I start with two rough models of political theory (or philosophy: the dis tinction is not important here) with respect to the relation of morality to political practice. One is an enactment model. The model is that political theory formulates principles, concepts, ideals, and values; and politics (so far as it does what the theory wants) seeks to express these in political action, through persu...

How does the demand for lobbying reflected by government policy activity influence the use of lobbying strategies and tactics? The authors examine this question by assessing how the complexity of the policy space affects the political action committee (PAC) system. They hypothesize that the complexity of the policy space indirectly affects the size and activity of the PAC system through its dir...

Research in political behavior has increasingly turned to the cognitions underlying attitudes. The simplest of these cognitions are political facts the bits of information about politics that citizens hold. While other key concepts in political science partisanship, trust, tolerance have widely used (if still controversial) measures that facilitate comparisons across time and among studies, the...

Solid substrate cultures of moulds behave in quite a difTerent way to conventional submerged cultures. Catabolic repression often observed in submerged fermentation can easily be overcome by using solid state fermentation. A. niger strains can be grown by SSF technique with the following advantages: enzyme titres and productivity are usually higher; there is a tendency to early enzyme excretion...

The effects of lactose, galactose, glucose, and glucose combined with galactose on the induction of β–galactosidase by IPTG in Escherichia coli strain VC10, growing in a glycerol media, were compared against a control of glycerol plus IPTG. After inducing β– galactosidase production with the IPTG, the cultures were altered with the addition of one of the above carbohydrates or combinations. Thi...

As work organizations become increasingly gender diverse, existing theoretical models have failed to explain why such diversity can have a negative impact on idea generation. Using evidence from two group experiments, this paper tests theory on the effects of imposing a political correctness (PC) norm, one that sets clear expectations for how men and women should interact, on reducing interacti...

This paper studies the political economy of fertility. Specifically, I argue that fertility may be a strategic choice for ethnic groups engaged in redistributive conflict. I first present a simple conflict model where high fertility is optimal for each ethnic group if and only if the economy’s ethnic diversity is high and/or institutions are weak. I then test the model in a cross-national datas...

Decision making often entails conflict. In many situations, the symptoms of such decisional conflict are conspicuous. This article explores an important and unexamined question: How does observing someone else experiencing decisional conflict impact our own preferences? The authors show that observing others’ emotional conflict and agony over an impending decision makes the observer’s preferenc...

alph's Pretty Good Grocery, for those like me who miss popular culture allusions, is a fictional shop in the imaginary Minnesota town of Lake Wobegon, a place invented by the humorist Garrison Keilor. Its slogan is 'If you can't get it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it'. For political scientist John Mueller, this slogan sums up capitalism and democracy. They may not supply every...