Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Interest groups engage in a wide range of activities in their attempts to gain political influence. Group strategies involve direct contacts to bureaucrats and politicians as well as indirect strategies such as media campaigns and mobilization of members. Data from a survey among all national Danish interest groups show that most groups have an action repertoire including direct as well as indirect activities. There are positive correlations between different strategies of influence and there is thus no contradiction between pursuing strategies associated with insider access to decision mak-ing and strategies where pressure is put on decision makers through media contacts and mobilizations. An analysis of four distinct strategies – an administrative, a parliamentary, a media and a mobilization strategy – finds interesting variations in the factors that lead to the pursuance of these strategies of influence. Bureaucrats are often approached by groups who control resources that are important assets in these direct interactions. Groups with a privileged position vis-à-vis decision makers have high levels of activities targeting these decision makers, but the lack of a privileged position do not lead groups to pursue indirect strategies. These strategies are most intensively pursued by groups who appeal to broad segments of the population and find themselves in a competitive situation in regard to attracting members.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: No abstract available at this time.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: How does the Supreme Court make its decision? Analysts typically point to three different models: the legal, attitudinal, and strategic models. While civil rights issues are very salient and may be the subject of the litmus tests for presidents appointing justices, the issues are bound to attract the attention of Congress and interest groups. How does this constrain the Court? We examine the civil rights cases decided by the Supreme Court since Brown v. Board of Education and pay attention to the role of precedent, issue evolution, the elected branches, and the solicitor general. How do these forces influence the Court? Does the nature of the influence change if the case is constitutional v. statutory?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Does the discipline correctly view hegemony? This piece contends that a view of hegemony with a vertical authority structure is incorrect. Hegemonic systems are better viewed as unbalanced multipolar systems. Moreover, the work contends that hegemons face constraints in the form of three handcuffs: international regimes, domestic politics, and power concentration. It is these constraints that allow an unbalanced system to remain stable. The case of Spain will be utilized to explore the theory.

Publication Type: Individual Paper
Abstract: This paper critically examines the foundation and development of African American historiography. I will focus on how conceptualizations of and perspectives on African American history evolved throughout the 20th century within the contexts of both United States history, especially in relation to other ethnic histories, and the broader framework of Black history. I also explore new directions and methodology for historical research pertaining to Africans in the United States.

I will first illustrate the distinctive formation of African American historiography in the early 20th century, based on the orientation and ideas of Black history which Carter G. Woodson, W. E. B. Du Bois and other scholars originated. I will further examine the development of methods and methodologies within African American history with special emphasis on the analysis of sources, including the consideration of biases, unintelligibility, authenticity, and authority which recent African American historiography questions. Subsequently, I will analyze the applicability and position of African American historiography within traditional American history and its role with regard to the idea of pluralism in larger American society, especially after the establishment of Ethnic Studies in the late1960s. Finally I will delineate the insights that I have gleaned through this examination and pose expectations and directions for the future of African American history.