My dissertation examines the influence of partisanship in decision making on redistricting in state commissions and judicial rulings. My central questions are twofold. First, do Republican- and Democratic-appointed federal judges engage in decision making that favors their respective parties? Second, what is the extent of partisan voting on bipartisan state redistricting commissions? These issues possess considerable substantive importance. Some states have considered moving redistricting responsibility out of the legislature and into state commissions, while some political scientists and legal scholars have suggested more vigorous court involvement in the regulation of redistricting. Implicit in many of these arguments is the assumption that federal courts and state commissions will act as neutral arbiters. But, very little social science research exists on the behavior of these institutions. My investigation combines quantitative and qualitative evidence, using interviews I conducted of federal judges and redistricting commissioners across the country, together with statistical analyses of court decisions and commission votes. I have 138 court cases from 1981 to 2006, totaling 414 observations or judicial votes. I argue that federal judges are neither neutral arbiters nor partisan maximizers. Rather, federal judges act as constrained partisans. Judges do not necessarily favor their own party's plans in court cases anymore than they do plans created by both parties under divided government. But, when a federal judge reviews a redistricting plan drawn up by a different party, and where the judge's own party is the victim of partisan line-drawing, she will be more attuned to issues of unfairness in the process. Under circumstances where Supreme Court precedent is unclear, partisan cues become more salient for the judge, increasing the probability she will rely on partisan influences to declare the plan invalid. Interestingly enough, these partisan effects in judicial voting vanish in cases where the Supreme Court delineates unambiguous rules, such as litigation concerning 1 person 1 vote equal population claims. My analysis of state redistricting commissions, based on the votes of commissioners and in-depth interviews with them, illustrates that commissions, like courts, are also not immune to partisan decision-making. Partisan factors tend to be the overriding concern of commissioners. / text

Unanticipated economic fluctuations exert pressure on state governments to adjust their discretionary fiscal policies to accommodate the changing fiscal situation. Even though states adjust fiscal policy as the economy fluctuates, the typical cyclical economic factors are not the sole determinant of such adjustments. State governments budgeting systems in the United States operate under a variety of budgetary institutions. The most prominent state government budgetary institutions include balanced budget rules (BBRs), tax and expenditure limits (TELs), and supermajority voting requirements for tax increases. This dissertation examines how these budgetary institutions affect state government choices of fiscal policy under different economic conditions. To better understand the effect of state level TELs, a stringency index of state level TEL is constructed considering the major structural features. The fixed-effect panel regressions are used for the analysis of impact of TEL and BBR and tax changes and the fixed-effect Tobit is adopted to test the impact of TEL and BBR on spending cuts after the budget is adopted. The result suggests that TEL plays a more important role affecting states discretionary fiscal adjustment from the tax side, while BBR plays a more important role affecting states discretionary fiscal adjustment from the expenditure side. Results of this research show that TEL exerts pressure on states that hinder state ability to deal with volatile fiscal situations, especially in the case of periods of budget crises.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Oral health is crucial to overall health and a focus of the U.S. Health Center program, which provides preventive dental services in medically underserved communities. Dental hygiene is an oral health profession whose practice is focused on dental disease prevention and oral health promotion. Variations in the practice and regulation of dental hygiene has been demonstrated to influence access to dental care at a state level; restrictive policies are associated lower rates of access to care. Understanding whether and to what extent policy variations affect availability and access to dental care and the oral health of medically underserved communities served by grantees of the U.S. Health Center program is the focus of this study. This longitudinal study examines dental service utilization at 1,135 health center grantees that received community health center funding from 2004 to 2011. The Dental Hygiene Professional Practice Index (DHPPI) was used as an indicator of the state policy environment. The influence of grantee and state level characteristics are also considered. Mixed effects models were used to account for correlations introduced by the multiple hierarchical structure of the data. Key findings of this study demonstrate that state policy environment is a predictor of the availability and access to dental care and the oral health status of medically underserved communities that received care at a grantee of the U.S. Health Center program. Grantees located in states with highly restrictive policy environments were 73% less likely to deliver dental services and, those that do, provided care to 7% fewer patients than those grantees located in states with the most supportive policy environments. Population’s served by grantees from the most restrictive states received less preventive care and had greater restorative and emergency dental care needs. State policy environment is a predictor of availability and access to dental care and the oral health status of medically underserved communities. This study has important implications for policy at the federal, state, and local levels. Findings demonstrate the need for policy and advocacy efforts at all levels, especially within states with restrictive policy environments.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Grounded theory analysis, informed by a socio-cultural lens, was applied to the narratives of eighteen motorcycle riders in order to understand, from the rider’s perspective, receptivity to warning messages regarding motorcycle helmet use. This study relied upon narrative analysis to identify patterns in communication that surround motorcycle riders’ experiences. Socio-cultural cues identified importance in the process of interest development in motorcycle riding, search for information regarding motorcycle riding, response to danger within the motorcycle riding experience, and attitude toward protection messages. Narratives specific to danger, or experiences of motorcycle accidents were analyzed for comparison with fear appeal theory. Special focus was applied to Terror Management Theory (TMT) and applied to the communication surrounding the real experiences of motorcycle accident and the perceived threat of danger while motorcycle riding. Communication evidencing relational influence was examined for examples of socially constructed interpretation of social identity and an individual rider's perspective of their lifeworld. The analysis revealed evidence of the TMT concept of burying or denying thoughts of danger. The TMT concept of lifeworld influence on behavior was evidenced in riders who did not accept warning messages involving helmet use. Examples of attitude and behavior change where present in two study participants’ narratives that described experience of severe injury and also the death of a friend. The riders cited these occurrences as experiences that inhibited their previous behavior of placing thoughts of motorcycle injury and death in the back of mind. Although small in number, this participant group offered multiple categorizations of rider descriptions. The narratives offered distinction in time of life when riding interest developed. As well, motorcycle training facilities were often noted as a source of communication from which riders obtained influence on their future behaviors. From this information insight was gained to offer suggestions for future research on time of message delivery. Riders who develop interest in riding as adults represent a category on which to focus preliminary educational messages. Individuals who have not yet developed an interest in motorcycle riding may benefit from societal cues that demonstrate safe riding behavior. Future research in mass media appeals focused on motorcycle riders are suggested, as is development of educational programs for delivery to high school audiences.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This research project proposes to try to isolate and measure the influence of “regime fatigue” on gubernatorial elections and senatorial elections in the United States where there is no incumbent running. The research begins with a review of the negativity effect and its potential influence on schema-based impression forming by voters. Applicable literature on the topics of social clustering and homophily is then highlighted as it provides the vehicle through which the negativity effect disseminates across collections of socially-clustered individuals and ultimately contributes to changing tides of public opinion despite the fact that the political party identification can remain relatively fixed in the aggregate.