Discusses the intent, goals, successes and failures of England's Immigration and Asylum Act and its provisions for the support of children and families. Urges accelerating decision making process for asylum claims, and argues against placing refugees into a financially disadvantaged situation upon arrival, and against negative government policies…

Our editor-at-large puts questions to a political scientist--the former higher-education advisor to the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq--who replies with skepticism about prospects for our efforts to restore a university system in Iraq and reconstitute that troubled society in our image. Building an informed democracy, John Agresto…

A secondary analysis of the "1987 Australian Election Study" examined differences in levels of partisanship, political interest, campaign media use, and the importance voters attach to media use, for voters who make up their minds during and before the campaign. Results suggest that voters who make their choice during the campaign are…

Using data collected from a random sample of students at a large Eastern university, the relationship of various socio-political factors to students attitudes toward and participation in protest activity is explored. Specifically addressed is the question - Do such factors influence activist-prone youth or youth who may be drawn into protest…

Although it is impossible to know in advance the credibility of political messages, such persuasive discourse can be analyzed in a non-partisan, common sense way using predictable patterns in content and form. The content of a candidate's message can be summarized as "I am competent and trustworthy; from me, you'll get 'more good' and 'less…

Thomas Jefferson's elevation of the small landowning farmer to the guardian and bastion of democracy became the centerpiece for a later generation's struggle. Jeffersonian democracy, a philosophy based on the belief that "those who labor in the earth are the chosen people of God" guided the rural insurgents that swept Minnesota and North…

Relying on the social constructionist approach as advanced by Armand L. Mauss (1975), this paper analyzes the construction of a recent U.S. social problem, drug abuse. It is argued that the objective conditions of drug use alone cannot explain why drugs became an issue immediately prior to the 1986 Congressional elections. Explanations for the…

This paper reports part of the results from a three-stage panel study of the Fall 1976 presidential campaigns; 1,927 interviews were conducted in all, 594 occurring in the week prior to the election. Results indicated that voters did not change their voting intentions significantly during the fall campaigns; that they did change the certainty with…

This book illustrates how and why knowledge of verbal behavior is important to an understanding of politics by analyzing and describing verbal behavior studies pertaining to politics. Chapters in the first part of the book discuss the various characteristics of verbal behavior: the importance of verbal behavior in politics, construction of…

This study uses national survey data to compare newspapers and television for informativeness. Relationships are reported between media use and having reasons for liking or disliking candidates for the U.S. Senate, a variable used to measure level of information. Results demonstrate an informing role for newspapers but not for television. Analysis…

This paper examines the political behavior of local school boards in terms of two models of political governance. The first model discussed is the "sacred vs. secular" model that distinguishes between "sacred" governing bodies that reach consensus in private and generally support the sociocultural status quo and…

This paper discusses ideologues, both of the far Left and the far Right, and their influences on the American political structure and our "traditional pluralistic politics," which is defined as the concept traditionally held in this country that politics function within a clash of interests, sectional and group, and that political…

Over the last 20 years, a successful election campaign has come to depend in large part on successful use of the broadcast media. As a result, media experts are part of most politicians' teams, and their strategies help determine the results of the election. Usually, themes or "images" are more important than issues. The techniques of mass…

The author examines the consequences of women's participation in politics. Sex differences in participation and social attitudes are compared, and the political impact of the views of women Democrats and Republicans are discussed. (Author/RM)

Looks at a group of politically knowledgeable college students and assesses changes in perceptions to the messages of Ford and Carter during the course of the 1976 Presidential pre-election debates. Notes statistically significant differences between pre-debate, post-debate, and delayed post-debate ratings on sets of semantic differential-like…