Stephen S. Meinhold

Using Institutional Theory to Explore Local Variations in United Way’s Community Impact Model

In response to ongoing changes in local economic and philanthropic structures, the United Way of America has encouraged local affiliates to adopt a new philanthropic model—Community Impact. Despite efforts to rebrand the system, significant variation exists in local implementation of the new initiative. Drawing on case studies in 6 communities, we explore how local contexts shape local practices. Consistent with a growing body of research that describes the impact of local institutions on organizational practice, we find that local United Way practices are shaped by local institutions and the field level pressures to adopt Community Impact often conflict with local performance logics. These local logics are influenced by historical stocks of philanthropic and civic capital that both constrain and offer alternatives for local strategies.

The Secondary Consequences of Conducting Polls in Political Science Classes: A Quasi-Experimental Test

local community are altered by their participation as interviewers in a public opinion poll. Our results suggest that students do not benefit from this type of experience and lead us to question the use of some forms of experiential learning. We end with a call for more systematic research demonstrating the proposed benefits of experiential learning. Experiential learning is widely used in political science and other disciplines (Kendall et al. 1996). Teachers who use experiential learning in their instruction rarely doubt its efficacy and often recommend its use (see, e.g., Chesney and Feinstein 1993; McBride 1994; Seitz 1994). Students are believed to benefit in

POST-KATRINA GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF DISASTER SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH

Sociological Spectrum Mid-South Sociological Association Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~content=t713666965 POST-KATRINA GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF DISASTER SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH Duane A. Gill a; Lee Clarke b; Maurie J. Cohen c; Liesel A. Ritchie d; Anthony E. Ladd e; Stephen Meinhold f; Brent K. Marshall g a Mississippi State University, b Rutgers University, c New Jersey Institute of Technology, d University of Colorado, e Loyola University New Orleans, f University of North Carolina Wilmington, g University of Central Florida,

Too Quick To Sue? Public Perceptions of the Litigation Explosion

Although there is considerable discussion among elites that Americans are too quick to sue, we have limited empirical evidence of what the general public thinks. To fill this gap, a statewide poll of Louisiana voters asked whether people are too quick to hire a lawyer and go to court. Two out of three responded that Americans were indeed too quick to sue. This article examines whether social characteristics, previous litigation experience, and political attitudes are related to these responses. The results indicate that race of the respondent is the dominant explanatory variable. Whites overwhelmingly agreed that “people are too quick to hire a lawyer and go to court, “whereas blacks overwhelmingly agreed “anyone should be able to use the legal system to their advantage.” In short, those with status appear quick to blame those with low status for filing too many lawsuits.

Separation of powers and the Ecuadorian Supreme Court: exploring presidential–judicial conflict in a post-transition democracy

Abstract In 2005 ongoing political conflict between the executive and legislative branches of government in Ecuador culminated in a struggle over the judiciary. These events resulted in the dismissal, re-constitution, and dismissal again of the Ecuadorian high court (the Corte Suprema de Justicia) and the impeachment of the president. This paper uses the political crisis surrounding the dismissal of the Ecuadorian Supreme Court of Justice to examine the broader phenomenon of executive branch attacks on the judiciary in South American and Africa. We make three general observations: (1) the longevity of the judiciary alone (time without attack) does not guarantee a sufficiently deep reservoir of diffuse support to protect it from successful efforts at structural change or dissolution, (2) despite previous evidence that multilateral constitutional processes result in increased court independence (Dargent, 2009), we conclude that multi-party institutional arrangements are more vulnerable to the types of crisis that cause them to seek to use courts and their legitimacy to achieve political goals thereby limiting previous gains in independence, and (3) a courts institutional legitimacy is enhanced when it survives political threats from other branches of government. The crisis in Ecuador is used to demonstrate the challenges facing newer democracies with continuing multilateral conflict as well as the utility of thinking about how, why and when political institutions attack high courts and how the judiciary and citizens respond.