Diss. Stockholm : Handelshögsk.

Univ., Diss.--St. Gallen, 2002.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2006.

To properly analyze the advantages and disadvantages of voting rules, and how well the outcomes that they yield reflect voters' preferences, one needs very large data sets, since paradoxes that occur very rarely may have large impacts. Since such amounts of election data are currently unavailable, it is important to be able to use random procedures to generate data that have the same statistical characteristics as real election data. It is the purpose of this work to identify a statistical characterization of voting data, to empower researchers to use random procedures to generate data that is statistically indistinguishable from real voting data. / Ph. D.

<p>This essay presents empirical tests of one of the conclusions from Bryan Caplan's 2007 book <em>The Myth of the Rational Voter. </em>Caplan claims that voters suffer from systematic biases about economic policy that through elections affects economic policy negatively. I derive three hypotheses from Caplan's theory and test them on a cross-country panel of 19 countries covering the time 1973 to 2009. The hypotheses stipulate that increased turnout lead to lower economic freedom, lower levels of foreign aid and higher inflation. After controlling for country specific effects turnout does not seem to have the effect stipulated in the three hypotheses.</p>

This essay presents empirical tests of one of the conclusions from Bryan Caplan's 2007 book The Myth of the Rational Voter. Caplan claims that voters suffer from systematic biases about economic policy that through elections affects economic policy negatively. I derive three hypotheses from Caplan's theory and test them on a cross-country panel of 19 countries covering the time 1973 to 2009. The hypotheses stipulate that increased turnout lead to lower economic freedom, lower levels of foreign aid and higher inflation. After controlling for country specific effects turnout does not seem to have the effect stipulated in the three hypotheses.

Diss.--Teilw. zugl.: Claremont Graduate School. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 187-209) and index. Revised edition of the author's doctoral dissertation ... Claremont Graduate School.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2008.

The purpose of this paper is to examine findings related to the problems that school systems confront in educating all students and the approaches used in solving those problems through the use of alternative educational curricula and settings. It considers that schools foster public engagement, not simply public relations, in order to bring the communities they serve into conversation, which calls for listening, responding, and educating. Findings indicate that concerns about poor performance on standardized tests, academic standards, and the numbers of students dropping out of schools are among the problems many public schools unfortunately have in common in both rural and urban areas. These deficiencies exist in populations represented in public schools throughout this country. This study reveals that even though these seemingly insurmountable problems are an on-going cause for public concerns of American schools, school leaders are addressing these issues through policies and practices in alternative education programs. The category of educational alternative option studied will be that of public choice alternative education. Public choice options are open to all students in their localities who meet the placement criteria. The chosen school studied, the Virginia Randolph Community High School , was identified by the Virginia State Department of Education as having an established public choice alternative education program. This alternative high school has been fully accredited by Virginia standards. This investigation will also examine the influence of a historical figure, Miss Virginia Estelle Randolph, on the present alternative educational program at Virginia Randolph Community High School. / Ed. D.

Agricultural interest groups play an important role in the formation of agricultural policy. History has shown that agricultural policy has developed gradually over time and major reform is rare. When reform does take place, however, it is not without the support of interest groups. This study describes the manner in which these organizations contribute to the process of policy determination and their effects on the outcome of legislation. This thesis provides an overview and characterization of 80 interest groups that were involved in the 1995 Farm Bill process. Data was collected from testimony, newspaper articles, position papers, personal interviews, and press releases. The information was then organized to summarize the objectives of each organization and provide insight on their strategies, methods of influence, structure, and composition. The study concludes with a discussion about the outcome of the farm bill and an analysis of why some interest groups may enjoy more success than others. / Master of Science