In the Current Issue

Volume 133 - Number 3 - Fall 2018

Articles

America First? Explaining Continuity and Change in Trump’s Foreign Policy
Paul K. MacDonald examines shifts in American foreign policy during the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. He finds that Trump has not disrupted American foreign policy as dramatically as he promised, and that his choices appear driven more by domestic and bureaucratic politics than an overarching vision.

The Puzzle of Democratic Divergence in the Arab World: Theory Confronts Experience in Egypt and Tunisia
EVA BELLIN explores the divergent political trajectories pursued by Egypt and Tunisia after the Arab Spring. She argues that factors such as socio-economic development, mass culture, and prior regime character were less consequential in shaping the chances of democratic transition than were factors such as civil society, the character of the military, and leadership.

The De-Institutionalization of Congress
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ANTHONY J. CHERGOSKY and Jason M. Roberts argue that institutional changes in the United States Congress have eroded its capacity to enact laws and perform its essential duties. They maintain that the poor performance of Congress in recent years has resulted from these structural reforms which may not be permanent, but are difficult to reverse.

Bipolarity and the Future of U.S.-China Relations
RICHARD MAHER discusses the prospect of returning to a bipolar international system characterized by U.S.-China bipolarity. He argues that the consequences and implications will diverge in several respects from those that prevailed under the U.S.-Soviet bipolarity of the Cold War era.

Federalism and the Politics of Bottom-Up Social Policy Diffusion in the United States, Mexico, and Canada
DANIEL BÉLAND, ANAHELY MEDRANO, and Philip Rocco investigate how social policies adopted at the substate level in Canada, Mexico, and the United States impacted policy reform at the national level. Their comparative analysis sheds light on the role of institutional structures and policy networks in shaping what they call “bottom up” social policy diffusion.

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