Bosses, Machines, and Urban Voters

Originally published in 1986. Political machines, and the bosses who ran them, are largely a relic of the nineteenth century. A prominent feature in nineteenth-century urban politics, political machines mobilized urban voters by providing services in exchange for voters' support of a party or candidate. Allswang examines four machines and five urban bosses over the course of a century. He argues that efforts to extract a meaningful general theory from the American experience of political machines are difficult given the particularity of each city's history. A city's composition largely determined the character of its political machines. Furthermore, while political machines are often regarded as nondemocratic and corrupt, Allswang discusses the strengths of the urban machine approach—chief among those being its ability to organize voters around specific issues

The Wooster Voice (Wooster, OH), 1982-05-14

The College updates its decade old investment frame. Students request to be paid on every two weeks, rather than once per month. Students respond to a previous letter to the editor in which a woman named Elizabeth Koreman disparaged modern feminists. Voice staff rate the various pizza restaurants in Wooster.https://openworks.wooster.edu/voice1981-1990/1286/thumbnail.jp

Simulation studies of the biological control of Aphis Fabae

Imperial Users onl

Rhythm in shoes: student perceptions of the integration of tap dance into choral music

The purpose of this qualitative study was to collect descriptive data pertaining to students’ perceptions regarding the use of tap dance movement and its effect on the understanding of rhythms found in choral literature. This enquiry investigated the following questions: (a) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the difficulty of tap dance movement? (b) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the effectiveness of tap dance movement as a method toward promoting their rhythm accuracy when performing rhythms featured in choral music? (c) What are the perceptions of high school students regarding the effectiveness of integrating tap dance movement with the study of select rhythm patterns chosen from choral literature in their retention of the rhythms? Over a five-month period, high school choral ensemble members (N = 88) were taught twenty-five rhythm patterns excerpted from choral literature, integrating tap dance movement with the instruction. The results revealed that the difficulty level of the movement, tempo at which it is executed, the changing of feet while performing the movement, and the amount of tap experience an individual possesses influence students’ perceptions regarding the degree of complexity of tap dance movement. Additionally, the data indicate the enjoyment of the movement, the demonstrations of the movement, the integration of music with the movement, the use of step names and counting, and the use of tap shoes are elements related to tap dance movement that students perceived to help promote their understanding of rhythms found in choral music. Moreover, the results pertaining to the students’ perception of how tap dance movement was an effective method of promoting their retention of rhythms found in choral music indicate a lack of agreement. While there were singers who found the movement to benefit their ability to memorize the examined rhythms, there was a comparable amount of students who indicated that they were unable to remember the rhythms following the instruction. Lastly, the findings provide information regarding the specific types of movements that students found beneficial to their rhythmic comprehension, adding to the existing literature and useful for replication in future studies

Economic impact of large public programs: The NASA experience

The economic impact of NASA programs on weather forecasting and the computer and semiconductor industries is discussed. Contributions to the advancement of the science of astronomy are also considered

Performance pay : objectives, operation and outcomes

Perfonnance pay has been identified as a key element of modem human resource strategy but published field research has been limited. This thesis investigated the objectives, methods of operation and outcomes of several performance pay schemes through the creation and testing of several hypotheses. Evidence was gathered through a longitudinal study in one organisation augmented by case studies in two further organisations. The findings showed that organisations demonstrated a mix ofoperational and cultural objectives for introducing performance pay while the desired outcomes were to promote cultural change, internal equity and increased motivation. However, the findings from the longitudinal survey showed that the desired outcomes were not met, as viewed by the employees. Motivation was not increased, nor did the scheme help to change culture while pay satisfaction remained at a low level, although the employee response to the scheme showed a limited improvement after operating for one year. Positive employee viewpoints were highly correlated to the level of communication and satisfaction with pay. In terms of the influence of employee characteristics, women and non-union members were significantly more positive than men and union members. A cluster analysis showed that negative views were more strongly held than positive views which statistically influenced the outcomes and employees with such negative views had a 'bundle' of characteristics, namely middle grade males with long service and union membership. This research has made a number of contributions. It has added to the limited number of UK field studies and its longitudinal nature provides unique fmdings. It has provided data on the launch and initial period of operation ofa perfonnance pay scheme, as perceived by the employees. It has shown further evidence of strategic use of performance pay schemes with a newly constructed model. The findings have important implications for management, especially in relation to the identification of key supporter groups and opponents to the scheme and the issues that employees regard as key to the success of the scheme