CFI announces a new disclosure portal now available on their website. The portal’s direct address is http://www.cfinst.org/disc_links/index.html The portal contains deep links -- not just home pages -- for:
The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress. The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress and its leaders. Since 1978, the Congressional Research Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out over $500,000 to support more than 300 projects. Applications are accepted at any time, but the deadline is February 1 for the annual selections, which are announced in March. A total of $50,000 will be available in 2003. The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress. Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible. The Center encourages graduate studentsto apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research. The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study. Organizations are not eligible. Research teams of two or more individuals are eligible. No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a Congressional Research Award. For a list of grant recipients for year 2002, detailed information regarding the grants program, and instructions regarding the application process, visit the Dirksen Center's website at http://www.dirksencenter.org/grantcongresearchaward.htm
Representative Democracy in America ~ Voices of the People The National Conference of State Legislatures, the Center for Civic Education, and The Center on Congress at Indiana University have formed an alliance to launch a new national project, Representative Democracy in America Voices of the People. The project is designed to reinvigorate and educate Americans on the critical relationship between government and the people it serves. The project introduces citizens, particularly young people, to the representatives, institutions, and processes that serve to realize the goal of a government of, by, and for the people. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Education by act of Congress. The goals of the project are to:
Working
over a five-year period the alliance expects to produce:
For further
information contact Karl Kurtz (karl.kurtz@ncsl.org)
at NCSL.
Report and Recommendations on Initiative and ReferendumOver the last
six months a task force of the National Conference of State Legislatures
has reviewed the growing use of initiatives and referendums around the
country and examined their effect on representative democracy at the state
level.
The Initiative
and Referendum Task Force found that opportunities for abuse of the process
outweigh its advantages and does not recommend that states adopt the initiative
process if they currently do not have one.
The task force
also developed recommendations that would enable initiative states to make
their processes more representative. For states that are intent upon adopting
an initiative process, the task force offers a set of guidelines to enhance
the process and to avoid many of the pitfalls currently experienced by
the initiative states. The task force urges such states to consider giving
preference to a process that encourages citizen participation without enacting
specific constitutional or statutory language–specifically, the advisory
initiative or the general policy initiative.
The 34 recommendations contained in this report acknowledge that the initiative process has outgrown the existing laws that govern it. After listening to expert testimony from a wide variety of witnesses and compiling data from all 50 states, the task force concluded that the initiative has evolved from its early days as a grassroots tool to enhance representative democracy into a tool that too often is exploited by special interests. The initiative lacks critical elements of the legislative process and can have both intended and unintended effects on the ability of the representative democratic process to comprehensively develop policies and priorities. As a result, the task force suggests that initiative states reform drafting, certification, signature-gathering and financial disclosure statutes; adhere to single subject rules; and improve practices regarding voter education. It also recommends that initiatives be allowed only on general election ballots. It is the task force’s intent that the discussion and adoption of the reforms in this report lead to a more thoughtful lawmaking process, improve interaction between initiative proponents and legislatures, and ultimately produce better public policy and reinforce representative democracy. The full report is available online at www.ncsl.org/programs/legman/irtaskfc/IandR_report.pdf
A former political reporter with Congressional Quarterly, Rhodes Cook recently founded a bimonthly political newsletter. He is offering an academic discount to members of LSS. Click here to view the March and May issues of the newsletter and to print the subscription form.
Third Annual Conference on State Politics and Policy
Co-Sponsored by the Department
of Political Science, University of Arizona,
The Conference On March 14-15, 2003, the Department of Political Science at the University of Arizona and State Politics and Policy Quarterly will co-sponsor the 3rd Annual Conference on State Politics and Policy. The conference, to be held at the Westward Look Resort near the University of Arizona in Tucson, welcomes participation by all social scientists interested in studying American state institutions or sub-national politics. Members of the organized section on State Politics and Policy of the American Political Science Association are especially welcome. A stipend will be awarded to paper-givers to cover a portion of their expenses for the conference. Call for Papers The focus of this conference will be on the causes and consequences of American state institutions. Thus, any research question relating to the impact of institutional rules or norms on political behavior or public policy would be appropriate for a paper proposal. Research inquiries on adoption or creation of institutional rules governing state politics also would be appropriate. Topics on inter-branch and intra-branch relations also would be welcome. Political scientists studying American state institutions can best address such questions as: Do institutional rules shape access to governmental branches by the public, organized groups, or other government actors? Does access to governmental branches translate into influence? How are political actors influenced by and able to shape institutional rules and structures? How do institutional structures and powers shape intergovernmental relations between branches of government? The answers to these questions can advance our understanding of American state institutions and the important roles played by sub-national units of government. Moreover, such inquiries can make important theoretical contributions to the field of political science. Comparative studies of American state institutions offer tremendous opportunity to develop and test more general theories about government and political phenomenon. Proposals Proposals should address the questions posed above or other essential issues concerning American state institutions. However, proposals that deal with sub-national units of government in other countries also would be given serious consideration. The sponsors would be especially interested in proposals that have a comparative and longitudinal perspective. Strong theoretical foundations and rigorous hypothesis testing will be the most important ingredients for successful proposals. Interested participants should submit a one-page proposal that identifies the research question (or questions) to be addressed in the paper. Proposals also should summarize the theoretical foundation from which the questions are derived, outline the significance of these questions, and discuss the methodology to be employed. All proposals must be received by OCTOBER 18, 2003 Send proposals and inquires to: Laura Langer
Electronic submissions must be saved in PDF format or as a Microsoft Word document. The subject heading for electronic submissions should be as follows: Third State Politics Conference Proposal and the last name of the author submitting the proposal (e.g., Third State Politics Conference Proposal Langer). For proposals with more than one author, please list only the last name of the first author. For careful consideration of proposals, please include the following information for each author: full name, rank, institutional affiliation, address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail address.
The Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center at the University of Oklahoma seeks applicants for its Visiting Scholars Program, which provides financial assistance to researchers working at the Center's archives. Awards of $500 - $1000 are normally granted as reimbursement for travel and lodging. The Center's holdings include the papers of many former members of Congress, such as Robert S. Kerr, Fred Harris, and Speaker Carl Albert of Oklahoma; Helen Gahagan Douglas and Jeffery Cohelan of California; and Neil Gallagher of New Jersey. Besides the history of Congress, congressional leadership, national and Oklahoma politics, and election campaigns, the collections also document government policy affecting agriculture, Native Americans, energy, foreign affairs, the environment, the economy, and other areas. Topics that can be studied include the Great Depression, flood control, soil conservation, and tribal affairs. At least one collection provides insight on women in American politics. Most materials date from the 1920s to the 1970s, although there is one nineteenth century collection. The Center's archives are described on their website at http://www.ou.edu/special/albertctr/archives/ and in the publication titled A Guide to the Carl Albert Center Congressional Archives by Judy Day et.al. (Norman, Okla.: The Carl Albert Center, 1995), available at many U.S. academic libraries. Additional information can be obtained from the Center. The Visiting Scholars Program is open to any applicant. Emphasis is given to those pursuing postdoctoral research in history, political science, and other fields. Graduate students involved in research for publication, thesis, or dissertation are encouraged to apply. Interested undergraduates and lay researchers are also invited to apply. The Center evaluates each research proposal based upon its merits, and funding for a variety of topics is expected. No standardized form is needed for
application. Instead, a series of documents should be sent to the Center,
including:
For more information, please contact
Archivist, Carl Albert Center, 630 Parrington Oval, Room 101, University
of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019.
Washington
University Summer Institute
A Program for Advanced Graduate Students
and Junior Faculty on the Methodological Challenges Posed by Theoretical
Models
Washington University in St. Louis will hold its first summer institute on the Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) in June 2003. The institute focuses on the methodological challenges posed by theoretical models. The institute is designed for advanced graduate students and junior faculty. Summer institutes will be held in June of 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. Participants will join four one-week seminars--a basic seminar and three advanced seminars. The Summer Institute program includes:
Application materials will be available online in the near future. The application deadline for the June 2003 summer institute will be in January 2003. More information about the Washington
University EITM Summer Institutes will be available at http://wc.wustl.edu/eitm.htm.
To be added to the email list for notices about the program, email eitm@wc.wustl.edu.
The summer institutes are sponsored by Washington University's Weidenbaum
Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy and the Department
of Political Science; they are funded by the National Science Foundation.
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