Race, Place, and Information Technology

What role does environment play in influencing information technology access and skills – over and above individual characteristics such as income, education, race, and ethnicity? One of the puzzles that emerged from our recent research on the “digital divide” was that African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos, had more positive attitudes toward information technology than similarly-situated whites. And yet, African-Americans and Latinos are less likely to have information technology access and skills, even when controlling for other factors such as income and education (Mossberger, Tolbert and Stansbury 2003). The research presented in this paper takes a first step toward explaining this paradox by unraveling the impact of place

A New Measure of Digital Economic Activity and its Impact on Local Opportunity

Online businesses and platform work can create the impression that the digital economy is ephemeral and placeless. But the digital economy is experienced locally, and its effects are spatial. Measuring them requires better community-level data on economic activities online. While new government data measures broadband subscriptions down to neighborhoods, existing public data do not measure how broadband is used in local communities, and whether this digital activity affects economic outcomes. We analyze new monthly data on over 20 million domain name hosts/websites in the United States from November 2018 to November 2020 drawing on customer data. Surveys show that 3 out of 4 of these domains are commercial, including microbusinesses as well as websites for both online and brick-and-mortar establishments. How is the density of domain name hosts in a community (the number in a zip code or county divided by the population) related to local economic opportunity, controlling for other known factors? Using statistical matching and time series data, results show the density of domain name hosts positively predicts community economic prosperity, recovery from the 2008 recession, and change in median income. Interactions between the density of these hosts and broadband subscriptions also predict lower monthly unemployment rates over time, including after the March 2020 pandemic. Commercial data can improve our understanding of broadband\u27s impacts, including its potential for inclusive growth in diverse communities

Priming Presidential Votes by Direct Democracy

We demonstrate that direct democracy can affect the issues voters consider when evaluating presidential candidates. Priming theory assumes that some voters have latent attitudes or predispositions that can be primed to affect evaluations of political candidates. We demonstrate that: (1) state ballot measures on same sex marriage increased the salience of marriage as an issue that voters used when evaluating presidential candidates in 2004, particularly those voters less interested in the campaign and those likely to be less attentive to the issue prior to the election; and (2) that the printed issue (gay marriage) was a more important factor affecting candidate choice in states where marriage was on the ballot

Citizens as legislators: direct democracy in the United States

(print) xii, 316 p. : ill. ; 24 cmForeword -- Acknowledgments -- An overview of direct democracy in the American states. p.1 -- Election law and rules for using initiatives. p.27 -- California's political warriors: campaign professionals and the initiative process. p.55 -- Contending players and strategies: opposition advantages in initiative elections. p.80 -- Direct legislation: when is it used and when does it pass? p.109 -- Searching for ideological consistency in direct legislation voting. p.132 -- The influence of elite endorsements in initiative campaigns. p.149 -- Changing rules for state legislatures: direct democracy and governance policies. p.171 -- Pressuring legislatures through the use of initiatives: two forms of indirect influence. p.191 -- Race/ethnicity and direct democracy: the contextual basis of support for anti-immigrant and Official English measures. p.209 -- Direct democracy and minorities: changing attitudes about minorities targeted by initiatives. p.228 -- Responsive or responsible government? p.249 -- References. p.275 -- Index. p.309 -- Contributors. p.31

Rethinking Lowi's constituent policy: governance policy and direct democracy

The author develops the concepts of 'governance policy' and how it relates to existing public policy typologies, especially 'constituent policy'. Although distributive, regulatory, and redistributive types of policy are well understood, scholars have long struggled with an appropriate definition to complete this four-fold typology. Lowi referred to this fourth type as 'constituent policy' -- conferring broad costs and benefits to society -- as opposed to policy that affects narrow (often economic) interests. Lowi's conception of constituent policy assumed a top-down process of policymaking dominated by elected officials and administrative agencies. Governance policy represents an attempt to refine the concept of 'constituent policy'. Governance policy has a prominent procedural component and can be initiated by a bottom-up process of policymaking, via citizen initiatives or interest groups, as well as by a top-down process through political elites. This author explores the history and social significance of governance policy. Cross-sectional data from the fifty states of the USA are used to statistically model explanations for the adoption of nine governance policies. Empirical analysis suggests that states with frequent usage of ballot initiatives are more likely to adopt governance policy, after controlling for other factors. The author also suggests that a Progressive reform tradition, measured by a moralistic political culture, may provide an important trigger for the initial adoption of state direct democracy mechanisms. This suggests that prior adoption of direct democracy mechanisms may provide a necessary intervening trigger for frequent reliance on governance policy.

Polls and Elections:Support for Nationalizing Presidential Elections

Despite very different historical and constitutional bases for how we nominate presidential candidates andelect presidentsto office, as well as very different political processes (sequential versus simultaneous voting), both the presidential nominating process and the Electoral College are rooted in state elections, not a national election, and both create state winners and losers. Previous research has not explored the role of state influence or state self-interest in presidential elections. States that voteearlyinthenomination process benefit,asdo battlegroundstatesinthe generalelection,especially small-populationstates.Giventhefundamentallydifferenttypes ofelectionsexaminedinthis paper, it is surprising that very similar forces shape efforts to nationalize presidential elections. Popular reform options of both the nomination process (national primary) and the general election (national popular vote) focus on a single national election in which the nation�s interests, rather than state interests, are paramount. This analysis of 2008 panel survey data shows that citizen opinions on nationalizing presidential elections through a national primary or national popular vote for president are based on strategic decisions defined by short-term electoral politics and long-term self-interest rooted in an individual�s stat