Caroline J. Tolbert

Innovating in Digital Government in the American States

The purpose of this research is to examine why some states have embraced digital government more extensively than others. Copyright (c) 2003 by the Southwestern Social Science Association.

THE EFFECTS OF BALLOT INITIATIVES ON VOTER TURNOUT IN THE AMERICAN STATES

With few exceptions, voter turnout continues to decline in the United States. Although normative theorists, journalists, and defenders of participatory democracy frequently suggest that citizen-initiated ballot measures can increase voter turnout, previous research has not supported this claim. Yet, in the past 25 years, usage of direct democracy has exploded in the United States. Using pooled time series data for the 50 states over a 26-year period (1970-1996), we find that the presence and usage of the initiative process is associated with higher voter turnout in both presidential and midterm elections. The disparity in turnout rates between initiative and noninitiative states has been increasing over time, estimated at 7% to 9% higher in midterm and 3% to 4.5% higher in presidential elections in the 1990s. Our analysis suggests that the initiative process can and does play a positive role in increasing electoral participation.

Race, Place, and Information Technology

Technology inequalities based on race and ethnicity present a paradox. African-Americans and Latinos have lower rates of access and skill, even controlling for socioeconomic factors. Yet African-Americans, and to a lesser extent, Latinos, also have more positive attitudes toward information technology than similarly situated whites. Because attitudes cannot explain lower rates of access and skill, we hypothesize that racial segregation and concentrated poverty have restricted opportunities to learn about and use technology. Using hierarchical linear modeling and multilevel data to control for both community-level socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and individual-level factors, we find that disparities among African-Americans are due to place effects rather than race. Ethnicity still exercises an independent influence for Latinos. These findings contribute to our understanding of the “digital divide,” and to research on the effects of concentrated poverty.

Minority Voices and Citizen Attitudes About Government Responsiveness in the American States: Do Social and Institutional Context Matter?

Previous research has shown that institutional factors, particularly ‘direct democracy’, along with racial context, shape policy outcomes in the fifty American states. But less is understood about the impact of such factors on attitudes towards government of racial and ethnic minorities. The passage of ballot initiatives targeting minority interests might be expected to have a negative effect on these groups. This study considers the impact of institutional and social context on attitudes about government responsiveness (external efficacy), drawing on pooled NES survey data from 1988–98 merged with state level data. Consistent with previous research, which was based on a single year, there is strong evidence that citizens in states with frequent exposure to direct democracy are more likely to perceive that government is responsive to their needs. At the same time, direct democracy did not have the hypothesized detrimental impact on racial and ethnic group attitudes towards government in general. State racial context also did not have a measurable impact on individual-level attitudes. Regardless of state environmental contexts, however, racial and ethnic minorities (with the exception of Latinos) reported less confidence in government than whites. The findings have broader implications, particularly given the growing racial and ethnic diversity and the ongoing politics of democratic inclusion in America.

DO INSTITUTIONS REALLY MATTER? Taxation in Industrialized Democracies

New institutionalism has emerged as one of the most prominent research agendas in the field of comparative politics, political economy, and public policy. This article examines the role of institutional variation in political/economic regimes in shaping tax burdens in industrialized democracies. An institutionalist model for tax policy variation is tested across the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) democracies. Countries are conceptualized and statistically modeled in terms of majoritarian, shifting coalition, and dominant coalition governments. Regression analysis and cluster analysis are used to statistically model cross-national tax burdens relative to the strength of labor organization and party dominance in parliament. This study finds that political and economic institutions are important in explaining tax policy variation. Specifying the structure of political and economic institutions helps to explain the size of the state in modern capitalist democracies. This article specifies and demonstrates which institutions matter and how much they matter.

Women Lawmakers, State Mandates and Women's Health

Abstract This research examines whether states with higher female representation in the legislature will be innovators in womens health policy. The issue of health policy was chosen due to increasing state legislative activity in health care, especially in response to citizen dissatisfaction with HMOs and PPOs. We use nine health policies to create an index of womens health mandates for the fifty states and Ordinary Least Squares Regression to test a number of explanations for policy adoptions. Previous research suggests women state legislators play an important role in placing policy issues of concern to women on the political agenda. Contrary to the literature and our expectations, female representation and leadership in state legislatures, the presence of a womens caucus, women chairs of health care committees, and the pace at which women have been elected to state legislatures over the past four decades were not related to policy adoptions. Similarly, the growth and size of the managed care industry did not explain the pattern of policy adoptions. What did seem to matter was the size of the medical establishment and Democratic party control. While womens interest groups may be critical in increasing awareness of the issues, findings of the empirical study suggest womens health policy is widely supported by both men and women state lawmakers. When the policies were disaggregated by type, the percentage of women in leadership positions was associated with the adoption of specific womens health policies with a univer-sal appeal, such as reconstructive breast surgery and extended maternity stays.

Rethinking Lowi's Constituent Policy: Governance Policy and Direct Democracy

The author develops the concepts of ‘governance policy’ and how it relates to existing public policy typologies, especially ‘constituent policy’. Although distributive, regulatory, and redistributive types of policy are well understood, scholars have long struggled with an appropriate definition to complete this four-fold typology. Lowi referred to this fourth type as ‘constituent policy’—conferring broad costs and benefits to society—as opposed to policy that affects narrow (often economic) interests. Lowis conception of constituent policy assumed a top-down process of policymaking dominated by elected officials and administrative agencies. Governance policy represents an attempt to refine the concept of ‘constituent policy’. Governance policy has a prominent procedural component and can be initiated by a bottom-up process of policymaking, via citizen initiatives or interest groups, as well as by a top-down process through political elites. This author explores the history and social significance of governance policy. Cross-sectional data from the fifty states of the USA are used to statistically model explanations for the adoption of nine governance policies. Empirical analysis suggests that states with frequent usage of ballot initiatives are more likely to adopt governance policy, after controlling for other factors. The author also suggests that a Progressive reform tradition, measured by a moralistic political culture, may provide an important trigger for the initial adoption of state direct democracy mechanisms. This suggests that prior adoption of direct democracy mechanisms may provide a necessary intervening trigger for frequent reliance on governance policy.

Support for Online Voting in the United States

The timeline representing the policy area of e-voting (Internet voting) in the United States has not been a long one. A generous individual casting his/her ‘net’ far afield may argue that the roots of this policy area may have started back as far as 1992 when presidential candidate Ross Perot proposed the concept of electronic town-hall meetings — suggesting the potential of the Internet for increasing citizen participation in the electoral process. A more conservative and systematic approach might date to the Clinton/Gore presidential administration, which placed a strong emphasis on public policy to bring the nation into the information age. The Clinton/Gore administration spent much of the 1990s promoting the idea of ‘reinventing government’, using technology as well as other administrative reforms to improve government efficiency and citizen participation (see Osborne and Gaebler 1992). During this administration, programmes such as the Technology Opportunities Programme (TOP) under the Department of Commerce and the Community Technology Centre (CTC) initiative and the E-rate administered by the Department of Education were put into place to increase Internet access among American citizens, particularly disadvantaged groups. A purist, however, might start this timeline in January 2000.

For the Many or the Few: The Initiative, Public Policy and American Democracy

offers a great deal of information for both those who practice and those who teach about the interaction between the press and politics. In Distorting the Law, the authors make an important contribution in examining the impact that narratives have upon the law. In this book the authors seek to explain the way in which certain narratives become cultural icons, affecting not just public policy but also affecting the way in which Americans think about certain issues. An example of a powerful narrative is found in Ronald Reagan’s fictitious “welfare queen,” a woman who was on welfare despite the fact that she drove a Cadillac and wore a fur coat. As the authors argue, narratives matter more today because of the rise in symbolic politics, in which simplistic phrases or concepts can convey a large amount of information. The authors approach the power of narratives from a simple event—the woman who spilled coffee on her lap and sued McDonalds. The McDonalds coffee suit has come to symbolize what is wrong with our civil legal system today, in which irresponsible citizens and ambulance chasing attorneys are exacting a cost upon society. As the authors demonstrate, the only empirical “fact” found in the McDonald’s case is that an elderly woman spilled coffee in her lap. In reality, the woman spilled coffee while sitting in a parked car after trying to put sugar and cream in her coffee. When it spilled, it left her with third degree burns over six percent of her body. After asking McDonald’s to cover the expenses not covered by Medicaid (roughly

Cuyahoga County Survey of Internet Access and Use

20,000), McDonald’s demurred and a jury ended up awarding her