Chi Huang

Presidential Vetoes: An Event Count Model

We argue that past models of presidential veto behavior have not ade quately conceptualized the fundamental nature of the dependent variable—a count of the total number of vetoes per unit of analysis. Conse quently, ordinary least squares techniques have been employed when more appropriate statistical estimation techniques are warranted. Further, past conceptualization (and measurement) of theoretically relevant varia bles have masked important relationships such as the importance of a bi cameral legislature. We show that rigorous consideration of research methodologies provides theoretical insights obscured by relying on more traditional approaches. Finally, this investigation updates understanding of the veto process through the first year of the Clinton administration.

The Global Conflict Process

The relationship between domestic and international conflict serves as the primary focus of this article. A research approach is used that is different from that found in most previous studies. We use the international system as the unit of analysis and employ a dynamic time series research orientation. We suggest and present empirical evidence supporting the idea that the change in magnitude of domestic conflict and the change in magnitude of international conflict are intimately related in a behavioral pattern that we call the global conflict process.

The State and Foreign Investment The Cases of Taiwan and Singapore

The influence of a host state on direct foreign investment attracts the attention of scholars much less than do the constraints of the latter on the former. This study addresses the impact of state regulatory policies on the roles of inward foreign investment in Taiwan and Singapores manufacturing sector. The similarities between the two small Asian open economies are first discussed. The different roles played by the foreign investors in their economies are then compared. A review of the literature in orthodox theories and radical points of view reveals several possible explanatory variables for such differences. Through the logic of the “most similar systems” design, or method of difference, some seemingly plausible factors are ruled out, due to their similarities in the two chosen entities. It is found that some pull factors (such as geographic location, colonial legacy, external political environment, and indigenous industrial capacity) and conversion factors (such as state policies toward foreign investment) may be responsible for the differences between the two islands. A more detailed analysis is then given to the conversion factors in general and the state regulatory policies toward foreign capital in particular. Finally, some general hypotheses about the conversion factors in the host state-foreign capital relationship applicable to most industrializing countries are suggested for further testing in future studies.

The Political Economy of Global Conflict

The global conflict process and the global economy are viewed as being interconnected at the global level through a process that has distinctive characteristics and a momentum of its own. This political economy of global conflict is examined from a broad-gauged, historical, and dynamic perspective. Evidence is presented from the 1954-1980 time period that supports the viewpoint that changes in civil war, international war, size of the global economy, economic interdependence, and economic hegemony are interrelated in a complex behavioral pattern with higher order lag structures, autoregressive components, and multivariate relationships involving some feedback mechanisms.