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This article applies the strategic parties framework to the 111th Congress and 2010 election results that followed. In 2009-2010, the Democrats pursued an ambitious agenda over the nearly unanimous opposition of Congressional Republicans, leading to a high level of partisanship on both sides. This partisanship was costly in the 2010 elections. Like other papers on this election, we find some evidence that key roll calls were linked to decreased electoral vote share. However, the clearer pattern is that overall patterns of partisanship had a consistent detrimental effect on incumbents running for reelection.

As the world anticipates the 18th Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in October 2012, international scholars and specialists of the CPC have been assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Party and positing a series of forecasts about its potential future evolution. This article reviews and categorises this scholarship. It argues that since 2009, political and inner-Party reforms that had been pursued since 1997 have stagnated and retrogressed, and that the CPC needs to return to a proactive political reform agenda in order to tackle the many pressing social, economic, intellectual and political challenges that it faces. (China/GIGA)

The transformation of China from an all-powerful strongman-dominated political system to its current structure of collective leadership has generated new institutional rules and norms in elite politics. Over the past decade, top Chinese leaders have begun using the term "intra-Party democracy" to describe the idea that the Communist Party of China (CPC) should institutionalise checks and balances within its leadership. This development in turn has affected political dynamics and elite behaviours. This article reviews the CPC's institutional development in the reform era and discusses the challenges and opportunities that the CPC is encountering on the eve of the 18th Party Congress. (China/GIGA)

The focus of our project is fostering governmental support for OER. Here in the Europe region there are vibrant OER initiatives under way in a number of countries. However, if our experience in other regions is any guide, these initiatives would be more sustainable if the governments of the region had more proactive policies on OER.//Stamenka has done a first analysis of Europe Region governments' responses to our survey about OER policies and I will share that later. Globally we have received replies from over one hundred jurisdictions and they are being analysed in South Africa for presentation at the World OER Congress.

As Chinese power continued to grow over the past year according to several measures, nations in the Asia-Pacific and beyond increasingly worried whether China would rise peacefully, but also looked to Beijing to contribute more actively to global governance. China's internal problems, however, remain daunting. Chinese citizens stepped up demands that their leaders more staunchly defend their country's interests around the world as well as address grievances at home. Chinese leaders sought to cope with these rising internal and external expectations as they set in motion a major leadership transition that will unfold at the 18th Party Congress in autumn 2012. Adapted from the source document.

This article explores the extent, and possible causes, of income-based biases in representation of citizens by members of the 110th Congress. The author finds that the preferences of wealthier citizens are modestly but significantly better reflected in the choices of their congressional representatives than are the preferences of poorer citizens. More importantly, the author shows that education, political sophistication, political engagement, ethnicity, and other sociodemographic factors can explain only a small part of this representation gap. Biases in representation across income lines appear to be driven by income alone, or at least not by politically relevant factors correlated with income.

Founded in 1953, the APSA Congressional Fellows Program is the nation's oldest and most prestigious congressional fellowship. The program remains devoted to its original objective of expanding knowledge and awareness of Congress. For nine months, select political scientists, journalists, doctors, federal executives, and international scholars gain "hands on" understanding of the legislative process by serving on congressional staffs. Through this opportunity, the association enhances public understanding of policymaking and improves the quality of scholarship, teaching, and reporting on American national politics. For more information, please visit http://apasnet.org/content_3031.cfm. Individuals selected for the proram for 2011-12 are listed below.

The literature on congressional committees has largely overlooked the impact of jurisdictional fights on policy proposals and outcomes. This paper develops a theory of how legislators balance the benefits of expanded committee jurisdiction against preferred policy outcomes. It shows why (a) senior members, and junior members in safe seats, are most likely to challenge a committee's jurisdiction; (b) policy proposals may be initiated off the proposer's ideal point for jurisdictional gains; (c) policy outcomes will generally be more moderate with jurisdictional fights than without these turf wars. We empirically investigate these results examining proposed Internet intellectual property protection legislation in the 106th Congress.

An expansive literature examines the relationship between Congress and the bureaucracy, but scholars know very little about the ideological orientation of congressional influence over bureaucratic institutions. In this project, the authors formally examine the policy implications of various theoretical models of legislative voting. They then analyze House roll call voting behavior on legislation directing the Environmental Protection Agency. The authors find compelling support for a model in which the majority party controls the agenda and members vote according to their preferences. This finding suggests that congressional influence in the form of legislative directives will favor a moderate faction of the majority party.

Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act soon after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The most controversial sections of the act facilitate the federal government's collection of more information, from a greater number of sources, than had previously been authorized in criminal or foreign intelligence investigations. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and the national security letter (NSL) statutes were all bolstered. With the changes came greater access to records showing an individual's spending and communication patterns as well as increased authority to intercept e-mail and telephone conversations and to search homes and businesses.

The practice of smoking marijuana was imported to the United States from Mexico in the early 1900s. Fear around the use of marijuana provoked sixteen states to pass laws prohibiting the use of marijuana by 1930 (Becker, 1963). It was not until 1937 that the United States Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act to stamp out use of the drug after the Bureau of Narcotics presented to the public in a series of propaganda films and news articles the perceived dangers of marijuana use – including violence (Becker, 1963). Since that law, the United States government has attempted to create a marijuana-free America.

In 1982, Congress created the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Often referred to as an experiment, the Federal Circuit has flourished. Born again from the ashes of its predecessors, the aptly nicknamed Phoenix Court continues to grow in significance, stature, and strength. As it grows, however, the court remains rooted in its history and in its unique nature. This Article explores the Federal Circuit's structure and its impact on the development of Federal Circuit jurisprudence. The Federal Circuit is distinguishable by more than its national jurisdiction – the very essence of the court sets it apart from its sister circuit courts of appeals.

Despite achieving a 60-seat majority in the 111th Senate, Democrats were unable to pass many of their key legislative priorities without support from Republicans. The striking inability of Democrats to govern the Senate despite a filibuster-proof majority demonstrates key differences between the chambers of Congress. Whereas party polarization helps the majority party in the House of Representatives to exert more control over the legislative process, in the Senate it aids the minority. Because Republicans viewed the Senate as their main opportunity for hindering the Democratic agenda, the GOP benefitted from their partys ideological cohesion and rules favoring obstruction. Adapted from the source document.

"Der Kariba-Staudamm an der Grenze zwischen dem heutigen Sambia und Simbabwe war ein Beispiel spätkolonialer Modernisierungspolitik und zugleich Symbol eines vielbeachteten Staatsbildungsexperiments: Die 1953 ins Leben gerufene Zentralafrikanische Föderation wurde von ihren politischen Vätern als 'dritter Weg' zwischen weißen und schwarzen Unabhängigkeitsbewegungen deklariert. Aus heutiger Sicht versinnbildlicht das Mammutprojekt sowohl das Scheitern der hochumstrittenen Föderation als auch die Verfehlungen großer Entwicklungsvorhaben insgesamt: Kariba nutzte der 'weißen' Industrie, brachte der verarmten indigenen Landbevölkerung jedoch Schaden. Lokale Akteure versuchten, diese Ungleichheiten zu korrigieren, wie der vorliegende Aufsatz anhand von Hezekiah Habanyama, einem Mitglied der lokalen afrikanischen Verwaltungselite, und Harry Nkumbula, dem Präsidenten des nordrhodesischen African National Congress aufzeigt. Die Positionen, die der 'loyale Verwaltungsbeamte' einerseits und der 'Widerstandskämpfer' andererseits einnahmen, entziehen sich allerdings einer einfachen Zuordnung in Für- oder Gegenstimmen, Opposition oder Kollaboration. Ihre vielfach verflochtenen Strategien und Ideen im Hinblick auf 'Entwicklung' verdeutlichen vielmehr die grundsätzliche Ambivalenz des spätkolonialen Doppelprojekts von Staatsbildung und Modernisierung." (Autorenreferat)