This paper utilizes a non-European political system, but one with deep European roots, to highlight a specific example of one constitutionally-based rule that gives the country’sparliament effective political and executive control over the entire federal system. This rule, known as...

Increases in legislative professionalization along with the implementation of term limits in about one-third of the American states raise significant questions about the path of state house and senate turnover. We first update turnover figures for all states, by chamber, from the mid-1980s...

Nowhere in the U.S. is federalism more evident than in the administration of elections, as the Constitution and historical practice leave this largely in the hands of the states (and even counties within states). Consequently, voters across jurisdictions are likely to have different experiences...

This paper is an update (through 2008) and expansion (to a medium-size city newspaper and to other than the front page) of Sigelman and Bullock's look at campaign coverage in the newspaper, radio, tv, and now online eras (APQ, 1991). The focus is on relative amounts of attention given to...

The 2000 presidential election brought intense scrutiny to the American election process, resulting in a number of significant reforms. Some changes involved overhauling rules for audits and other administrative procedures. Others involved the ways in which voters record their votes. The latter...