1,200 research outputs found
Were Bush Tax Cut Supporters âSimply Ignorant?â A Second Look at Conservatives and Liberals in âHomer Gets a Tax Cutâ
In a recent edition of Perspectives on Politics, Larry Bartels examines the high levels of support for tax cuts signed into law by President Bush in 2001. In so doing, he characterizes the opinions of âordinary peopleâ as being based on âsimple-minded and sometimes misguided considerations of self interestâ and concludes that âthe strong plurality support for Bushâs tax cut...is entirely attributable to simple ignorance.â Our analysis of the same data reveals different results. We show that for a large and politically relevant class of respondents â people who describe themselves as âconservativeâ or âRepublicanâ â increasing information levels increase support for the tax cuts to the extent that they have any affect at all. Indeed, using Bartelsâ measure of political information, we show that the Republican respondents rated most informed supported the tax cuts at extraordinarily high levels (over 96%). For these citizens, Bartelsâ claim that âbetter-informed respondents were much more likely to express negative views about the 2001 tax cutâ is simply untrue. We then show that Bartelsâ results depend on a very strong assumption about how information affects public opinion. He restricts all respondents -- whether liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat â to respond to increasing information levels in identical ways. In other words, he assumes that if more information about the tax cut makes liberals less likely to support it, then conservatives must follow suit. This assumption is very presumptive about the policy and value trade- offs that different people should make. Our analysis, by contrast, allows people of different partisan or ideological identities to react to higher information levels in varying ways. This flexibility has many benefits, one of which is a direct test of Bartelsâ restrictive assumption. We demonstrate that the assumption is untrue. Examined several ways, our findings suggest that much of the support for the tax cut was attributable to something other than âsimple ignorance.â Bartelsâ approach is based on a very strong presumption about how citizens should think and what they should think about. We advocate a different approach, one that takes questions of public policy seriously while respecting ideological and partisan differences in opinion and interest. Indeed, citizens have reasons for the opinions and interests they have. We may or may not agree with them. However, we, as social scientists, can contribute more by offering reliable explanations of these reasons than we can by judging them prematurely. By turning our attention to explaining differences of opinion, we can help to forge a stronger and more credible foundation for progress in meeting critical social needs.public opinion, tax policy, incomplete information, welfare economics
Were Bush Tax Cut Supporters "Simply Ignorant?" A Second Look at Conservatives and Liberals in "Homer Gets a Tax Cut"
In a recent edition of Perspectives on Politics, Larry Bartels examines the high levels of support for tax cuts signed into law by President Bush in 2001. In so doing, he characterizes the opinions of âordinary peopleâ as lacking âa moral basisâ and as being based on âsimple-minded and sometimes misguided considerations of self interest.â He concludes that âthe strong plurality support for Bushâs tax cut...is entirely attributable to simple ignorance.â Our analysis of the same data reveals different results. We show that for a large and politically relevant class of respondents â people who describe themselves as âconservativeâ or âRepublicanâ â rising information levels increase support for the tax cuts. Indeed, using Bartelsâ measure of political information, we show that the Republican respondents rated âmost informedâ supported the tax cuts at extraordinarily high levels (over 96%). For these citizens, Bartelsâ claim that âbetter-informed respondents were much more likely to express negative views about the 2001 tax cutâ is simply untrue. We then show that Bartelsâ results depend on a very strong assumption about how information affects public opinion. He restricts all respondents -- whether liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat â to respond to increasing information levels in identical ways. In other words, he assumes that if more information about the tax cut makes liberals less likely to support it, then conservatives must follow suit. This assumption is very presumptive about the policy trade-offs that different people should make. Our analysis, by contrast, allows people of different partisan or ideological identities to react to higher information levels in varying ways. This flexibility has many benefits, one of which is a direct test of Bartelsâ restrictive assumption. We demonstrate that the assumption is untrue. Examined several ways, our findings suggest that much of the support for the tax cut was attributable to something other than âsimple ignorance.â Bartelsâ approach is based on a very strong presumption about how citizens should think and what they should think about. We advocate a different approach, one that takes questions of public policy seriously while respecting ideological and partisan differences in opinion and interest. Indeed, citizens have reasons for the opinions and interests they have. We may or may not agree with them. However, we, as social scientists, can contribute more by offering reliable explanations of these reasons than we can by judging them prematurely. By turning our attention to explaining differences of opinion, we can help to forge a stronger and more credible foundation for progress in meeting critical social needs.tax cut; President Bush; Republicans; conservatives; information; competence; public policy
A Dual Geometry of the Hadron in Dense Matter
We identify the dual geometry of the hadron phase of dense nuclear matter and
investigate the confinement/deconfinement phase transition. We suggest that the
low temperature phase of the RN black hole with the full backreaction of the
bulk gauge field is described by the zero mass limit of the RN black hole with
hard wall. We calculated the density dependence of critical temperature and
found that the phase diagram closes. We also study the density dependence of
the rho meson mass.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figures, typos corrected, references adde
Diffusion in an Expanding Plasma using AdS/CFT
We consider the diffusion of a non-relativistic heavy quark of fixed mass M,
in a one-dimensionally expanding and strongly coupled plasma using the AdS/CFT
duality. The Green's function constructed around a static string embedded in a
background with a moving horizon, is identified with the noise correlation
function in a Langevin approach. The (electric) noise decorrelation is of order
1/T(\tau) while the velocity de-correlation is of order MD(\tau)/T(\tau). For
MD>1, the diffusion regime is segregated and the energy loss is Langevin-like.
The time dependent diffusion constant D(\tau) asymptotes its adiabatic limit
2/\pi\sqrt{\lambda} T(\tau) when \tau/\tau_0=(1/3\eta_0\tau_0)^3 where \eta_0
is the drag coefficient at the initial proper time \tau_0.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections, version to appear in JHE
Chiral Condensate in Holographic QCD with Baryon Density
We consider the chiral condensate in the baryonic dense medium using the
generalized Sakai-Sugimoto model. It is defined as the vacuum expectation value
of open Wilson line that is proposed to be calculated by use of the area of
world-sheet instanton. We evaluate it in confined as well as deconfined phase.
In both phases, the chiral condensate has a minimum as a function of baryon
density. In the deconfined phase, taking into account the chiral symmetry
restoration, we classify the behavior of chiral condensate into three types.
One can set the parameter of the theory such that the results, in low but
sufficiently higher density, is in agreement with the expectation from QCD.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figure
A novel model-based control strategy for aerobic filamentous fungal fed-batch fermentation processes
Neutrino Oscillations and Lepton Flavor Mixing
In view of the recent announcement on non-zero neutrino mass from
Super-Kamiokande experiment, it would be very timely to investigate all the
possible scenarios on masses and mixings of light neutrinos. Recently suggested
mass matrix texture for the quark CKM mixing, which can be originated from the
family permutation symmetry and its suitable breakings, is assumed for the
neutrino mass matrix and determined by the four combinations of solar,
atmospheric and LSND neutrino data and cosmological hot dark matter bound as
input constraints. The charged-lepton mass matrix is assumed to be diagonal so
that the neutrino mixing matrix can be identified directly as the lepton flavor
mixing matrix and no CP invariance violation originates from the leptonic
sector. The results favor hierarchical patterns for the neutrino masses, which
follow from the case when either solar-atmospheric data or solar-HDM
constraints are used.Comment: Latex, 9 page
Exploring the multi-humped fission barrier of 238U via sub-barrier photofission
The photofission cross-section of 238U was measured at sub-barrier energies
as a function of the gamma-ray energy using, for the first time, a
monochromatic, high-brilliance, Compton-backscattered gamma-ray beam. The
experiment was performed at the High Intensity gamma-ray Source (HIgS) facility
at beam energies between E=4.7 MeV and 6.0 MeV and with ~3% energy resolution.
Indications of transmission resonances have been observed at gamma-ray beam
energies of E=5.1 MeV and 5.6 MeV with moderate amplitudes. The triple-humped
fission barrier parameters of 238U have been determined by fitting EMPIRE-3.1
nuclear reaction code calculations to the experimental photofission cross
section.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
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