability, but why this association should hold remains unexplained in terms of micro-foundations. One set of hypotheses proposes individual preferences as the missing causal link: preferences for democracy are stronger when individuals’ material status is better. Lack of individual-level data on poverty has so far precluded empirical tests of this hypothesis. With the help of an original dataset from 61 north Indian villages, including interviews with more than 2,000 individuals, I show that preferences for democracy are not significantly associated with material wellbeing. Neither faith in democracy nor political efficacy or participation rates are related to differences in material status. Democracy can be strongly supported even when poverty is large in a country.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Previous scholarship debates the source of one’s trust for different levels of government. Conventional wisdom says that conservatives are more likely to favor devolution, while liberals favor bigger government. However, this contention does not capture the effect of a person who identifies as a Republican living in a state controlled by Democrats. Does this political environment affect the level of government one trusts most? In investigating this relationship, we find that strong partisan identification and context of state political environments results in a more nuanced relationship in the level of trust for state government versus the federal government. Strong Republican identifiers who live in Democrat controlled states do have a higher likelihood of trusting the state government more than their weaker identifying counterparts.