Kenneth N Bickers
Biographic Data
| ID | 958833 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kenneth N Bickers |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kenneth N |
| FAMILY NAME | Bickers |
| SIGNATURE | BICKERS K N |
| AFFILIATIONS | Indiana University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 639 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1991 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Forecasting the 2012 Election With State-Level Economic Indicators: A Postmortem
Our State-Level Economic Model incorrectly forecast the outcome of the presidential election. The model's projections were based on the two-party vote in the prior election, the status of the incumbent party in the election/reelection cycle, national and state unemployment rates, and changes in real per capita personal income levels for state residents. Even before the Republican nomination process began, President Obama's success in the 2008 cam…
Forecasting the 2012 Presidential Election with State-Level Economic Indicators
Nearly all forecast models of US presidential elections provide estimates of the national two-party vote (Campbell 2008). Each of the nine forecasts published in the 2008 forecasting issue of PS: Political Science and Politics made national popular vote total predictions for the major party candidates, while only one provided an expected result in the Electoral College (Klarner 2008). These national vote models are assumed to be reliable forecast…
Exit, Voice, and Electoral Turnover
Much of the contemporary literature on metropolitan politics revolves around the mobility of local residents and the implications this has both for policies of local governments and for the racial composition of local populations. In this article, the authors hypothesize that resort to exit is a function of the extent to which local residents lack effective access to institutionalized forms of voice, in particular availability of opportunities fo…
Assessing the Micro-Foundations of the Tiebout Model
In this article, we seek to shed light on the micro-foundations of the Tiebout model. We use a survey of respondents in four of the largest United States metropolitan areas to analyze factors that contribute to households' exiting behavior. In this analysis, we explore the types of reasons likely movers offer to explain a potential move. The analysis incorporates variables measuring Tiebout factors and variables drawn from two important alternati…
Tiebout Sorting in Metropolitan Areas
In this article, we tackle the issue of sorting at the metropolitan area by utilizing an alternative methodological approach that permits us to avoid problems plaguing earlier studies. For this analysis, we take two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as our test cases: the Houston MSA and the Atlanta MSA. For each metropolitan area, we employ Monte Carlo computer simulations to randomly create a large number of metropolitan "jurisdictional" gr…
Interlocal Cooperation and the Distribution of Federal Grant Awards
Much of the research on the distribution of federal assistance focuses on the activities of members of Congress. Yet it has been long understood that seeking and receiving federal aid programs by state and local governments is a costly activity. What is not understood nor carefully studied is how local jurisdictions attempt to "work" the federal aid system to obtain increased federal funding. To investigate this question, we draw upon theories of…
The Congressional Pork Barrel in a Republican Era
In this article, we ask what the pattern of distributive spending has been during the 104th. Congress, in which Republicans have been in the majority, compared to the preceding Congress when Democrats were the majority party. We seek to understand the patterns of change in light of four alternative explanations of distributive spending. The changes in the content and recipients of federal domestic outlays between the 103rd and 104th. Congresses a…
The Microfoundations of the Tiebout Model
The authors extend the argument of the marginal consumer to show an important way in which the microlevel requirements of the Tiebout model can be met. They critique the existing literature on the microlevel requirements and argue that the way research has been conducted on the information about public goods possessed by citizens has been flawed in its theoretical presumptions. An alternative view is articulated in which citizens are viewed not t…
Building majority coalitions for sub-majority benefit distributions
The Electoral Dynamics of the Federal Pork Barrel
Theory: This paper articulates a model of distributive policy activity that links decreases in the flow of distributive policy benefits to House districts to an increased likelihood that quality challengers will oppose incumbents in primary and/ or general elections. Hypotheses: Do electorally vulnerable legislators seek to increase the flow of new awards early in the subsequent electoral cycle in order to help overcome their vulnerability? Do he…
Perpetuating the Pork Barrel: Policy Subsystems and American Democracy
This book details the policy subsystems - links among members of Congress, interest groups, program beneficiaries, federal and subnational government agencies - that blanket the American political landscape. Robert Stein and Kenneth Bickers have constructed a database detailing federal outlays to Congressional districts for each federal program, and use it to examine four myths about the impact of policy subsystems on American government and demo…
Universalism and the Electoral Connection: A Test and Some Doubts
Response to Barry Weingast's Reflections
A Portfolio Theory of Policy Subsystems
During the Reagan period4 the resilience and adaptability of domestic policy subsystems were subjected to the most severe test in recent history. Our explanation for the resilience and durability of these subsystems is based on the argument that the key actors in the subsystem adopt strategies that are mutually supportive of each other's needs and provide protection for the entire subsystem during periods of retrenchment. The thesis developed in …
Response to Barry Weingast's Reflections
Congressional Elections and the Pork Barrel
Universalism and the Electoral Connection: A Test and Some Doubts
A recurring theme in the academic literature on distributive policy is the tendency for legislators to form oversized coalitions to bestow benefits on virtually every district represented in the legislature. In this paper we offer two tests of the universalism hypothesis. First, we examine the distributional expectation of the universalism thesis under the assumption that separate logrolls occur over the distribution of benefits for individual pr…
Domestic Discontent and the External Use of Force
Although the diversionary theory of international conflict is intuitively plausible and is supported by much anecdotal evidence, quantitative tests generally have failed to establish a systemic link between domestic political troubles and foreign policy adventurism. In this article we revise the diversionary theory. We argue that a state leader will treat an erosion of domestic support more seriously when it comes from within segments of society …
The Programmatic Expansion of the U.S. Government
R esearch on the correlates and causes of government growth has constituted something of a cottage industry in recent years (cf. reviews by Lybeck 1988; Larkey, Stolp, and Winer 1981; Borcherding 1977; and Tarschys 1975). Research has focused on the empirical utility of factors that have been proposed as potential sources of government growth (e.g., Berry and Lowery 1987; Cameron 1978). Research also has focused on methodological debates about ho…
The Programmatic Expansion of the U. S. Government
Domestic Discontent and the External Use of Force
Although the diversionary theory of international conflict is intuitively plausible and is supported by much anecdotal evidence, quantitative tests generally have failed to establish a systemic link between domestic political troubles and foreign policy adventurism. In this article we revise the diversionary theory. We argue that a state leader will treat an erosion of domestic support more seriously when it comes from within segments of society …
Congressional Elections and the Pork Barrel
The Electoral Dynamics of the Federal Pork Barrel
Theory: This paper articulates a model of distributive policy activity that links decreases in the flow of distributive policy benefits to House districts to an increased likelihood that quality challengers will oppose incumbents in primary and/ or general elections. Hypotheses: Do electorally vulnerable legislators seek to increase the flow of new awards early in the subsequent electoral cycle in order to help overcome their vulnerability? Do he…
The Congressional Pork Barrel in a Republican Era
In this article, we ask what the pattern of distributive spending has been during the 104th. Congress, in which Republicans have been in the majority, compared to the preceding Congress when Democrats were the majority party. We seek to understand the patterns of change in light of four alternative explanations of distributive spending. The changes in the content and recipients of federal domestic outlays between the 103rd and 104th. Congresses a…
Interlocal Cooperation and the Distribution of Federal Grant Awards
Much of the research on the distribution of federal assistance focuses on the activities of members of Congress. Yet it has been long understood that seeking and receiving federal aid programs by state and local governments is a costly activity. What is not understood nor carefully studied is how local jurisdictions attempt to "work" the federal aid system to obtain increased federal funding. To investigate this question, we draw upon theories of…
Universalism and the Electoral Connection: A Test and Some Doubts
A recurring theme in the academic literature on distributive policy is the tendency for legislators to form oversized coalitions to bestow benefits on virtually every district represented in the legislature. In this paper we offer two tests of the universalism hypothesis. First, we examine the distributional expectation of the universalism thesis under the assumption that separate logrolls occur over the distribution of benefits for individual pr…
Assessing the Micro-Foundations of the Tiebout Model
In this article, we seek to shed light on the micro-foundations of the Tiebout model. We use a survey of respondents in four of the largest United States metropolitan areas to analyze factors that contribute to households' exiting behavior. In this analysis, we explore the types of reasons likely movers offer to explain a potential move. The analysis incorporates variables measuring Tiebout factors and variables drawn from two important alternati…
The Microfoundations of the Tiebout Model
The authors extend the argument of the marginal consumer to show an important way in which the microlevel requirements of the Tiebout model can be met. They critique the existing literature on the microlevel requirements and argue that the way research has been conducted on the information about public goods possessed by citizens has been flawed in its theoretical presumptions. An alternative view is articulated in which citizens are viewed not t…
Exit, Voice, and Electoral Turnover
Much of the contemporary literature on metropolitan politics revolves around the mobility of local residents and the implications this has both for policies of local governments and for the racial composition of local populations. In this article, the authors hypothesize that resort to exit is a function of the extent to which local residents lack effective access to institutionalized forms of voice, in particular availability of opportunities fo…
Building majority coalitions for sub-majority benefit distributions
Response to Barry Weingast's Reflections
The Programmatic Expansion of the U. S. Government
Tiebout Sorting in Metropolitan Areas
In this article, we tackle the issue of sorting at the metropolitan area by utilizing an alternative methodological approach that permits us to avoid problems plaguing earlier studies. For this analysis, we take two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as our test cases: the Houston MSA and the Atlanta MSA. For each metropolitan area, we employ Monte Carlo computer simulations to randomly create a large number of metropolitan "jurisdictional" gr…
Forecasting the 2012 Presidential Election with State-Level Economic Indicators
Nearly all forecast models of US presidential elections provide estimates of the national two-party vote (Campbell 2008). Each of the nine forecasts published in the 2008 forecasting issue of PS: Political Science and Politics made national popular vote total predictions for the major party candidates, while only one provided an expected result in the Electoral College (Klarner 2008). These national vote models are assumed to be reliable forecast…
A Portfolio Theory of Policy Subsystems
During the Reagan period4 the resilience and adaptability of domestic policy subsystems were subjected to the most severe test in recent history. Our explanation for the resilience and durability of these subsystems is based on the argument that the key actors in the subsystem adopt strategies that are mutually supportive of each other's needs and provide protection for the entire subsystem during periods of retrenchment. The thesis developed in …
The Programmatic Expansion of the U.S. Government
R esearch on the correlates and causes of government growth has constituted something of a cottage industry in recent years (cf. reviews by Lybeck 1988; Larkey, Stolp, and Winer 1981; Borcherding 1977; and Tarschys 1975). Research has focused on the empirical utility of factors that have been proposed as potential sources of government growth (e.g., Berry and Lowery 1987; Cameron 1978). Research also has focused on methodological debates about ho…
The Programmatic Expansion of the U.S. Government
R esearch on the correlates and causes of government growth has constituted something of a cottage industry in recent years (cf. reviews by Lybeck 1988; Larkey, Stolp, and Winer 1981; Borcherding 1977; and Tarschys 1975). Research has focused on the empirical utility of factors that have been proposed as potential sources of government growth (e.g., Berry and Lowery 1987; Cameron 1978). Research also has focused on methodological debates about ho…
The Programmatic Expansion of the U. S. Government
Domestic Discontent and the External Use of Force
Although the diversionary theory of international conflict is intuitively plausible and is supported by much anecdotal evidence, quantitative tests generally have failed to establish a systemic link between domestic political troubles and foreign policy adventurism. In this article we revise the diversionary theory. We argue that a state leader will treat an erosion of domestic support more seriously when it comes from within segments of society …
Universalism and the Electoral Connection: A Test and Some Doubts
Response to Barry Weingast's Reflections
A Portfolio Theory of Policy Subsystems
During the Reagan period4 the resilience and adaptability of domestic policy subsystems were subjected to the most severe test in recent history. Our explanation for the resilience and durability of these subsystems is based on the argument that the key actors in the subsystem adopt strategies that are mutually supportive of each other's needs and provide protection for the entire subsystem during periods of retrenchment. The thesis developed in …
Response to Barry Weingast's Reflections
Congressional Elections and the Pork Barrel
Universalism and the Electoral Connection: A Test and Some Doubts
A recurring theme in the academic literature on distributive policy is the tendency for legislators to form oversized coalitions to bestow benefits on virtually every district represented in the legislature. In this paper we offer two tests of the universalism hypothesis. First, we examine the distributional expectation of the universalism thesis under the assumption that separate logrolls occur over the distribution of benefits for individual pr…
Perpetuating the Pork Barrel: Policy Subsystems and American Democracy
This book details the policy subsystems - links among members of Congress, interest groups, program beneficiaries, federal and subnational government agencies - that blanket the American political landscape. Robert Stein and Kenneth Bickers have constructed a database detailing federal outlays to Congressional districts for each federal program, and use it to examine four myths about the impact of policy subsystems on American government and demo…
The Electoral Dynamics of the Federal Pork Barrel
Theory: This paper articulates a model of distributive policy activity that links decreases in the flow of distributive policy benefits to House districts to an increased likelihood that quality challengers will oppose incumbents in primary and/ or general elections. Hypotheses: Do electorally vulnerable legislators seek to increase the flow of new awards early in the subsequent electoral cycle in order to help overcome their vulnerability? Do he…
Building majority coalitions for sub-majority benefit distributions
The Microfoundations of the Tiebout Model
The authors extend the argument of the marginal consumer to show an important way in which the microlevel requirements of the Tiebout model can be met. They critique the existing literature on the microlevel requirements and argue that the way research has been conducted on the information about public goods possessed by citizens has been flawed in its theoretical presumptions. An alternative view is articulated in which citizens are viewed not t…
The Congressional Pork Barrel in a Republican Era
In this article, we ask what the pattern of distributive spending has been during the 104th. Congress, in which Republicans have been in the majority, compared to the preceding Congress when Democrats were the majority party. We seek to understand the patterns of change in light of four alternative explanations of distributive spending. The changes in the content and recipients of federal domestic outlays between the 103rd and 104th. Congresses a…
Interlocal Cooperation and the Distribution of Federal Grant Awards
Much of the research on the distribution of federal assistance focuses on the activities of members of Congress. Yet it has been long understood that seeking and receiving federal aid programs by state and local governments is a costly activity. What is not understood nor carefully studied is how local jurisdictions attempt to "work" the federal aid system to obtain increased federal funding. To investigate this question, we draw upon theories of…
Assessing the Micro-Foundations of the Tiebout Model
In this article, we seek to shed light on the micro-foundations of the Tiebout model. We use a survey of respondents in four of the largest United States metropolitan areas to analyze factors that contribute to households' exiting behavior. In this analysis, we explore the types of reasons likely movers offer to explain a potential move. The analysis incorporates variables measuring Tiebout factors and variables drawn from two important alternati…
Tiebout Sorting in Metropolitan Areas
In this article, we tackle the issue of sorting at the metropolitan area by utilizing an alternative methodological approach that permits us to avoid problems plaguing earlier studies. For this analysis, we take two Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) as our test cases: the Houston MSA and the Atlanta MSA. For each metropolitan area, we employ Monte Carlo computer simulations to randomly create a large number of metropolitan "jurisdictional" gr…
Exit, Voice, and Electoral Turnover
Much of the contemporary literature on metropolitan politics revolves around the mobility of local residents and the implications this has both for policies of local governments and for the racial composition of local populations. In this article, the authors hypothesize that resort to exit is a function of the extent to which local residents lack effective access to institutionalized forms of voice, in particular availability of opportunities fo…
Forecasting the 2012 Presidential Election with State-Level Economic Indicators
Nearly all forecast models of US presidential elections provide estimates of the national two-party vote (Campbell 2008). Each of the nine forecasts published in the 2008 forecasting issue of PS: Political Science and Politics made national popular vote total predictions for the major party candidates, while only one provided an expected result in the Electoral College (Klarner 2008). These national vote models are assumed to be reliable forecast…
Forecasting the 2012 Election With State-Level Economic Indicators: A Postmortem
Our State-Level Economic Model incorrectly forecast the outcome of the presidential election. The model's projections were based on the two-party vote in the prior election, the status of the incumbent party in the election/reelection cycle, national and state unemployment rates, and changes in real per capita personal income levels for state residents. Even before the Republican nomination process began, President Obama's success in the 2008 cam…
Political science (18 works) · Economics (17 works) · Law (14 works) · Politics (14 works) · Law (11 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (10 works) · Public Administration (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Fiscal Policies and Political Economy (5 works)