Bonding, Structure and the Stability of Political Parties: Party Government in the House

The public policy benefits that parties-deliver are allocated by democratic procedures that devolve ultimately to majority rule. Majority-rule decision making, however, does not lead to consistent policy choices; it is unstable. In this paper, we argue that institutions - and thereby policy coalitions -- can be stabilized by extra-legislative organization. The rules of the Democratic Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives dictate that a requirement for continued membership is support on the floor of Caucus decisions for a variety of key structural matters. Because membership in the majority party’s caucus is valuable, it constitutes a bond, the posting of which stabilizes the structure of the House, and hence the policy decisions made in the House. We examine the rules of the House Democratic Caucus and find that they do in fact contain the essential elements of an effective, extralegislative bonding mechanism

Current and Projected Socioeconomic Conditions of the Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy River Basin of Kentucky and Virginia

This study Is an analytical assessment of the social and economic situation in the 11 county area. The major focus of the study is directed toward the impact of increased mining activity on population, settlement patterns, land use, and the economic structure of the coal-rich basin. While this assessment is primarily concerned with the present socio-economic situation along the Levisa Fork and its tributaries, considerable effort has been given to projecting the future impact of continuing growth in coal production. It is assumed that the nation\u27s need for energy will continue to stimulate the coal-based economy of the region for at least the remainder of this century

Agenda Control in the Bundestag, 1980-2002

We find strong evidence of monopoly legislative agenda control by government parties in the Bundestag. First, the government parties have near-zero roll rates, while the opposition parties are often rolled over half the time. Second, only opposition parties’ (and not government parties’) roll rates increase with the distances of each party from the floor median. Third, almost all policy moves are towards the government coalition (the only exceptions occur during periods of divided government). Fourth, roll rates for government parties sky- rocket when they fall into the opposition and roll rates for opposition parties plummet when they enter government, while policy movements go from being nearly 100 per cent rightward when there is a rightist government to 100 per cent leftward under a leftist government

Ultrasound-induced emulsification of subcritical carbon dioxide/water with and without surfactant as a strategy for enhanced mass transport

Pulsed ultrasound was used to disperse a biphasic mixture of CO2/H2O in a 1 dm3 high-pressure reactor at 30 °C/80 bar. A view cell positioned in-line with the sonic vessel allowed observation of a turbid emulsion which lasted approximately 30 min after ceasing sonication. Within the ultrasound reactor, simultaneous CO2-continuous and H2O-continuous environments were identified. The hydrolysis of benzoyl chloride was employed to show that at similar power intensities, comparable initial rates (1.6 ± 0.3 × 10–3 s–1 at 95 W cm–2) were obtained with those reported for a 87 cm3 reactor (1.8 ± 0.2 × 10–3 s–1 at 105 W cm–2), demonstrating the conservation of the physical effects of ultrasound in high-pressure systems (emulsification induced by the action of acoustic forces near an interface). A comparison of benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates and benzaldehyde mass transport relative to the non-sonicated, ‘silent’ cases confirmed that the application of ultrasound achieved reaction rates which were over 200 times faster, by reducing the mass transport resistance between CO2 and H2O. The versatility of the system was further demonstrated by ultrasound-induced hydrolysis in the presence of the polysorbate surfactant, Tween, which formed a more uniform CO2/H2O emulsion that significantly increased benzoyl chloride hydrolysis rates. Finally, pulse rate was employed as a means of slowing down the rate of hydrolysis, further illustrating how ultrasound can be used as a valuable tool for controlling reactions in CO2/H2O solvent mixtures

An Analysis of Population Changes in Eastern Kentucky 1970-2000

Accurate population projections are essential for anyone engaged in long-range planning. Predicting future population trends any considerable distance into the future, however, is a notoriously risky undertaking. So many human variables are involved that all too frequently such projections make a mockery of the demographer\u27s best efforts. Regardless of how sophisticated are the statistical models used, long-range population forcasting is statistical guessing with a fairly wide margin of error. Eastern Kentucky and Central Appalachia, in general, present an especially formidable challenge. Since the beginning of the 20th Century the economy of the region has been tied to one product, coal, which has led the region through a series of spectacular booms and heartbreaking busts. While the present global energy situation appears to have contributed a measure of stability to the coal industry and indirectly to the region, coal remains a highly volatile factor in the future of Eastern Kentucky

The development of party-voting in England: 1832-1918

Gegenstand des Beitrags ist die historische Entwicklung des Systems der repräsentativen Demokratie in Großbritannien. Im Mittelpunkt steht dabei die Rolle von Wahlen in diesem System und die Frage, wie sich diese Rolle im Laufe der Zeit von 1832 bis 1918 gewandelt hat. Auf die Frage, seit wann die Wähler eher der Partei und nicht mehr dem Kandidaten die Stimme geben, finden sich in der Literatur verschiedene Antworten. (1) Die erste Position datiert die Entwicklung des parteiorientierten Wahlverhaltens in die Zeit nach 1885. (2) Nach Ansicht der zweiten Position wird dieses Wahlverhalten nach 1867 signifikant. (3) In der dritten Position wird die explosive Zunahme der Zeitungen nach 1856 als Ursache für eine massive Entwicklung der Parteiloyalität angesehen. Ein zweiter Schwerpunkt ist es, auf eine systematische und quantitative Weise den Einfluß der Wähler auf ihre Parlamentsmitglieder zu erforschen. In dem Beitrag wird gezeigt, daß ein substantieller Wandel im Wählerverhalten in England stattgefunden hat, bei dem die Wähler ihre Entscheidung zunehmend an der Partei orientiert haben. (KW

Lost and found dark matter in elliptical galaxies

The kinematical properties of elliptical galaxies formed during the mergers of equal mass, stars+gas+dark matter spiral galaxies are compared to the observed low velocity dispersions found for planetary nebulae on the outskirts of ellipticals, which have been interpreted as pointing to a lack of dark matter in ellipticals (which poses a problem for the standard model of galaxy formation). We find that the velocity dispersion profiles of the stars in the simulated ellipticals match well the observed ones. The low outer stellar velocity dispersions are mainly caused by the radial orbits of the outermost stars, which, for a given binding energy must have low angular momentum to reach their large radial distances, usually driven out along tidal tails.Comment: Talk presented at 21st IAP meeting, Mass Profiles andShapes of Cosmological Structures. Ed. G. A. Mamon, F. Combes, C. Deffayet & B. Fort (Paris: EDP), 4 pages, 3 figures (4 plots