With the approach of the 2008 presidential election, there is both hopeful anticipation and trepidation over how electoral processes will fare on Election Day. Yet the conversation, to this point, has been limited. Most discussion focuses on election technology, which is ever-changing. When attention turns to poll workers, it most often relates to that technology: Will a continually-graying semi-volunteer contingent of poll workers be able to successfully administer use of touch-screen machines, Scantron ballots, or other machinery? That question is not addressed in this research. Instead, poll workers are given voice as singular entities. They are given the credit they deserve as a primary component of democracy in the U.S. Over 800,000 poll workers staffed more than 100,000 polling places during the 2004 presidential election (EAC, 2005). Even higher staffing levels and turnout are expected for 2008. Poll workers work as many as 14 consecutive hours for pay approximating minimum wage. What motivates them to do so is the subject of this research. There is very little existing research on poll workers, and none on their motivation. It is becoming more and more difficult for elections offices to staff polling precincts, given the graying of the polls and the increasingly sophisticated technology used there. This research is important because it can contribute both theoretically and practically to recruitment and staffing strategies. Several bodies of literature are drawn from for this research: social capital and democratic theory, public service and volunteer motivation, coproduction, and principal-agent theory. Prior to this research, of these theoretical frameworks, only principal-agent addressed poll workers specifically (and then, in only one study; Alvarez & Hall, 2006). These theories were synthesized to generate 18 hypotheses and to create a 35-question survey instrument that was distributed and collected on-site at poll worker training sessions in Leon County, Florida. A total of 845 completed surveys were returned. Analytic techniques included factor analysis, ordinary least squares (OLS), and bivariate correlation. Findings reveal the connections between public service motivation (PSM) and various characteristics of the polls, between PSM and principal-agent theory, and between PSM and demographic and attitudinal variables of poll workers. The result is a unique contribution to both theory and practice, with acknowledgement of poll workers as a singular hybrid of volunteer and public servant. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 1, 2008. / Poll Workers, Public Service Motivation, Election Administration / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary E. Guy, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Sande Milton, Outside Committee Member; Kaifeng Yang, Committee Member.

This dissertation represents a comprehensive study of human prosperity. It consists of two main components separated into two essays. The first essay provides a theoretical definition and a measurement of prosperity. The second essay contributes a review of the institutional and cultural factors identified in the first essay, and examines their influence on the economic subset of prosperity. The definitions of the concept in Essay One, and the theoretical propositions of the determinants of prosperity in Essay Two, are found to be supported through a cross-country empirical analysis. By defining human prosperity as life-satisfaction, Essay One identifies the correlates of prosperity through an analysis of cross-country measures of subjective well-being using raw data from the World Values Survey (1981–2005). The study finds robust evidence that income, freedom, health, religious beliefs, stability, security, and family life are among the factors contributing to human prosperity. The methods consist of a factor analysis of the survey questions combined with an OLS regression. A sensitivity analysis, using three large and distinct samples of the population, validates the findings and enhances the power of the model. The final section in Essay One evaluates existing measures of prosperity and develops a new index based on the findings. The descriptive statistics and the regression outcomes, as well as the index of prosperity in the first essay, demonstrate evidence that cultural factors play a relatively modest role in defining the causes of prosperity, but a more robust role in generating prosperity. The first essay, therefore, provides the background for analyzing the causes of prosperity. Because of the immensity of such a project, Essay Two concentrates on the economic aspect of prosperity. The first section in Essay Two evaluates the frameworks used in the academic literature. Reviews of the literature lead to the establishment of a social theory that suggests how the cultural factors identified in the first essay may be incorporated into a framework that analyzes economic prosperity. The final section in Essay Two reviews and proposes a model of economic prosperity that includes cultural mechanisms and tests this theoretical model. The empirical results provide strong support for the importance of cultural factors to economic prosperity. A short summary chapter concludes the dissertation. / A Dissertation submitted to the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2010. / June 25, 2010. / Prosperity, Life-Satisfaction, Institutions, Economic growth, Beliefs, Values / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce Benson, University Representative; Lance de‐Haven Smith, Committee Member; James Gwartney, Committee Member; Robert Eger, Committee Member.

This research seeks to uncover why communities adopt and policies that influence growth by affecting the cost and timing of new development. It also seeks to account for variation across specific development decisions that result from differences in how land use policies are implemented. In order to provide a more integrative approach of land use policy, I advance the concept of Land-Use Regimes (LUR). LUR identifies multiple policies, ordinances and mandates chosen and implemented by local governments based on their impact on land development costs as well as their effect on uncertainty and delay in development process. I explain why different LUR configurations occur. Land Use Regimes are institutional arrangements formed by multiple individual policies, mandates and codes intended to shape individual's behavior. The understanding of the particular institutional and social environment that lead to the adoption of such policies, can help public mangers to understand the extent to which political institutions may lead to problems such as affordable housing, formation of exclusionary communities, decline of quality of life and degradation of the environment, among other urban issues associated with growth. This research shows that existing theories on land use regulation, do not explain why communities adopt a LUR that imposes high levels of delay to new developments, as well as the extent to which such delays complement or substitute other policies that encourages developers to behave in a particular form. Despite the possible inefficiency of land use policy based on delay, its adoption may be an objective for some political actors. Antigrowth groups such as some environmentalist groups or homeowners associations seeking exclusion and urban containment may prefer a high level of delay because it functions de facto as a growth control. In addition, local authorities, such as planning officials may prefer regulations that generate high levels of potential delay because they can use discretion to shorten or lengthen the timing of the review process. This research finds that by using their discretion to impose delay, local public officials can manage growth based on their own values and principles. In highly regulated regimes, planners increase their power to negotiate with developers in order to impose the values of the community or the set of values shared by their professional community. Therefore, a regulatory regime that imposes high levels of delay to new developments creates conditions for reviewers or public officials to become the "de-facto" regulators, because by defining the delay of a regime they decide what kind of projects are viable depending upon the financial costs that delays have on new developments. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Reubin O’D. Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2007. / December 12, 2006. / Policy Networks, Land Use Regulation, Growth Management, Permitting, Regulation, Land Development / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; John T. Scholz, Outside Committee Member; Frances S. Berry, Committee Member; Ralph S. Brower, Committee Member.

Argyris and Schon (1996, p.xvii) contend, "it is conventional wisdom that business firms, governments, nongovernmental organizations, schools, health care systems, regions…need to adapt to changing environments, draw lessons from past successes and failures, detect and correct the errors of the past, anticipate and respond to impending threats, conduct experiments, engage in continuing innovation, build and realize images of a desirable future." Argyris refers to this as "the learning imperative." All of the organizations and tasks mentioned directly relate to the constant activities of a legislative body. These external actors, as described by Argyris, are engaged but outside the internal process. They seek to influence both process and final product, but now must do so in an environment of constant change due to the imposition of term limits. The legislative processes in the Florida House of Representatives consistently provide examples of single-loop learning. Errors and problems emerge, legislation is introduced, designed to provide remedy, and the cycle is repeated. But, according to Argyris (2000, p.4), "genuine learning involves an extra step, in which you reflect on your assumptions and test the validity of your hypothesis," which is characterized as double-loop learning, a critical ingredient for a learning organization. This paper identifies weaknesses in the learning activities of the Florida House of Representatives as well as impediments to the implementation of improved organizational learning processes. By using interviews with key actors it identifies the various factors that affect the policy consideration process in this setting, including frequent turnover of membership, leadership, staff leadership, and committee staffing and membership. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / June 11, 2007. / Legislatures, Organizational Learning, Learning Organizations, Policy Processes / Includes bibliographical references. / Earle Klay, Professor Directing Dissertation; Randall Holcombe, Outside Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member; Frances Berry, Committee Member.

This dissertation empirically tests existing theories that have been used to explain the capacity of nonprofit sectors within and across nations. Firstly, this study briefly reviews each theory and discusses how each can usefully be extended to explain the existence and the capacity of nonprofits. A framework was developed from existing literature and tests the explanatory power of competing theories about the presence of nonprofits (NPOs) within and across nations. This study aimed to systematically explore the theoretical and empirical foundations of nonprofits' existence and capacity in order to contribute to the development of a more general framework of this phenomenon. It is hoped that this comprehensive conceptualization of NPOs capacity and existence will provide a ladder between existing and future research and provide guidance for better understanding NPOs. In addition, the cross-national component of this study is intended to explore the explanatory power of existing models for settings other than national culture in which most of them were created. Our results provide support for several theoretical perspectives the explaining variation in nonprofit sector capacity in a given community. Our analysis revealed a number of detailed findings about socioeconomic and institutional determinants of nonprofit service provision. Most of these are consistent with earlier studies. Theories that mostly focus on demand or need for nonprofits argument were not supported very well. Theories that focus on supply side and institutional theories appear to give us the stronger explanations for how nonprofit sector size varies across the communities. As discussed in the research findings, this study has made valuable contributions to the understanding and insights about how local conditions affect nonprofit existence and capacity analysis. From the results of the comprehensive data analysis and procedures, this study concludes that local condition affects existence and capacity of nonprofit sector. It is expected that the information produced and the implications of the study may be of help to nonprofit managers, policy-makers, and scholars to build more comprehensive understanding of nonprofits. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Public Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2006. / October 30, 2006. / Cross-National Nonprofits, Nonprofit Therories, Nonprofit Existence, Nonprofit Capacity / Includes bibliographical references. / Ralph S. Brower, Professor Directing Dissertation; Lee P. Stepina, Outside Committee Member; Richard Chackerian, Committee Member; William E. Klay, Committee Member.

What are the causes of administrative reform? Even though the question is critical in understanding administrative reform efforts and their impacts on administration and society, much remains to be understood about this process. In this dissertation, I will examine the following research question : What accounts for the occurrence of two types of state-level administrative reform - the adoption of performance-based budgeting legislation and comprehensive state executive branch reorganization ? I focus on these reforms because they are core administrative reform processes. More importantly, the examination of two reforms within a single study provides an opportunity to examine the differences in the adoption prospects and process (Chackerian and Mavima, 2001). Administrative reform matters. Government structural reorganization has been used to cope with rising fiscal stress, the lack of managerial control over state bureaucracies (Franklin, 2000; Gortner, Mabler, & Nicholson, 1997; Meier,1980), and is not infrequently part of the political rhetoric in campaigns (Garnet 1980; Chackerian 1996). Budget reform also has been used to cope with economic and fiscal pressures, citizen demands for better program outcomes and low taxes (Berry, Brower, & Flowers, 2000). Administrative arrangements are crucial since they affect "who gets what" and the flow of costs and benefits over time. They have distributional consequences among interested actors (Feiock & Stream, 1998). My framework attempts to integrate the micro level political market approach with macro perspectives that point to the importance of external forces. There are diverse administrative reform theoretical perspectives. In my view, administrative reform can be explained in terms of the political market in which elected officials provide administrative reform to constituents based on their costs and benefits and constituents supply political support based on their costs and benefits (Feiock & Stream, 1988; Keohane, Revesz, & Stavins, 1997; Dixit, 1996). However, these micro aspects of the political market are embedded in macro environmental forces such as institutions and more general socio-economic conditions (Chackerian, 1996; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Berry & Berry, 1990). Therefore it is important to consider the macro environmental forces as well as the micro political market factors simultaneously. The units of analysis for this study are forty-eight U.S. continental states. Annual data for each of the variables in this study were collected for 48 U.S. continental states for the 17-year time period 1980 to 1996. The reason why I choose the year 1980 is related to "new federalism" and the beginning of the Reagan administration. From that time, not only were federal grants to states severely cut, but also states played more important roles in the federal system. This new trend, the so-called "Resurgence of the States" (Bowman, 1998) or "New Federalism" (Dye, 1990), provide the ideal context to study state government activities in terms of administrative reform. In addition, I choose 48 U.S. continental states to capture neighboring state effects on administrative reform. To answer the research question of what accounts for state administrative reform, I will integrate both the micro and macro factors and also consider the interaction effects among the factors. Micro factors are elements in the political market in which political exchange occurs between demand-side forces such as individual tax burden, conservative citizen ideology, fiscal stress, bureaucratic density, and business density and supply-side forces such as institutional turnover, conservative government ideology, unified government, and electoral competition. However, these micro factors do not exist in a vacuum, but are embedded in more broad macro forces. In this model, I consider four macro forces such as neighbor adoption, professional organization density, economic growth, and population density. In addition, I expect some interaction effects between the micro and macro factors. I used Event History Analysis as statistical method of my research. Based on the analysis, I found several important factors that have effects on the adoption of administrative reform some in common for both reforms, some unique to each. The factor that is common to both types of administrative reform is individual tax. Unique factors in regard to budgeting are: bureaucratic density, legislative turnover, and electoral competition. The adoption of performance budget reform occurs less when the power of bureaucracy is greater, more when there is legislative turnover and less when electoral competition is high. In contrast to the adoption of performance budget reform, the unique adoption factors for reorganization are conservative government ideology and higher population density. The power of bureaucracy has statistically significant and negative effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, while it does not have significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Legislative turnover has statistically significant and positive effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, but does not have significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Also, electoral competition has statistically significant and negative effect on the adoption of performance budget reform, but does not have statistically significant effect on the adoption of state executive branch reorganization. Even the patterns of interaction effects are somewhat unique for each of these reforms. There are no significant interaction effects in the model of performance budget reform. However, there are a few significant interaction effects in the model of state executive branch reorganization including neighbor adoption /unified government and economic growth / legislative turnover. These differences in the adoption processes might have important implications for a theory of administrative reform implementation. As Chackerian & Mavima (2001) and Matland (1995) suggest, different types of reforms lead to different factors being influential. This analysis is suggestive of the fact that the dynamics and influences on "administrative reform" may be very different depending on the nature of the reform. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2003. / June 3, 2003. / Administrative Reform / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard Chackerian, Professor Directing Dissertation; William D. Berry, Outside Committee Member; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; Richard C. Feiock, Committee Member.

Executive succession has been defined as the planned or unplanned permanent change of the formal leader of a group or organization (Gorden & Rosen, 1981). The scholarly work in this area can be traced back to 1952 and the publication of a study of managerial succession at a gypsum plant by Alvin Gouldner, one of several students of Robert K. Merton at Columbia University, who contributed to emerging empirical work of the time on organizations as a field of interest. The body of literature that has emerged since that time has examined succession in a variety of public and private contexts and at all levels of public governances. Unfortunately, the literature remains a fragmented collection of works that do not cohere as a single theory or even a collection of theories regarding succession. This research contributes to the body of scholarly work to date by examining this phenomenon among an important and under-examined group of public sector executives: Florida municipal police chiefs. Specifically, this study proposes a theory of succession among police chiefs that suggests that there are both social relations variables and institutional context variables that affect the odds of police chief succession will occur as a result of involuntary dismissal, coercion or pressure, or voluntary separation from office. The findings in this study support the influence of certain social relationships in determining the likelihood of involuntary succession and succession due to coercion or pressure when compared with voluntary separation, but found no evidence to support the influence of institutional context variables in affecting the odds of one type of succession event over another. / A Dissertation Submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2005. / November 7, 2005. / Police Chief, Executive, Succession, Turnover / Includes bibliographical references. / Richard C. Feiock, Professor Directing Dissertation; William Doerner, Outside Committee Member; Ralph S. Brower, Committee Member; Lance deHaven-Smith, Committee Member.

Using a constructionist approach, this study applies the critical theory of Jürgen Habermas to analyze public policies surrounding the Florida Everglades. Habermas argues that policymakers in advanced industrial democracies are caught between conflicting imperatives: they are expected to serve the interests of their nation as a whole, but they must prop up an economic system that benefits the wealthy at the expense of most workers and the environment. Critical theory suggests that this contradiction will be reflected in Everglades policy by communicative distortions and blockages that suppress and conceal tensions between environmental and economic priorities. In theory, policymakers will give programs misleading names; will overstate programs' environmental benefits and understate their benefits to economic special interests (farmers, ranchers, developers); and will suppress evidence and advocacy that cast doubt on policymakers' claims about program performance. A constructionist approach previously has been used in policy analysis, and the research has shown that definitions of public problems are socially constructed. Yet without a larger theoretical framework, such as critical theory, constructionist analysis has been insensitive to the presence of systemic contradictions and reactions to those contradictions in the policy process. Conversely, comprehensive theories have been used in policy analysis to highlight and explain policy muddles and failures, but these analyses have not included constructionist research to investigate how systemic contradictions erupt and play out as policy develops. Thus, this study bridges an important gap in policy theory and research. The study also poses a challenge to mainstream policy research, which typically avoids comprehensive theory and treats policy areas, policy concepts, and problem definitions as straightforward and unproblematic. By approaching the subject matter from a critical theory perspective, the study seeks to demonstrate that mainstream policy research actually relies on a comprehensive set of assumptions that it fails to recognize. This set of unacknowledged premises constitutes a paradigm in need of articulation and assessment. The mainstream paradigm assumes that government activity is fragmented into numerous, separate, and distinct "policy areas"; each policy area evolves independently according to its own internal logic; and policymakers are reasonable, truthful, and oriented to solving public problems and improving policy performance. By applying critical theory to Everglades policy and policymaking, the study reveals this paradigm by confronting it with competing concepts and hypotheses. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2010. / July 26, 2010. / Critical Theory, Habermas, Advocacy Coalition Framework, Social Construction Theory, Everglades / Includes bibliographical references. / Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert Jackson, University Representative; Ralph Brower, Committee Member; William Earle Klay, Committee Member.

The retention and graduation of students is at the core of postsecondary education. This topic becomes increasingly relevant as tight budgets force state legislatures to seek increased accountability, and soaring tuition costs force students and parents to demand results for their investment. Numerous studies have been done exploring progression and the factors affecting it. However, few have framed the pursuit of a baccalaureate degree using the concept of anticipatory socialization. This study seeks to fill that void and link three fields of study: Organizational Theory, Anticipatory Socialization Theory, and Student Progression Research. A longitudinal cohort analysis was performed to assess the role of anticipatory socialization in increasing the likelihood of attainment of a baccalaureate degree. The anticipatory socialization mode of focus was attendance at a secondary faith-based institution as a socialization mechanism preparing students for attendance at a faith-based university. The hypothesis underlying the analysis suggested that students who are already socialized within a faith-based learning institution would exhibit higher graduation rates from a faith-based university, than students who graduated from non faith-based secondary institutions. Furthermore, using Tinto's Stages of college student progression, it was argued that attrition rates would be higher for non-faith-based high school graduates during the freshmen year, when integration occurs. Finally, the subsequent enrollment of drop-out was examined in order to determine the types of institutions they subsequently transferred to. Logistic regression models confirmed the effect of faith-based secondary school enrollment and found that the stage of exit was different based on high school type. The significant factors affecting subsequent enrollment still require further research. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School of Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2004. / March 15, 2004. / Organizational Studies, Anticipatory Socialization, Education, Retention / Includes bibliographical references. / Lance deHaven-Smith, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carolyn Herrington, Outside Committee Member; Frances Berry, Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member.

Charter schools represent one of many choice options available to Florida school districts. While public choice theory may provide insight as to why choice should impact student performance, using two research stages, this paper examines empirically factors leading to charter school adoption and the relationship of increasing charter schools on district academic performance. Results of this research indicate that, increasing middle school class size and emulation of neighboring adopters are statistically significant factors in a districts' charter school policy adoption. True emulation as specified by diffusion literature may be suspect due to the advent of choice alternatives in Florida prior to the law that allowed districts to formally adopt charters as a choice policy. Thus, the choice may not have diffused from early adopters to laggards, but rather via a burst of adopters who had been waiting for an opportunity. Further, cross sectional modeling provides slight or weak evidence that increases in charter schools is positively associated with academic performance in districts. / A Dissertation submitted to the Askew School for Public Administration and Policy in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2007. / April 2, 2007. / Floirda, Hazard Model, Survival Analysis, Policy Adoption, Determinants, School Performance, School Choice, Public Choice, Charter, Event Hitory Analysis / Includes bibliographical references. / Frances Stokes Berry, Professor Directing Dissertation; Patrice Iatarola, Outside Committee Member; Richard Feiock, Committee Member; Lance DeHaven-Smith, Committee Member.