Campaign Finance in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada

Social and Behavioral Sciences: 3rd Place (The Ohio State University Denman Undergraduate Research Forum)To survive, parties and politicians need a variety of resources to carry out their various functions of administration, voter persuasion, and getting out the vote. A key resource is money. Due to its ability to be transformed into other resources and its growing importance, political finance—specifically campaign finance—has generated a spirited debate within and among democracies. The existent body of literature on campaign finance describes differences between systems, the influence money has on elections and/or governance, and its impact on corruption levels within countries. I propose to add to the existent body of literature on campaign finance by addressing a different question: how does a country’s political structure, both formal and informal, contribute to the formation of its campaign finance regime? This study will focus on campaign finance in a portion of the Anglo-Saxon sphere, specifically in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. All three democracies regulate campaign finance but have taken different approaches. I begin with a general comparison of the different campaign finance regimes of each country. Several possible explanations for the differences in the regimes are explored next, broadly divided into influences of the regulatory framework and influences of boundary setting. Influences of the regulatory framework include the type and number of offices being elected and the driving force behind a campaign. Influences of boundary setting are the length of the election season, the size of the electoral district, and the ratio of public and private funds being used. Finally, I examine the implications that these current regimes have on systemic corruption and changes in the democratic deficit within each of the countries. This project suggests that the campaign finance regime operating within a country is a function of the limits in place, primarily determined by that country’s political structure.Academic Major: Political Scienc

Examination of time series through randomly broken windows

In order to determine the Fourier transform of a quasi-periodic time series (linear problem), or the power spectrum of a stationary random time series (quadratic problem), data should be recorded without interruption over a long time interval. The effect of regular interruption such as the day/night cycle is well known. The effect of irregular interruption of data collection (the "breaking" of the window function) with the simplifying assumption that there is a uniform probability p that each interval of length tau, of the total interval of length T = N sub tau, yields no data, is investigated. For the linear case it is found that the noise-to-signal ratio will have a (one-sigma) value less than epsilon if N exceeds p(-1)(1-p)epsilon(-2). For the quadratic case, the same requirement is met by the less restrictive requirement that N exceed p(-1)(1-p)epsilon(-1)

Statistical equilibrium equations for trace elements in stellar atmospheres

The conditions of thermodynamic equilibrium, local thermodynamic equilibrium, and statistical equilibrium are discussed in detail. The equations of statistical equilibrium and the supplementary equations are shown together with the expressions for radiative and collisional rates with the emphasize on the solution for trace elements.Comment: presented at the workshop held in Nice, France, 30.7.-4.8.2007, to appear in Non-LTE Line Formation for Trace Elements in Stellar Atmospheres, R. Monier et al. eds., EAS Publ.Se

Shifting Frames, Shifting Policy: How Frame Sets Influence Policy Making in Congress

In this dissertation, I pose and answer three questions about the presence and role of policy discussion in Congress: (1) why are some issues discussed more in the House and Senate than others; (2) do the parties differ in how they discuss issues; and (3) why does that discussion influence bill outcomes? First, I posit and show that parties are reactive to each other and pursuit of electoral goals influence how much a general policy area is discussed. Additionally, I show that, while the relationships appear to be the same across the two chambers of Congress, they are conditioned by majority party status. Second, I posit and show that pursuit of the party’s electoral goal not only informs how much different issues are discussed, but also informs how they are discussed. I show that the parties differ in which frames they use to discuss policy. In doing so, I present a new measure of frames in Congress that using a set list of broad frames that facilitates comparisons across policy areas. Finally, building from the first and second questions, I question whether the policy discussion that occurs influences bill outcomes. I propose that the construction of policy discussion through the selection of frames shapes the considerations of those evaluating proposed legislation, which ultimately influences action (i.e. voting) in Congress. In doing this, I shift the focus from the use of individual frames and their characteristics to the concept of the frame set, a holistic look at how the issue is framed. Following from this, I posit and show that as the frame set changes more, policy change (i.e. bill passage) is more likely. To test these claims, I rely on large-N empirical analysis. I code the speeches in the Congressional Record for the Comparative Agendas Project general policy areas using supervised machine learning. Then, using unsupervised machine learning, I code the paragraphs within the speeches on policy for how it discusses that policy area, the frame used.Doctor of Philosoph

Debating Debate: Measuring Discursive Overlap on the Congressional Floor

The study of how elites communicate to each other is an understudied topic largely because we lack a viable, large-scale, measure of discursive overlap. Discursive overlap is the extent to which parties and partisans talk to and past each other. In this paper, I introduce a repurposed measure - cosine similarity scores - and a method of measurement that concisely quantifies discursive overlap. I compare this measure to two others - overlap coefficients and Wordfish scores Slapin and Proksch (2008). To compare the scores, I first examine the distribution of the scores and then compare how well each does in a series of tests, including how well each reflects reality and how well each responds to different aspects of communication that increase or decrease discursive overlap. Throughout the paper, I use the 2008 Farm Bill as an ongoing case. I conclude that cosine similarity scores do indeed capture discursive overlap and show that it is the best measure among the three considered.Master of Art

Campaign Finance in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada

To survive, parties and politicians need a variety of resources to carry out their various functions of administration, voter persuasion, and getting out the vote. A key resource is money. Due to its ability to be transformed into other resources and its growing importance, political finance—specifically campaign finance—has generated a spirited debate within and among democracies. The existent body of literature on campaign finance describes differences between systems, the influence money has on elections and/or governance, and its impact on corruption levels within countries. I propose to add to the existent body of literature on campaign finance by addressing a different question: how does a country’s political structure, both formal and informal, contribute to the formation of its campaign finance regime? This study will focus on campaign finance in a portion of the Anglo-Saxon sphere, specifically in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. All three democracies regulate campaign finance but have taken different approaches. I begin with a general comparison of the different campaign finance regimes of each country. Several possible explanations for the differences in the regimes are explored next, broadly divided into influences of the regulatory framework and influences of boundary setting. Influences of the regulatory framework include the type and number of offices being elected and the driving force behind a campaign. Influences of boundary setting are the length of the election season, the size of the electoral district, and the ratio of public and private funds being used. Finally, I examine the implications that these current regimes have on systemic corruption and changes in the democratic deficit within each of the countries. This project suggests that the campaign finance regime operating within a country is a function of the limits in place, primarily determined by that country’s political structure.No embargoAcademic Major: Political Scienc

Enhancement of the helium resonance lines in the solar atmosphere by suprathermal electron excitation II: non-Maxwellian electron distributions

In solar EUV spectra the He I and He II resonance lines show unusual behaviour and have anomalously high intensities compared with other transition region lines. The formation of the helium resonance lines is investigated through extensive non-LTE radiative transfer calculations. The model atmospheres of Vernazza, Avrett & Loeser are found to provide reasonable matches to the helium resonance line intensities but significantly over-estimate the intensities of other transition region lines. New model atmospheres have been developed from emission measure distributions derived by Macpherson & Jordan, which are consistent with SOHO observations of transition region lines other than those of helium. These models fail to reproduce the observed helium resonance line intensities by significant factors. The possibility that non-Maxwellian electron distributions in the transition region might lead to increased collisional excitation rates in the helium lines is studied. Collisional excitation and ionization rates are re-computed for distribution functions with power law suprathermal tails which may form by the transport of fast electrons from high temperature regions. Enhancements of the helium resonance line intensities are found, but many of the predictions of the models regarding line ratios are inconsistent with observations. These results suggest that any such departures from Maxwellian electron distributions are not responsible for the helium resonance line intensities.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, accepted to appear in MNRAS, LaTeX uses mn.st

Better for everyone: Black descriptive representation and police traffic stops

Racial disparities in citizen interactions with police are ubiquitous concerns in American communities. What difference does electoral representation make? We demonstrate that black descriptive representation in local government affects police activity and scrutiny in a given community. We use a new dataset comprised of over 79 municipal police departments spanning 6 states, based on tens of millions of individual-level traffic stops. In cities and towns with majority-black city councils, traffic stops are less likely to result in a search. This decline in search rates affects both white and black drivers, though the decline is larger for black drivers. Even after controlling for socioeconomic factors, segregation, and crime rates, descriptive representation still matters. A city council composed of a majority of black members is associated with important differences in policing, affecting both white and black residents

Symptomatic rubella re-infection in early pregnancy and subsequent delivery of an infected but minimally involved infant A case report

A case of serologically proven symptomatic rubella re-infection in early pregnancy in a healthy multigravida who had been successfully vaccinated is reported to illustrate that the risk to the fetus is considerably less than with primary infection. The infant was infected, as evidenced by specific IgM in cord blood, but had no stigmata of congenital rubella at birth. Growth retardation was apparent at 6 months and hearing loss, not necessarily due to rubella, was detected at 8 months. Rubella re-infection, which may now be distinguished serologically. by the urea degradation test from primary rubella, need not necessarily be an indication for termination of pregnancy