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Richard F. Winters

Bio: Richard F. Winters is an academic researcher from Dartmouth College. The author has contributed to research in topics: Split-ticket voting & Public policy. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 7 publications receiving 696 citations.

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors proposed a testable theory of income redistribution and applied it to data from the American states, and found significant links between the guarantee and both observable explanatory variables, such as per-capita income, and latent constructs such as liberal party control.
Abstract: This study integrates models of income redistribution developed by economists, who suggest that citizens voluntarily redistribute because of interdependent preferences and rely on the state for implementation owing to the public-good nature of redistribution, and political scientists, who focus on conditions that lead to demands that the state intervene to assist the poor and on the development of institutions that facilitate such demands. We propose a testable theory of redistribution and apply it to data from the American states.The empirical analysis addresses determinants of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children guarantee, adjusted for Medicaid and food stamps to which a family receiving the guarantee would be entitled. We posit significant links between the guarantee and both observable explanatory variables, such as per-capita income, and latent constructs, such as liberal party control. We specify observable indicators for the latent constructs and use the LISREL method to estimate parameters for the indicators and structural coefficients. The findings show that both political and economic variables significantly affect the level of the guarantee.

254 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors examined the effect of political variables on the allocation of the burdens and benefits of state revenue and expenditure policies across income classes and concluded that political variables will have a stronger influence on policy outcomes than will socio-economic variables.
Abstract: A comparatively new line of research in political science involves the systematic investigation of political, social, and economic factors important in the formation of public policy. So far, such research has yielded temptingly persuasive evidence that political variables exert little or no independent influence on policy outcomes; that policy outcomes are governed overwhelmingly by socio-economic factors. Stated more succinctly, these findings have raised the question: Does politics make a difference in the policy formation process?We suggest in the following analysis that these prior findings have been the result of the examination of a measure of public policy in which the influence of the political system is likely to be negligible, that is levels of public revenues and expenditures. To examine this proposition empirically, our study shifts attention to the allocation of the burdens and benefits of state revenue and expenditure policies across income classes. In redirecting analysis to allocations rather than levels of state revenues and expenditures, we focus on a province we believe to be more predictably political.We have taken as our dependent variable the net redistributive impact of revenues and expenditures as represented by the ratio of expenditure benefits to revenue burdens for the three lowest income classes in each state. The major hypothesis of our study is that, in regard to the allocation of the burdens and benefits of state government revenues and expenditures, political variables will have a stronger influence on policy outcomes than will socio-economic variables.

184 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the effects of variations in political party control with changes in the redistribution ratio (Fry and Winters, 1970) were investigated in thirty-four states over nine biennia, and it was shown that the Democratic party, dependent in part on the electoral support of those income classes, will produce positive redistributional change.
Abstract: A major unexamined independent variable in the field of American state budgetary analysis is political party control. By moving to a pooled, longitudinal design (thirty-four states over nine biennia), I test for the effects of variations in political party control with changes in the redistribution ratio (Fry and Winters, 1970). As the ratio reflects policies indulging or depriving lower income classes, I hypothesize that the Democratic party, dependent in part on the electoral support of those income classes, will produce positive redistributional change. While political party control affects the first difference of redistribution, the biennial level of redistribution is expected to reflect long-term economic variables of wealth and need, and the absolute value of the first difference, a measure of relevant budgetary "churning," will positively correlate with measures of formal gubernatorial power. While there is evidence that the latter two hypotheses are correct, there is no relationship between political party control and changes in the redistributive policies of the thirty-four northern American, politically competitive states.

129 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined the impacts of legislated changes in and new programs of general sales and personal income tax policies on the electoral support for the gubernatorial nominee of the responsible party in 407 gubernatorial elections in the 50 American states from 1957-1985.
Abstract: We examine the impacts of legislated changes in and new programs of general sales and personal income tax policies on the electoral support for the gubernatorial nominee of the responsible party in 407 gubernatorial elections in the 50 American states from 1957-1985. We propose a taxpayer retribution hypothesis in the context of a general model of retrospective voting. We estimate the effects of several tax policy variables while controlling for rival political and economic factors that are believed to influence voting at this level--state and national economic conditions, partisan strength, national trends, and coterminous contests. Results indicate weak overall negative electoral effects of taxation; only changes in the general sales tax programs appear to have significant impacts. Further, while voters may punish taxing governors, there appears to be no complementary reward for governors who decrease taxes.

95 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the conditions under which political party control affects public policy are studied. But the authors focus on the conditions for assessing party-policy impacts at the level of public policy.
Abstract: Scholars have devoted substantial effort to studying the conditions under which political party control affects public policy. One among several advantages for assessing party-policy impacts at the...

32 citations


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Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors acknowledge support for prior work on this topic from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and helpful comments from three anonymous referees, Rebecca Blank, Howard Chernick, John Fitzgerald, Irwin Garfinkel, Peter Gottschalk, Edward Gramlich, David Greenberg, Judith Gueron, James Heckman, V. Joseph Hotz, Robert Hutchens, Michael Keane, Frank Levy, Larry Mead, Michael Murray, Robert Plotnick, Anuradha Rangarajan, Philip Robins, Howard Rolston,
Abstract: The author would like to acknowledge support for prior work on this topic from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and helpful comments from three anonymous referees, Rebecca Blank, Howard Chernick, John Fitzgerald, Irwin Garfinkel, Peter Gottschalk, Edward Gramlich, David Greenberg, Judith Gueron, James Heckman, V. Joseph Hotz, Robert Hutchens, Michael Keane, Frank Levy, Larry Mead, Michael Murray, Robert Plotnick, Anuradha Rangarajan, Philip Robins, Howard Rolston, Jeffrey Smith, and Daniel Weinberg. All opinions and errors are those of the author alone.

1,172 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: This article reviewed existing empirical evidence on the relationship between institutional rules, political representation and public policy outcomes and developed some new directions for research, presenting a small number of novel exploratory results.
Abstract: A rich array of institutional diversity makes the United States an excellent place to study the relationship between political institutions and public policy outcomes. This Paper has three main aims. First, it reviews existing empirical evidence on the relationship between institutional rules, political representation and policy outcomes. It aims to place the literature into a broader context of theoretical and empirical work in the field of political economy. Second, it develops a parallel empirical analysis that updates studies in the literature and re-examines some of the claims made, in a setting unified both in terms of policy outcomes and the period under study. Third, the paper develops some new directions for research, presenting a small number of novel exploratory results.

796 citations

28 Oct 2016
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a framework to analyze implicit or explicit behavioral theories found in laws, regulations, and programs, focusing on policy tools or instruments and the underlying behavioral assumptions that guide their choice.
Abstract: This paper provides a framework to analyze the implicit or explicit behavioral theories found in laws, regulations, and programs. The analysis focuses on policy tools or instruments and the underlying behavioral assumptions that guide their choice. We begin with the premise that public policy almost always attempts to get people to do things they otherwise would not have done, or it enables them to do things they might not have done otherwise. Policy tools are used to overcome impediments to policy-relevant actions. The five broad categories of tools we iden- tify-authority, incentives, capacity-building, symbolic and hortatory, and learning-make dif- ferent assumptions about how policy relevant behavior can be fostered. We contend that policy tools are essentially political phenomena, and that policy participation in the form of com- pliance, utilization, and other forms of "coproduction" is an important form of political behavior deserving of greater attention by political science.

670 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a framework to analyze implicit or explicit behavioral theories found in laws, regulations, and programs is presented, focusing on policy tools or instruments and the underly hidden theories.
Abstract: This paper provides a framework to analyze the implicit or explicit behavioral theories found in laws, regulations, and programs. The analysis focuses on policy tools or instruments and the underly...

656 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Blekesaune et al. as discussed by the authors investigated public attitudes toward welfare state policies as a result of both situational, i.e. unemployment, and ideological factors, at both the individual and national level.
Abstract: Morten Blekesaune Norwegian Social Research – NOVA, Oslo, Norway Jill Quadagno Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy, Florida State University, USA To be presented at the first annual conference of The Network for European Social Policy Analysis (ESPAnet), Copenhagen November 13-15 2003. To be published in European Sociological Review, vol.19, no.5, December 2003. Abstract The paper investigates public attitudes toward welfare state policies as a result of both situational, i.e. unemployment, and ideological factors, i.e. egalitarian ideology, at both the individual and national level. The dependent variables are public support for the sick and the old as well as for the unemployed as target beneficiaries of welfare state policies. Data from the ISSP-study «Role of government» are analyzed using a multi-level regression technique. Findings indicate that the nation level is important in shaping public attitudes toward welfare state policies in industrialized nations, and that both situational and ideological factors play a role. Apparently, various nations generate different public beliefs about national social problems and about the relationship between individuals, the state and other institutions. Eventually, these understandings and beliefs influence popular attitudes regarding what kind of policies the state should pursue, and who should benefit.

597 citations