The majority of the letters from Lord Milton quoted are copies which he kept of his more important communications. His main correspondent was the Earl of Ilay (1706), 3rd Duke of Argyll (1743). The Argyll papers at Inveraray Castle are unavailable. Ilay's papers apart from estate material are not at Inveraray, however, being included in his English estate and going to his mistress Mrs Anne Williams or Shireburn, then to her son by him, William Williams or Campbell, and then to the latter's son Archibald Campbell, who gave William Coxe access to them for his Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole (1798). After that these papers were lost (Sir Lewis Namier having failed to trace them in recent times) and might, if found, be disappointing in one respect, the injunction of Milton to Ilay being to burn his (Milton's) letters. Fortunately Ilay's letters to Milton are preserved in the latter's vast archives (the bulk of the Saltoun Papers at the National Library of Scotland). It is evident that Milton systematically stored every scrap of paper addressed to him. Milton is correctly described as plain Andrew Fletcher before he took the judicial title of Milton from part of his uncle's and father's estate of Salton (there already being a Lord Salton, in the Scots peerage). And his proper title during the centre of his career was, according to the usage of the time, "the Lord Justice Clerk", the designation of Milton not then applying. For simplicity's sake, however, he is referred to throughout as Milton. Similarly Ilay is always referred to as Ilay rather than Argyll to avoid confusing him with his brother the 2nd Duke of Argyll. And the 18th century spelling of Salton is preferred to the preciously antique form of Saltoun now prevailing. I am greatly indebted to Professor R. H. Campbell for his valuable advice and unstinting encouragement, and to Mrs Margaret Anderson, Dr Anand Chitnis, Dr Derek Dow, Dr Alastair Durie, Mrs Rita Hemphill, Mr Murdo MacDonald, Mr Michael Moss, Dr Alexander Murdoch, Miss Chris Robertson, Mr John Simpson, Miss Veronica Stokes, Mr Arnott Wilson, the Secretaries of the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland and the staff of the National Library of Scotland and the Scottish Record Office for their generous help and cooperation.

University of Macau / Faculty of Law

As researchers, policymakers and employers begin focusing on consumer driven health plan models and medical savings accounts (MSAs), a better understanding of the political viability of such reform initiatives is necessary. The purpose of this study was to survey state legislators' knowledge and perceptions of medical savings accounts (MSAs) and the U.S. health care system in order to identify potential future compromises to health care reform. In February 2004, 201 state legislators from nine states (Alaska, Arizona, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Washington) participated in an on-line survey. The findings from this study revealed significant differences between Republican and Democratic state legislators in their attitudes towards MSAs, level of satisfaction of the U.S. health care system, and overall perceptions of the current and future health care systems. Republican state legislators were 24 times more likely to support MSAs than Democrats. Results also indicated the following three areas had possible bipartisan support for future initiatives: making individuals aware of the actual costs of health care services, providing equitable access to health care services for all individuals, and providing equal tax treatment for those individuals without employer-sponsored health insurance. / Graduation date: 2006

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between personal demographic variables of Indiana's legislators and their voting records regarding laws associated with tobacco regulation. Personal demographic data of the legislators who were in office in either 1997 and/or 1998 were compared with their voting records on tobacco issues during that same time period. The evidence suggests that Democratic legislators appear to be more in favor of tobacco control than their Republican counterparts and legislators that are members of the House of Representatives are more supportive of tobacco control than their counterparts in the Senate. Conversely, the evidence suggests that there were no statistically significant differences on tobacco voting records when the legislators were grouped by representation of a tobacco district, level of education the legislator has attained, holding an office in their respective chambers, or their occupations other than being a legislator.The results of this study can be used to better educate legislators on the consequences of tobacco use and the benefits of voting for pro-tobacco control legislation. Future studies should include attempts to form a profile of a pro-tobacco control or pro-tobacco industry legislator at both the state and national level. / Department of Physiology and Health Science

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 215-222).

Virginia's mandated student outcomes assessment program, as created by Senate Joint Resolution No. 83 in 1986, allowed community colleges in the Commonwealth latitude in developing their own assessment strategies. These strategies have developed slowly and with some inconsistency. The purpose of this study is to determine the congruency of beliefs about the implementation of Virginia's student outcomes assessment program between purposefully selected members of the Virginia General Assembly and community college assessment practitioners. Data for this study were derived from the review of public documents, and the execution of a survey instrument, the results of which were used to develop interviews with designated state legislators and community college assessment practitioners. The interviews became the primary data source for the study. Findings indicate that the legislative participants believe that used by all community colleges across Virginia would be more appropriate than approaches specifically geared to individual institutional missions. Practitioner respondents differ on this issue. The legislators generally believe that the use of a standardized testing approach administered across all community colleges could be beneficial. The practitioners beliefs differ, though not markedly, from the legislative group. Legislators are evenly divided on the issue of using assessment results for institutional comparison. The practitioner group express reservations concerning this prospect. There exists modest differences of belief between the groups concerning the appropriation of general funds to support individual community colleges based on assessment results. The study findings point to congruence of belief among legislative and practitioner respondents when considering the implementation of outcomes assessment in the area of general education. Agreement of beliefs is also found among the practitioner and legislative groups in the implementation of assessment guidelines affecting the communication of assessment results with the citizenry, accountability issues relating to discontinuance of programs, quality assurance, etc., and the role of assessment in Virginia’s college transfer processes. / Ed. D.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Robert J. Shoop / Lobbying and lobbyists have been a part of the national policymaking landscape since the inception of this country. In addition, lobbying and lobbyists play a similar role in the policymaking in every state in the Union. Recent and past media reports of dishonest politicians in Washington, D.C. who have accepted expensive gifts from powerful and unscrupulous lobbyists do little to cause the general public, including legislators in Kansas, to trust those individuals whose role includes being a source of information legislators can access when making decisions about issues. The purpose of this study was to discover the nature of the influence on Kansas K-12 education policy that each type of registered education lobbyist had from 1995 – 2006. The influence lobbyists have had on Kansas K-12 education policy was identified through interviews with each type of registered education lobbyist and with legislators who have served as the chief leadership of the Kansas House Education Committee, as well as through an analysis of documents related to bills the Committee considered from 1995 – 2006. A qualitative method of inquiry, in the form of a case study, was selected by the researcher as the methodology around which to structure the research. The focus of this case study was to learn how lobbyists influenced the decisions made by members of the Kansas House Education Committee from 1995 – 2006. The study identifies the significant education issues of the Committee as determined by an expert panel of educators, the strategies registered lobbyists indicated they used in their attempt to influence legislators’ decisions, and the information sources which were perceived to influence the positions lobbyists and legislators took on education policy. As a case study, the research is “based on one person’s encounter with a complex case” (Creswell, p. 187); and includes analysis of the data; a discussion of the implications of the understandings drawn from the analysis of data, and suggestions for future research.

No description available.

No description available.

The Scots MPs of the eighteenth century have traditionally been portrayed in a negative light. In a century once noted for electoral corruption and the abuses of patronage, they were seen by contemporaries and later writers as among the worst examples of their kind: greedy, self-seeking, unprincipled ‘tools of administration’ whose votes could be bought with the offer of places and pensions. Lewis Namier’s seminal work exposing the cynical approach to politics of MPs generally, sparked a backlash which has produced a more balanced evaluation of English politics. Strangely, although Namier exonerated the Scots MPs from the worst of the charges against them, his less judgmental verdicts are found only sporadically in more recent writing, while the older viewpoint is still repeated by some historians. There is no modern study of the eighteenth-century Scots MPs, a situation which this research proposes to remedy, by examining the group of MPs who represented Scotland at Westminster between 1754 and 1784. It re-assesses the extent to which the original criticisms are merited, but also widens the scope by examining the contribution made by Scotland’s MPs, to British and Scottish political life in the later part of the eighteenth century. A study of the social make-up and the careers of this particular cohort provides the backdrop for the two main themes: the participation of Scots MPs in the legislative process, and their effectiveness as representatives of Scottish interests at Westminster. Existing biographical information has been supplemented by an examination of Parliamentary Papers, debates, and personal correspondence to enable further analysis of attitudes, in particular with regard to politics and political mores. The research explores issues of motivation, asking questions about allegiance, identity, perceptions of government, and how conflicts of interest were resolved, before presenting a conclusion which aims to offer a revised, broader, but more nuanced, assessment of this much-criticised group, based on more recent approaches to interpretation of the period.