Photocopy of typescript. / Bibliography: leaves 753-765. / 2 v. ill. 28 cm

Women's access to elective political office, an indicator of political inequality, was studied by surveying the percentage of women holding elective political positions in national legislatures of 74 countries. This study used a cross-sectional research design with multiple regression analysis.

No description available.

No description available.

This dissertation examines how legislators learn about policy proposals. It focuses on three common sources of policy information --- staff briefings, cues, and group deliberations --- to show the causal effect of information on legislators' policy positions. It uses a new approach, field experiments, that allows me to answer questions about information, institutions, and outcomes that heretofore have been difficult to study quantitatively. Results from the three studies I conducted are largely consistent with theories of legislating under imperfect information. All three studies find that information affects position-taking. On average, information increases support by reducing legislators' uncertainty. Information is most influential on bills that legislators are ideologically predisposed to support. In some respects, findings extend or challenge existing theories. Legislators appear responsive to repeated messaging. Cues and briefings interact to make legislators even more supportive of bills than we would expect from their separate effects. Cues determine a far greater proportion of positions than prior studies suggested. Finally, group deliberation appears to reduce partisan polarization in bill coalitions. All together, the studies illustrate that imperfect information constrains position-taking, that legislative staff, cue-taking, and deliberation can effectively communicate information, and that legislative institutions influence individual positions by providing policy-relevant information.

The purpose of this study was to identify the strategies and tactics community college presidents used to influence state legislators. Selected State Board for Community and Technical Colleges staff and legislative staff members were asked to independently name 3-5 presidents whom they perceived to be most influential with legislators. Ten names were nominated; however, only five presidents were invited to participate in the study. The research identified five strategies and supporting tactics presidents used to influence state legislators. The strategies and tactics were: Strategy One: Build and Maintain a Relationship with Legislators and the tactics were: cultivate the relationship, make the interactions worthwhile, make personal contact, and invite legislators to campus; Strategy Two: Know the Players and the Process and the tactics were: contact legislative staff, know the legislative structure and protocol, and know legislators' issues. Strategy Three: Become a Resource for Legislators and the tactics were: be factual and knowledgeable, be broader than the college, be an advisor, and be accessible. Strategy Four: Broaden your "Sphere of Influence" and the tactics were: involve the community and staff, work with other legislators, and be bipartisan. Strategy Five: Communicate and Frame the Issue and the tactics were: use State Board staff expertise, ask for legislators' support, make the message meaningful, and testify at hearings. The findings suggest that successful community college presidents must develop personal and professional relationships with legislators based on honesty, trust, respect, care, and genuineness. Presidents should devote time to learning the legislative process to determine when and how decisions are made and by which political leaders. Because political work is time consuming, presidents must involve others, such as community leaders, faculty and staff, in the college's legislative activity. All the presidents in this study exhibited similar viewpoints on particular issues that the researcher contributes to these presidents' ability to influence. The presidents shared common viewpoints related to how they viewed legislators, themselves, the college, and the community. Community college presidents must be actively involved in influencing public policy decisions that affect the mission, finances, curriculum, support services, facilities, and overall operations of the college. / Graduation date: 2002

Personal website is a new political communication channel of politicians in recent years. Websites can be politicians¡¦ personal media because of distinguishing features of unlimited space and hypermedia. Politicians present various kinds of information, political opinion and great self-image in their personal websites. This interactive media also provides the interaction between politicians and citizens. This thesis mainly uses content analysis to discover how 4th-term legislators present themselves in WWW as well as their websites¡¦ functionality and design. Then it also uses Web-based questionnaire to understand the usage and utility of websites¡¦ feedback mechanisms. The conclusions are as followed: (1) The DPP legislators are the most likely ones when it comes to establishing personal websites among the lawmakers. Although KMT has more than half shares in the Legislative Yuan, they have less than fifty percent of share in those who create their own personal websites. However, judging from the percentage of those who have websites in regard to their own party, the TAIP and New Party legislators, with more than fifty percent of them creating their own sites, are the most willing ones. (2) The research validates that politicians are experts of self-presentation. There are 70% of legislators using one or more self presentation strategies in their website and presenting various kinds of images in front of citizens. Self-promotion and ingratiation strategies are utilized the most. In addition, female legislators use more ingratiation strategies and present more professional image than male legislators. (3) There are 80% of legislators using at least one or more feedback mechanisms in their websites. It shows most of legislators realize the significance of their interaction with Internet users. But further analysis reveals that they didn¡¦t try to use the advantages brought from the Internet-based interaction, as there are nearly 40% of their websites having only one feedback mechanism. (4) Internet users think that the most important functions of legislators¡¦ websites are feedback mechanisms such as email, guest book and discussion group, etc. But these websites aren¡¦t doing a good job in providing feedbacks to their supporters. Judging from the evidence of users¡¦ usage of email boxes and services of petition, those who have never received a reply from the websites are the majority, which means that while the legislators¡¦ websites provide a space for public disclosure, there¡¦s much room to be desired when it comes to the legislators¡¦ and their staffs¡¦ regards to the public opinion.

Based on the author's thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kansas, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-325) and index.

Based on the author's Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Kansas, 1998. / Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 297-325) and index.

No description available.