Diverting the Legislature: Executive–Legislative Relations, the Economy, and US Uses of Force

Given distinct partisan macroeconomic preferences, the partisanship of the president or majority in Congress should influence presidential decisions to use force in the face of poor economic conditions—the diversionary use of force. But previous research posits contradictory accounts of the influence of partisanship. We seek to resolve this debate by developing a game theory model, which predicts that leaders divert when government is divided and economic conditions hurt the opposition party's constituency. Leaders seek to divert the legislature from the economy in order to prevent the legislature from passing a remedial economic bill. Analyzing US conflict behavior since World War II, we examine the conditional influence of presidential partisanship and the president's cohesive partisan support in Congress on the effects of inflation and unemployment. Consistent with the model's predictions, we find that as their cohesive partisan support in Congress declines, Democratic presidents tend to use force in response to inflation and Republican presidents tend to use force in response to unemployment

War Voting

This article explores the interactive effects of the economy and the use of force on incumbent parties’ electoral performance. Research on the diversionary use of force assumes that leaders (especially democratic leaders) use force abroad to bolster their domestic political fortunes during hard economic times. But other research suggests that crises either lead to removal from office or have no effect on incumbents’ political fortunes. Although a good deal of scholarship assesses the role of the economy on electoral outcomes, no research has explicitly examined the interactive effects between dispute involvement and the economy on leaders’ share of the vote. We argue that the salience of the economy conditions voters’ sensitivity to the costs of conflict, which reduces electoral support for incumbent parties engaging in dramatic foreign policy events. Moreover, we expect executives’ efforts to emphasize foreign policy during economic downturns to be met with electoral punishment as voters prefer to see leaders working on a remedial economic policy. To evaluate this argument, we examine incumbent parties’ vote shares in elections among nine advanced democracies from 1960 to 2000. Our results support the hypothesis that during economic downturns voters care more about domestic politics than foreign policy. Furthermore, our results have implications for the diversionary hypothesis, gambling for resurrection argument, the democratic peace, and economic voting research agendas.conflict; diversionary theory; economy; elections; vote choice

Opportunities and Presidential Uses of Force

Political vulnerability is thought to influence the opportunities available to the US president to engage in uses of force abroad. Conventional theories linking economic misfortune and partisan opposition to presidential uses of force detail the incentives and constraints facing the president in decisions to use force. In contrast, these theories’ strategic counterparts focus on the ability of US adversaries to respond to the president’s vulnerability through either avoidance or exploitation. The behavior of US adversaries is thought to critically affect the president’s opportunities to use force. Conventional and strategic accounts of the linkage between domestic political vulnerability and the use of force provide contradictory expectations. To assess these theories we identify hypotheses related to four dependent and selection variables corresponding to dispute initiation and reciprocation involving the US. These hypotheses are tested with a two-stage Heckman Probit model to account for selection effects due to strategic interaction. The results are most supportive of orthodox diversionary theory. Our findings challenge the other perspectives evaluated—the strategic conflict avoidance (SCA) perspective, Howell and Pevehouse’s party cover approach, and Schultz’s signaling model.congressional-executive relations; diversionary theory; partisan cover theory; presidential use of force; signaling theory; strategic conflict avoidance; war powers

Characterization of Streptococcus pneumoniae TrmD, a tRNA Methyltransferase Essential for Growth

Down-regulation of expression of trmD, encoding the enzyme tRNA (guanosine-1)-methyltransferase, has shown that this gene is essential for growth of Streptococcus pneumoniae. The S. pneumoniae trmD gene has been isolated and expressed in Escherichia coli by using a His-tagged T7 expression vector. Recombinant protein has been purified, and its catalytic and physical properties have been characterized. The native enzyme displays a molecular mass of approximately 65,000 Da, suggesting that streptococcal TrmD is a dimer of two identical subunits. In fact, this characteristic can be extended to several other TrmD orthologs, including E. coli TrmD. Kinetic studies show that the streptococcal enzyme utilizes a sequential mechanism. Binding of tRNA by gel mobility shift assays gives a dissociation constant of 22 nM for one of its substrates, [Formula: see text]. Other heterologous nonsubstrate tRNA species, like [Formula: see text] , tRNA(Phe), and [Formula: see text] , bind the enzyme with similar affinities, suggesting that tRNA specificity is achieved via a postbinding event(s)

Tomates zavallenses para las huertas urbanas y periurbanas de Argentina

El tomate es uno de los cultivos hortícolas más importantes por su gran aceptación como alimento y versatilidad en la elaboración de comidas. El fruto no posee un valor nutricional muy elevado; no obstante, debido al alto nivel de consumo, aporta importantes nutrientes a la alimentación humana. Es un alimento perecedero y de producción estacional. Los tomates que se destinan a los mercados mayoristas son generalmente recolectados en estados de madurez muy incipientes (primeros vestigios de color en el fruto) para evitar que la fruta se vuelva demasiado madura durante el transporte a largas distancias y/o se ablande demasiado por su manipulación. La producción hortícola de cercanía garantiza la frescura del producto y logra atributos diferenciales en términos de calidad comercial. Este tipo de producción puede valerse de cultivares de tomate desarrollados por estar adaptados a las condiciones agroecológicas específicas del lugar y la comercialización o venta puede enriquecerse ofreciendo diversidad de fruto en cuanto a tamaños, colores y sabores.Fil: Cambiaso, Vladimir. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Di Giacomo, Melisa. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Balaban, David Mario. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Brulé, Franco Fernando Santiago. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Ingaramo, J. I.. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias; ArgentinaFil: Pereira Da Costa, Javier Hernán. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Rodríguez, Gustavo Rubén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Agrarias. Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias Agrarias de Rosario; Argentin