How do presidents win legislative support under conditions of extreme multipartism? Comparative presidential research has offered two parallel answers, one relying on distributive politics and the other claiming that legislative success is a function of coalition formation. We merge these insights in an integrated approach to executive-legislative relations, also adding contextual factors related to dynamism and bargaining conditions. We find that the two presidential "tools"-pork and coalition goods-are substitutable resources, with pork functioning as a fine-tuning instrument that interacts reciprocally with legislative support. Pork expenditures also depend upon a president's bargaining leverage and the distribution of legislative seats.

Although frequently invoked as a rhetorical tool in political discussions, “political will” remains ambiguous as a concept. Acknowledging the centrality of political will to policy outcomes, the authors propose a pragmatic and systematic approach to definition. This approach facilitates analysis by identifying particular shortcomings in political will. This identification in turn permits the application of appropriate theoretical frameworks from various disciplines and the effective construction and use of ameliorative measures. The authors also address fundamental issues like the specification of contexts. The analytical approach includes a conceptual definition dissected into essential components, along with corresponding means of operationalization and targets for assessment. Among the major definitional components are requirements that a sufficient set of decision makers intends to support a particular initiative and that such support is committed. The latter condition is difficult to ascertain, but various signals, influences, and constraints on action are observable. Aunque frecuentemente invocado como una herramienta retórica en las discusiones políticas, “la voluntad política” se mantiene como unconcepto ambiguo. Reconociendo la importancia de la voluntad política en los resultados políticos, los autores proponen una aproximación pragmática y sistemática para su definición. Esta aproximación facilita el análisis al identificar faltas particulares en el concepto de voluntad política. Dicha identificación permite a su vez la aplicación del marco teórico apropiado de varias disciplinas y la construcción efectiva y utilización de medidas de mejoramiento. Los autores abordan también tópicos fundamentales como la importancia del contexto. La aproximación analítica incluye una definición conceptual diseccionada en componentes esenciales, junto con medios correspondientes de operacionalización y los objetivos a evaluar. Entre los componentes más importantes de la definición están los requerimientos que una serie de hacedores de políticas intente apoyar una iniciativa particular y que dicho apoyo sea real. La última condición es difícil de determinar, pero varias señales, influencias, y limitaciones son observables.

Scientific elaboration of "public will" would enhance the concept's analytical usefulness and contribute to improved understanding in various fields, including political science and public policy. Previous work has utilized the term but has jumped the crucial stage of formally defining public will as a conceptual variable. This project constructs a definitional system that breaks the concept into components and offers operationalizations and assessment targets. Analysis begins with consideration of social systems and their direct ties with other definitional components like shared recognition of the problem and of proposed means of addressing the problem. Resolve to address the situation and to sustain collective action are also essential components. The project then applies the definitional system through a brief case study of firearm control and considers various scholarly implications. The definitional system emphasizes the simultaneous existence of multiple "publics" and argues against using public will synonymously with majority public opinion.

In the initial months of the COVID‐19 outbreak in the United States, people struggled to adjust to the new normal. The burden of managing changes to home and work life seemed to fall disproportionately to women due to the nature of women's employment and gendered societal pressures. We surveyed residents of four western states in the first months of the outbreak to compare the experiences of women and men during this time. We found that women were disproportionately vulnerable to workplace disruptions, negative impacts on daily life, and increased mental load. Women with children and women who lost their jobs were particularly impacted. These results contribute to the growing body of findings about the disproportionate impacts of crises on women and should inform organizational and government policies to help mitigate these impacts and to enhance societal resilience in future emergencies.

Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) and framing scholars share an interest in how the construction of policy arguments influences opinions and policy decisions. However, conceptual clarification is needed. This study advances the NPF by clarifying the meaning and function of frames and narrative, as well as their respective roles in creating policy realities. We explore sociological and psychological roots of framing scholarship and map these onto NPF's science of narratives philosophy, suggesting that narratives can reveal internally held cognitive schemas. We focus on issue categorization frames as boundaries for narrative construction. Within these bounds, narrative settings further focalize the audience by specifying where action toward a solution takes place. Based on 26 interviews with floodplain decision makers in Montana, we capture internally held cognitions through the assemblage of issue categorization frames and narrative elements. We find that settings can traverse issue categorization frames and policy solutions, with actions of characters that unfold within the setting being key. Similarly, we find that a single issue categorization frame can contain multiple different narratives and that individuals may simultaneously hold multiple different narratives internally. Overall, this study contributes to policy process research through establishment of connections among narratives, issue categorization frames, and cognitive schemas.

IntroductionWhereas scientists depend on the language of probability to relay information about hazards, risk communication may be more effective when embedding scientific information in narratives. The persuasive power of narratives is theorized to reside, in part, in narrative transportation.PurposeThis study seeks to advance the science of stories in risk communication by measuring real-time affective responses as a proxy indicator for narrative transportation during science messages that present scientific information in the context of narrative.MethodsThis study employed a within-subjects design in which participants (n = 90) were exposed to eight science messages regarding flood risk. Conventional science messages using probability and certainty language represented two conditions. The remaining six conditions were narrative science messages that embedded the two conventional science messages within three story forms that manipulated the narrative mechanism of character selection. Informed by the Narrative Policy Framework, the characters portrayed in the narrative science messages were hero, victim, and victim-to-hero. Natural language processing techniques were applied to identify and rank hero and victim vocabularies from 45 resident interviews conducted in the study area; the resulting classified vocabulary was used to build each of the three story types. Affective response data were collected over 12 group sessions across three flood-prone communities in Montana. Dial response technology was used to capture continuous, second-by-second recording of participants’ affective responses while listening to each of the eight science messages. Message order was randomized across sessions. ANOVA and three linear mixed-effects models were estimated to test our predictions.ResultsFirst, both probabilistic and certainty science language evoked negative affective responses with no statistical differences between them. Second, narrative science messages were associated with greater variance in affective responses than conventional science messages. Third, when characters are in action, variation in the narrative mechanism of character selection leads to significantly different affective responses. Hero and victim-to-hero characters elicit positive affective responses, while victim characters produce a slightly negative response.ConclusionsIn risk communication, characters matter in audience experience of narrative transportation as measured by affective responses.

Th is article examines infl uences on public servant perceptions of ethical climate in the public sector. Th e array of benefi cial outcomes produced by perceptions of a positive ethical climate, the existence of government programs aimed at improving ethical climate, and implications for government accountability and trustworthiness all argue for a better understanding of the sources of these perceptions. Empirical analyses of survey responses from employees of the U.S. federal executive branch show that individuals in leadership positions perceive the ethical climate more positively. Conversely, work tenure tends to worsen perceived ethical climate, although supervisory status attenuates this negative eff ect. Ethics training, interaction with ethics offi cials, and perceived knowledge about ethics topics consistently infl uence perceptions of ethical climate and advice-seeking behavior in a positive way. A set of results related to advice-seeking behavior serves to reinforce the important role of ethics offi cials.

This project examines the effects of a president's coalition management decisions on associated governing costs in a multiparty system. A strategic president who is concerned about policy outcomes and about her various management functions will consider these costs in working toward an optimal strategy. The results of our empirical analyses support the argument that large and ideologically diverse coalitions and disproportional cabinets tend to be more expensive over time. Further, the results indicate that presidential choices about how to manage coalitions influence governing costs even after controlling for a variety of other factors that matter to the bargaining game.