Measuring public opinion on abortion is an ongoing concern for political scientists, mainly because the public does not always exhibit fixed attitudes on such topics. Most citizens express a centrist viewpoint between the pro choice and pro life extremes. These include a small group whose answers to abortion questions are so inconsistent that they give public officials an inaccurate measure of public opinion on this important issue. Inconsistent responses may result from context effects, such as the order in which the questions are asked or the way they are asked. Usually, researchers ask a battery of questions in which respondents say whether they approve of abortion generally and under a variety of circumstances, citing the reasons for which a woman might seek an abortion. This project includes an independent national survey using questions adopted from the General Social Survey. The sample is divided into four experimental groups with different question orders. Based on these findings, the recommended question order would be the one with the general question last and the remaining specific questions in a somewhat random pattern alternating between the so-called “hard” and “easy” individual abortion situations. One of the more surprising findings is that people didn’t recognize themselves as subtracting the specific situations from the general question when it was asked first; hardly any said that was what they were doing when they gave inconsistent answers. Otherwise, about an equal number of respondents admitted answering the questions off the top of their heads as those who showed ambivalence by claiming they were deeply committed to their inconsistent responses. The study found most people who inconsistent on abortion are moderates leaning towards pro choice. Also, politically conservative regular church-goers can be just as inconsistent on abortion as the non-religious, non-political, low-educated non-church goers, especially if they are basically pro choice. Without a full understanding of who is generating inconsistent answers on abortion, some researchers may be tempted to eliminate these respondents from their sample. This research should allow them to understand these respondents better and develop better question wording and question orders to reduce their numbers.

The "work first" philosophy of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act sent millions of people into the labor force, many for the first time. The result was a dramatic increase in the number of workers whose earnings failed to pull them and their families out of poverty. Assistance in the form of childcare, transportation, medical coverage, and the Earned Income Tax Credit is beginning to receive attention as support mechanisms for people who do not earn adequate wages and receive little benefits from their employers. This study examines the effectiveness of Georgia's approach to providing work support programs to its working poor citizens. No single entity is responsible for making work supports accessible. Thus, services often go underutilized because those who might qualify are not aware of their potential eligibility. Further, there is no state level strategy for ensuring that wage advancement is considered by agencies providing work support services. Using client administrative wage data from the Georgia Department of Labor and qualitative interviews from program staff, the state's structure for assisting the working poor is examined.

This study examines the effects of civic education (CE) on local level participation among the rural poor. There is little extant knowledge of civic education’s effects among this group, although it represents the majority of citizens in many developing countries. It is important to understand what kinds of effects this little researched tool of democracy promotion has so as to know whether investments in it are worthwhile. Does raising awareness about rights increase citizens’ democratic participation—whether at village meetings, community groups, or in contacting their local representative? Are effects greater on collective or individualized participation? Who benefits the most? Are effects mediated by civic awareness and/or democratic attitudes (efficacy, political interest, and trust in politicians), or are there (also) direct effects on participation? Having gathered novel data of rural masses’ democratic dispositions, the study will be useful for practitioners needing information about the level of civic awareness among this group, and about how civic education may be used to promote this group’s inclusion and empowerment as democratic participants in society. Data consist of semi-structured oral interviews of 280 adult citizens in five villages and one rural town in peripheral areas in Tanzania and Zambia during election year. The study corroborates CE’s positive effects on knowledge—particularly of “first generation” rights and responsibilities—political interest, and some forms of participation. Most affected are contacts with the local elected representative (Ward Councilor) and involvement in community groups—both important for building a democratic (civil) society. Both cognitive and behavioral effects are greatest among women--a reason for optimism for those desiring to enhance women’s public role. Practitioners could thus use civic education to promote communication between citizens and elected representatives and people’s involvement in associations. They could utilize the radio—the most relied upon mass medium in these contexts--and target community leaders, the most sought-after individuals in community related problems. Civic educators should also seek ways to strengthen efficacy and interpersonal trust which were found to significantly promote aggregate participation, with the latter also increasing active involvement at community meetings—likely the first venue of participation for most rural citizens.

This study examines individual-level citizen participation in the notice and comment component of federal agency rulemaking. It focuses on characteristics of individual participants ascertained through a survey mailed to 400 actual commenters. Survey data is used to evaluate the representativeness of these participants to the general public. Also, the compatible of citizen participation in rulemaking with the democratic ideals of liberty, equality, and fairness is evaluated, along with potential consequences of proposed reforms.

Unelected bureaucrats make a broad range of important policy decisions raising concerns of accountability in a democratic society. Many classics in the literature highlight the need to understand agency decisions at stages prior to the final vote by agency appointees, but few studies of the bureaucracy do so. To this point, scholars have treated the issue of shirking as one where laziness and inefficiency are the driving forces. However, it is more realistic to expect that shirking comes in the form of ideological resistance by administrators. I develop a theory that the independence afforded to the bureaucracy is functionally comparable to that of the judiciary, allowing for the insertion of individual attitudinal preferences by bureaucrats. Drawing from the attitudinal model of judicial research, I look at whether attitudes affect the decision making of administrative law judges at the National Labor Relations Board, the influence administrative law judge decisions have on reviewing bodies, and whether attitudinal decision making can be controlled by external political and legal actors. Results demonstrate that Democratic judges are more likely than Republican judges to rule for labor in unfair labor practice cases, administrative law judge decisions provide the basis for subsequent decisions of reviewing bodies, and that few political and legal controls exist over this set of bureaucrats. This research provides evidence that lower level bureaucrats make decisions based on their own political preferences and that these preferences have far ranging consequences for policy and law.

How do democratic institutions function in authoritarian states? This study answers this question by examining the political institutions in rural China ¨C democratic elections of villagers committees and village oversight agencies. Using a nationwide survey on China¡¯s villager self-governance conducted in 2005 and in-depth case data collected in 2007 and 2008, this study finds that rural political institutions have significantly changed the political processes in China¡¯s countryside. The quality of village elections and the functioning of oversight agencies such as villager representative assemblies and financial supervision teams all have been crucial to affect the level of electoral participation and the quality of rural governance. The study shows that Chinese peasants are more active to vote as the village election methods feature more competitiveness and transparency. Moreover, higher quality of village elections and well-maintained village oversight structures have improved the quality of rural governance by holding village cadres more accountable to peasants¡¯ demands, as demonstrated in the higher level of peasant satisfaction with the performance of villagers committees in public services provision. The study also reveals that the effect of rural political institutions is a function of village economic conditions. The effect of village elections and oversight agencies in holding cadres accountable is significantly higher in villages that own substantial collective resources than in the ones that do not. This study challenges the traditional view in comparative politics that democratic institutions are established in authoritarian states for cosmetic purposes. It shows that, under economic pressure, political institutions matter in making democracy work in authoritarian regimes by encouraging political participation and generating better governance. It also suggests the necessity for the Chinese government to reinforce its efforts of standardizing village election rules and regulations and enforcing the establishment and maintenance of village oversight institutions.

Traditional analyses of agency output are typically performed at the institutional level, characterizing the agency in question as a unitary actor with a singular preference. I test these assumptions using a variety of statistical methods, including a dynamic linear model that estimates ideal points of FCC commissioners for every year, 1975-2000. Voting within the FCC is essentially unidimensional and commissioner preferences are stable over time. Aggregate analyses of the ideal points of individual commissioners suggest that FCC commissioner voting has become profoundly ideological only recently. Future agency research must carefully consider the time period of analysis and previous findings should be reexamined.

My dissertation addresses the debate on the impact of foreign direct investment on physical integrity rights. I evaluate competing theories from the neoliberal and historical structuralist schools of thought. According to the former, FDI generally leads to better human rights practices. The latter, in contrast, is characterized as postulating a direct link between FDI and repression. By and large, the literature seems to support the neoliberal view (and, by extension, disconfirm the historical structuralist view). Yet in spite of the scholarly consensus, I argue that it is premature to conclude the debate. Scholars appear to have misunderstood the causal mechanism that historical structuralists believe link FDI to repression of physical integrity rights. They ignore a crucial variable that, as historical structuralists imply, mediates the effects of FDI on the level of repression: domestic unrest. We should only expect repression to increase when high levels of FDI coincide with domestic unrest. In order to safeguard their investments, MNCs lend support to friendly host governments (either directly or through their home government), which paves the way for further repression. In this paper, I will attempt to redress this problem by offering a more refined version of the historical structuralist model, and by assessing – both quantitatively and qualitatively - its effects on human rights. Probit regression models will be used to test both the neoliberal and historical structuralist propositions on a sample of low- and lower-middle-income countries from the years 1981-2004. I then conduct two case studies on Algeria and Lesotho. To briefly summarize this study’s main findings, the quantitative data largely disconfirms the neoliberal theory that FDI reduces the repression of physical integrity rights over time. In contrast, there is stronger evidence for the structuralist theory that countries with large flows of FDI are more repressive in times of domestic unrest. Case study analysis largely supports these statistical findings and, in the case of Algeria, suggests ways to modify structuralism. Specifically, the Algerian case illustrates how repression is more likely in industries that are more labor-intensive and are concentrated in densely-populated regions.

This study examined the process of gender policy reform. It sought to explain how and when gender policy reform has taken place in Venezuela across time. The study entailed observations of gender policy reform during specific periods of Punto Fijo democracy (1958-1998) characterized by democratic consolidation and deconsolidation, and during the transition towards a new type of hybrid democracy, the Chávez era (1999-2007). The policies considered were the ones addressing women’s equality at home and at work, reproductive rights, women’s economic rights, and political participation. The analysis showed that the likelihood of gender policy reform depends on the combination of certain institutional configurations that provide women access to the decision-making process of the state, but most importantly to women’s groups’ capacity to organize a broad coalition of women from civil society and from within the state apparatus behind to push for a reform by using frames based on international agreed norms that legitimized their struggle. In addition, the analysis reveals the negative influence of religious groups with decision-making power on the process of gender policy reform.

This dissertation is an empirical study of the political benefits of decentralization. It examines the effects of decentralization on citizens’ evaluations of the political system. Despite the large number of empirical studies on the costs and benefits of decentralization, most studies focus on economic benefits (typically in terms of fiscal efficiency) and pay little attention to potential political benefits. This dissertation seeks to fill these gaps by explicitly modeling the role decentralization plays in shaping citizens’ attitudes toward a political system. Drawing on work in political behavior and decentralization, a theoretical framework is developed to explain the manner in which citizens’ attitudes are shaped by election outcomes and their post-electoral win-loss status in multi-tier government. This dissertation not only offers a general argument with which to understand how a decentralized political structure may lead to greater stability in a democratic regime, but also offers guidance to policymakers on whether decentralization should be pursued as an option for institutional reform.