A number of social, economic and political characteristics of the American states were examined to determine which factors contribute to innovation in public policy. Growth management legislation was selected as a policy issue area for testing alternative theoretical explanations of innovation. Four dimensions of growth management were considered: population stabilization, land use, economic development, and environmental resource management. Policy innovation in the states was measured by an index, developed from each state's record in adopting innovative growth management programs. Only programs adopted during a ten-year period between 1965 and 1975 were examined. The study does not address the diffusion process; rather, the focus is strictly on early adopters of selected growth management programs. / Major theoretically explanations of policy innovation were tested including: (1) the propensity to be innovative as measured by past trends; (2) the ability to innovate as measured by economic and fiscal resources; (3) political characteristics such as party competition and voter participation rates; and (4) various growth pressures stemming from economic and demographic changes. / The findings reveal economic and demographic change to be significant determinants of growth management innovation in the states. Fiscal ability and political characteristics have little relationship to policy innovation. Policy innovativeness as a general trait among particular states is rejected in favor of an evolving pattern of innovation in which new leaders are constantly emerging and old ones receding. The results have broader implications for change, especially economic and demographic change, as a motivating force in American politics. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: A, page: 0855. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

A study of the direction and degree of aggregate behavioral change in the House of Representatives from 1957 through 1974. The behavior of interest is the House members' liberalism as expressed on selected roll call votes that have been indexed for liberalism by two independent publications. The analysis accounts for the potential instrumentation problem in the liberalism indices by showing that the average liberalism of a group of members serving throughout the period provides a more reliable baseline against which to measure change than do the measuring instruments. The major findings are that, relative to the baseline group: (1) the average behavior of the House shows a marked trend in the liberal direction, (2) the most abrupt liberalism changes from one time to the next are associated with large scale partisan turnover, and (3) the general liberalism trend is a result of greater liberalism among, generally, each successive freshman group. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2722. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1977.

This dissertation constitutes a contribution to the ongoing effort in social science to find appropriate explanations for African political problems. On the basis of the premise that the extent to which a country is stable or unstable depends on the type of regime that runs that country, the study focuses on the various types of regimes and on political instability. Specifically, it attempts to measure the performance of the African party systems and regime types of the decade of the sixties with a view to explain why some systems tend to increase while others decrease the possibility of instability and to offer a model capable of explaining instability in African countries. / Our data were drawn principally from the World Bank and the United Nations' sources. Other sources included: Taylor and Hudson, World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators, 1972, Taylor and Jodice, World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators, Vol. 2, 1983. Morrison et al, Black Africa: Comparative Handbook, 1972. / Our analysis centered around two measuring techniques which entailed simple comparisons of the mean scores of the different systems on key variables. In order to interpret the means meaningfully, the level of performance of the five regime types on selected indicators were determined. Once this was done, it was possible to compute the average cluster scores which provided us with further insight into the performance of the various systems. / Our second measuring activity involved both bivariate and multivariate analysis. Furthermore, in pursuance of our objective to construct a theory of political instability, path analysis technique was employed. / Our analysis revealed that multiparty states were more highly stress with low development and economic performance and high ethnic fractionalization, government sanction and instability. On the other hand, the one party pragmatic and the limited multiparty systems maintained high performance on both economic development and economic performance indicators. Another major finding was the emergence of government sanction and party fractionalization as the best predictors of executive and mass instability. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2719. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

A case study of a county level aging-based advocacy organization--the Coalition of Condominium and Home Owners Associations of Broward County--which (1) describes the origin, structure, and operation of the Coalition; (2) describes the political organization and operation of the member owners associations; (3) describes the socioeconomic status and demographics of the representatives to the Coalition from the member owners associations; (4) compares the preretirement and postretirement political involvement of the representatives to the Coalition; (5) analyzes the factors which led to a significant increase in the political involvement of the representatives; and (6) studies the ability of the Coalition to deliver a cohesive bloc of aging voters. The results showed a loosely structured confederation of primarily condominium owners associations which engaged in lobbying activities and served as a forum for information exchange and alliance building. The representatives to the Coalition were middle and upper-middle class retirees from the northeastern U.S., who after retirement and relocation to south Florida became complete political activists. The evidence suggested that increased feelings of community responsibility and the impact of active organizational memberships were the two primary factors which led to dramatic postretirement increases in political participation. The results of the voting study provided no evidence that the aging mass membership of the Coalition differed electorally from the general aging population of Broward County, that is, there was no evidence that the Coalition represented a cohesive aging-based voting bloc. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2724. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The decline of longitudinal measures of political support, the rise of political protest, and the increase of open challenges to political authority in the turbulent 1960s led to speculation about the health of the American political system. This analysis addresses this question by examining the measurement of political support and its dynamics over time. Support is defined in terms of three empirically verified dimensions--efficacy, trust and responsiveness. / This analysis uses SRC/CPS election survey data for the years 1964-1980 and LISREL to first examine lingering measurement questions about the indicators of support. Second, it examines cross-sectional differences in three dimensions of support--efficacy, trust and responsiveness--looking for changes in relationships across time. Third, different explanations of longitudinal changes in the three support dimensions are examined. Finally, using the 1972-74-76 SRC/CPS panel, the analysis looks at turnover in support on the individual level. / The reexamination of the measurement questions shows that the SRC/CPS questions define three separate dimensions of support and trust represents attitudes toward the political system. The analysis of the cross-sectional differences indicates that many of the inconsistencies in the findings in this area are due to methodological differences between the studies. Over-time aggregate declines in trust and responsiveness are due to period effects. Declines in efficacy, however, are attributable to generational replacement, with newer generations displaying lower efficacy levels than previous generations. On the individual level, efficacy and trust are more stable than has previously been speculated. / This analysis finds no evidence that policy dissatisfaction, economic dissatisfaction or incumbent evaluations have a direct effect on changes in trust. The strongest predictors of over time changes in this attitude are previous trust attitudes and evaluations of the performance of political institutions. This suggests that trust attitudes are composed of retrospective judgments of the operation of the political system as well as current evalutions of political institutions. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 3178. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This study explores changes in federal expenditures for five social welfare programs from 1964 to 1985. The analysis is intended to determine whether expenditures for these "safety-net" programs have changed significantly as a result of the Reagan Presidency. The programs selected for study are: Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Assistance Payments (Aid to Families with Dependent Children), Food Stamps, and the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children. Two theoretical models are proposed as contributing to change in the levels of social welfare spending. These are: (1) incrementalism--suggesting that changes are non-ideological, nonprogrammatic products of previous expenditures; and (2) a presidential leadership model suggesting that policy changes originate with the election of an ideologically motivated president with an election mandate. / The study uses both current and constant dollar expenditures data along with presidential budget requests in order to derive the extent of budgetary change. Other analytical techniques used are measurements of the rate of spending change, a regression analysis based on estimates from time-series data, with application of the forecasting procedure. These various methodological techniques permitted an assessment of the Reagan "interruption." The exploration of substantive changes occurring from 1964 to 1985 are discussed within the context of the nature of the interventions producing such change. / Findings indicate continued increased spending for Medicaid and WIC programs under Reagan, static spending for SSI, a small reduction in outlays for the Assistance Payments Program. The study suggests that the primary effect of the Reagan presidency has been a Decrease In The Rate of Increase (DITROI) of social welfare expenditures. Changes were observed in the five programs studied which possessed qualities of both the incrementalism and presidential leadership hypotheses. The passage of time, or years, was a good predictor of expenditure growth, with growth observed under the Reagan Presidency, but at a much reduced rate. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-08, Section: A, page: 3178. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

This study deals with the impact of various types of societal and political change on the characteristics of the members of the American presidential cabinet. The basic focus of the research is on the criteria of selection, the social background and political characteristics, length of tenure and reasons for termination, and subsequent careers of cabinet members. Investigating the impact of higher level changes on these aspects of the cabinet has been accomplished within a theoretical framework which encompasses three approaches: an adaptation of skill politics which generally implies secular change at the societal level; a version of realignment theory which suggests cyclical change at the political level; and an approach based on presidential characteristics which portends less systematic change at the individual level. In order to conduct this investigation, data was collected on the postelection appointments of all first term presidents from George Washington to Ronald Reagan. This data came from a wide variety of biographical sources and case studies of presidential administrations. The analysis of this data has resulted in a number of interesting findings which reflect both continuity and change in the cabinet. Electoral support, traditions of customary appointments, and issues of geopolitics have played important roles in the process of selection of cabinet officers. Members have typically been well educated white males with high social status, appointed at the height of their professional careers. They have served an average of three years and have often returned to their precabinet occupations. In attempting to identify and explain changes in the cabinet, it has been found that, while presidential characteristics and skill requirements do play roles in recruitment, the strongest impact seems to be in the area of electoral politics. Overall findings / of this research support the contention that the cabinet has served, and continues to serve, an important function as a symbolic political institution. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-12, Section: A, page: 4504. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The research questions in this dissertation are: does ethnicity persist in affecting political behavior in urban areas; and, do urban ethnic groups have an impact upon urban public policy? These questions were tested in a crucial case study of Cuban ethnics in Miami, Florida. To investigate ethnic political behavior, voting patterns for all Cuban candidates over the thirty year period from 1955 until 1985 were examined. The ethnic impact upon urban policy was studied through voting on referenda and bond issues over the same period and through examination of budgetary data from 1937 until 1985. / The research results indicate that ethnicity did persist in ethnic voting patterns over time. Ethnics supported their fellows over time as long as the candidates were deemed credible. The type of candidate supported did change, however. As the ethnic group assimilated, the candidates supported were those who were most assimilated. In these elections, Cuban turnout patterns exceeded those of black and native American voters in Miami. / Cuban ethnics behaved according to their class status when voting on most policy issues. Ethnicity had a significant negative influence on patterns of voting on most bond issues and referenda; class status for all Miami voters exhibited the same negative pattern. The exceptions to this pattern of ethnic voting were those issues which specifically pertained to Cuban ethnicity. On those issues, ethnicity had a significant positive influence. Ethnicity did not seem to influence urban expenditure levels. / Ethnicity was a significant factor in determining Cuban political behavior. Reinforcing the strength of this influence over time was the strong middle class status of the Cuban community in Miami. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-03, Section: A, page: 0739. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 30-09, Section: A, page: 3995. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1969.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-09, Section: A, page: 4853. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.