Department of Political Science

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Browsing Department of Political Science by Author "Baldwin, J. Norman"

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    Does the media send mixed messages?: a case for competitive framing
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2011) Mitchell, Sean Patrick McLean; Cotter, Patrick R.; Cassel, Carol A.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Based upon the work of John Zaller, the way people receive information can at least temporarily affect their opinions. Considering that most people get at least some of their information from broadcast/print news outlets, the way in which those organizations present, or frame, the information is incredibly important. The news media can activate predispositions by how they provide and/or do not provide information. This in turn can affect how the public feels about a news topic. This dissertation builds upon the work of Zaller, Druckman, Kahn and Kenney, and other leading researchers to show that different media sources use different framing techniques in their coverage of news events. Whereas previous studies into competitive framing have concentrated primarily upon political campaigns, this dissertation analyzes how the media uses various framing techniques in covering an issue. The analysis concentrates on the broadcast/print news media coverage of President Bush's "60 Stops in 60 Days" tour to promote his Social Security initiative during the spring of 2005. The analysis of competitive framing within the "Length", "Placement", "Frame Strength", and "Tone" variables is included. In a more traditional study, Length and Placement might be thought of as "agenda setting" rather than as framing variables; however, the fact that this study is on a major Presidential initiative means that the news media is expected to cover the issue. How much they cover it and where they place the coverage is a result of their own gate-keepers' perceptions of the importance level, or weight, relative to other stories. The interest here is with the actual content of media coverage. Specifically, this study examines whether or not there is variation in the way a political topic is framed within various news outlets. That is, in framing political issues, do various news outlets engage in "competitive framing."
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    Immigration policy in the American states: an event history analysis of state adoption and diffusion of the cooperative immigration enforcement 287g program
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Bozovic, Laura Beth; Borrelli, Stephen; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    The focus of this dissertation is to determine why states have chosen to cooperate with the federal government to enforce immigration laws. In order to identify why certain states are aligning with the federal government, an event history model is utilized to test state level factors leading to adoption of the 287g cooperative immigration enforcement program. The study concludes that the costs associated with sudden population growth increases the likelihood of state level immigration enforcement efforts, while, local level adoptions of the 287g program reduces the likelihood of statewide adoption.
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    The impact of public service motivation on the turnover intentions of federal employees
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2012) Morrison, Jennifer Caroline; Baldwin, J. Norman; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    This dissertation addresses the impact of public service motivation on the turnover intentions of federal employees. A survey measuring four types of public service motivation--attraction to policy-making, compassion, public interest, and self sacrifice--along with several traditional predictors of employee turnover was distributed to a random sample of 1,600 federal employees. The findings demonstrate significant relationships between turnover intentions and the traditional predictors of turnover but fail to demonstrate significant direct relationships between the measures of public service motivation and turnover intentions. However, the measures of public service motivation appear to indirectly affect turnover intentions through their relationship with organization commitment. The dissertation suggests that a larger and more diverse sample of federal employees might yield different findings, as would a study that investigates the turnover intentions of state and local government workers who have more direct contact with the general public and the clientele of their public agencies. The dissertation further suggests that future research might investigate the impact on turnover intentions of the interaction between public service motivation and the degree to which employees' jobs allow them to fulfill their public service motivation. Retention of employees will save government agencies money, resources, and knowledge talent. However, given its methodological limitations, this dissertation reveals that four popular forms of public service motivation do not predict federal employees' intentions to turnover. Instead, organization commitment, job satisfaction, and person-organization fit--three traditional predictors of employee turnover--are better predictors of federal employee turnover intentions.
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    Neither sword nor purse: the development of Supreme Court influence over lower courts
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2015) Todd, James; Smith, Joseph L.; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Lower court compliance with the superior courts is now a norm in the judicial system of the United States. This dissertation will examine the development of the Supreme Court's ability to influence the decisions by lower courts. My general theory is that lower court compliance with the Supreme Court became more of a certainty as the federal judicial system developed statutorily, particularly after 1875. I will test the impact that three judicial reforms had (and continue to have) on Supreme Court power over lower courts: the Jurisdiction and Removal Act of 1875, the Judiciary Act of 1891, and the Judges Act of 1925. These reforms, I will argue, added characteristics to the judicial system that help predict compliance, all of which are still present in the system and can be shown to have an effect on compliance in contemporary times. These characteristics include the availability of federal forums for the implementation of constitutional policies, the authoritative communication of Court policies by intermediate courts to trial level courts, and the ability of the Court to select cases that allow it the opportunity to announce clear policy. To test my theory, I will use a variety of historically important Supreme Court policies and employ a coding scheme for lower court cases to test whether a case presents an instance of compliance or non-compliance with the specific Supreme Court policy.
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    The political elements of selection
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2016) Cheney, Joseph; Borrelli, Stephen; Baldwin, J. Norman; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Despite cross-field implications, the strategic and political aspects of selection and appointment have received limited scholarly attention. Prior research has primarily focused on one system of selection or appointment. This dissertation contributes to our understanding of the strategic and political elements of selection and appointment by investigating the influences, considerations, and strategies under different systems, with different constraints, and from different perspectives. The first part of this dissertation investigates the determinants of appointments to different bureaucratic job types in a legally unconstrained system by evaluating Papal appointments to the Roman Curia. The second part of this dissertation investigates how strategic behavior changes when a veto player is introduced to the selection and appointment process by evaluating how the political dynamics between the president and the United States Senate affect confirmation duration to agencies of different ideological backgrounds. The third part of this dissertation evaluates how procedural rules affect selection from within a body of colleagues by conducting a case study of the 2005 Papal Conclave, the first conclave under a rule that would have limited the “infinite game” until a two-thirds majority was achieved to elect a pope.
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    Three articles on the politics of the Medal of Honor
    (University of Alabama Libraries, 2014) Walsh, Joseph Thomas; Borrelli, Stephen; University of Alabama Tuscaloosa
    Despite its prominence and overlap with so many fields of political science, the Medal of Honor has received little scholarly attention. This dissertation contributes to our understanding with three articles that view the Medal of Honor as a political tool. The first explains that, because the president uses the Medal of Honor as a tool and the tool's effectiveness varies with its value, he has worked to reduce the number of unworthy recipients by creating several layers of independent review. Multiple layers help prevent one person's preferences from dominating, and each additional layer makes it more difficult for unworthy nominees to get through. The rules of the game allow for appeals to reverse incorrect decisions. These rules influenced two recent cases. In the first, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates avoided an Inspector General investigation into Sergeant Rafael Peralta's nomination, which would have lowered the value of the award, by retracting his endorsement. In the second, General Davis Petraeus recommended downgrading Captain William Swenson's nomination to a Distinguished Service Cross; but his administrative clerks lost the paperwork, which allowed the process to restart, and the nomination received an endorsement from Petraeus's replacement. The second article considers the Medal of Honor as a motivational tool. Although most theoretical economics studies suggest that awards increase employee productivity, the little research that exists on the topic has shown that awards actually decrease overall effort (Gubler, Larkin and Pierce, 2013). In addition, those theoretical studies assume that individuals succeed or fail on their own and that employees do not affect cost functions for one another. Chapter 3 explores a game that accounts for these deficiencies in a military context, where success is determined at the group level and soldiers can make action more or less costly for other soldiers (for example, by digging trenches). The model suggests that wages and awards decrease a soldier's effort but increase other soldiers' effort. These results are more consistent with the empirical findings than most theoretical economic studies. The final article considers the Medal of Honor as a public-opinion tool. Several studies have suggested that the president has little to no influence over public opinion (e.g. Edwards, 2003), but human-interest stories presented through soft-news sources offer the possibility reaching low-awareness individuals, who can be influenced with new information, with positive information about the war through entertainment-focused media, such as late-night talk shows (Baum, 2002, 2003). This in turn may help the president protect his ability to pursue his domestic agenda (Thrall, 2000). I find that the president awards more Medals of Honor when his job approval is low, with a lag of about two months. I also find that the president is 23% more likely to hold a Medal of Honor ceremony between Monday and Thursday, when it will get more attention, than on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.