Summary: American Journal of Political Science - Volume 55, Issue 3 - July 2011

In this issue of the American Journal of Political Science:

• Butler and Broockman attempt to determine whether race affects US politician's constituent services, by conducting a field experiment using using "black" and "white" aliases to send e-mails requesting assistance to a selection of state legislators.
• Anzia and Berry find that female members of Congress outperform their male counterparts.
• Harbridge and Malhotra explore the impact of partisan conflict on citizens' perceptions of the US Congress.
• Jeong, Miller, Schofield, and Sened examine why minorities raise wedge issues and how wedge issues result in partisan realignment in legislative politics.
• Trager and Vavreck study the political costs of crisis bargaining in the US presidential system and the ability of democratic leaders to make credible threats in a crisis situation.
• Hetherington and Suhay show the links between fear of violence and susceptibility to sanctioning authoritarian countermeasures.
• Rudolph offers a theory about how citizens ambivalence towards US president candidates changes over the course of an election cycle.
• Lenz and Lawson present further research confirming that candidates often receive support based on their appearance from less informed voters, particularly when they receive significant television exposure.
• Triesman finds that "It's the economy, stupid" is as valid in hybrid, semi-authoritarian regimes as it is in more liberal democracies when it comes to presidential approval ratings.
• Dewan and Hortala-Vallve put forth a new model for explaining how a Prime Minister chooses her or his cabinet.
• Davis and Meunier argue that normal political tensions no longer significantly impact economic relations between countries.
• Lipsmeyer and Zhu present a theoretical model that illustrates the interactive relationships between immigration, EU labor market integration, and domestic institutions.
• Robertson and Teitelbaum explore the relationship between FDI, regime type, and strikes in low- and middle-income countries.
• Linos examines the impact of domestic political pressure and public opinion on the diffusion of international norms.
• Gibler and Randazzo attempt to determine whether independent judiciaries prevent democratic backsliding.
• Seagrave negotiates a pathway between the seemingly diametrically opposed positions of self-ownership and divine ownership through a political theory piece on the thought of John Locke.
• Gaines and Kuklinski offer a new experimental method that combines random assignment of treatment or control with self-selection of condition, and argue that this is superior to classic random-assignment experimentation.