Volume 136 - Number 3 - Fall 2021

How to Stop Jihadist Foreign Fighters
Daniel Byman argues that the threat volunteers for al Qaeda, the Islamic State, and other jihadist groups pose is potentially grave, but that effective policy can profoundly reduce the danger. He argues that governments can disrupt the recruitment and travel of foreign fighters, hinder their time in war zones, and improve policing and intelligence gathering when they return.  

Secularity and Non-Religion in American Politics: A Review Essay
Mark Alan Smith reviews the recently published book Secular Surge: A New Fault Line in American Politics, by David E. Campbell, Geoffrey C. Layman, and John C. Green. Smith highlights the book’s value in distinguish- ing secularity from non-religion, along with the insights gained from the authors’ empirical analyses. Smith concludes that the conceptual framework in Secular Surge can usefully guide future research on religion and politics.

Four Threats: The Recurring Crises of American Democracy, Robert C. Lieberman
Reviewed by Nolan McCarty

A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy, Nancy L. Rosenblum
Reviewed by Brigitte L. Nacos

Cookbook Politics, Kennan Ferguson
Reviewed by John Ferejohn

Volume 136 - Number 2 - Summer 2021

How to Win a “Long Game”: The Voting Rights Act, the Republican Party, and the Politics of Counter-Enforcement
Adrienne Jones and ANDREW POLSKY examine how the Republican Party engaged in counter-enforcement of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, notably during the Reagan and Bush 43 administrations, in an effort to maximize the voting strength of pro-Republican voting constituencies. They argue that sustained counter-enforcement efforts lead to sharp policy oscillations when parties alternate in power and that if a party pursues the long game of persistent counter-enforcement, it may find itself with the opportunity to achieve lasting results.

Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party, Julian E. Zelizer
Reviewed by Emily Baer

America’s Inequality Trap, Nathan J. Kelly
Reviewed by Matthew J. Lacombe

Uncounted: The Crisis of Voter Suppression in America, Gilda R. Daniels
Reviewed by Melanie J. Springer

Reforming the City: The Contested Origins of Urban Government, 1890–1930, Ariane Liazos
Reviewed by Craig M. Burnett

Volume 136 - Number 1 - Spring 2021

The Presidential and Congressional Elections of 2020: A National Referendum on the Trump Presidency
Gary C. Jacobson discusses the 2020 presidential and congressional elections. He argues that the elections were above all a referendum on Donald Trump’s presidency, which provoked extreme levels of party loyalty, partisan polarization, and partisan animosity in the electorate, as well as the highest voter turnout in more than a century.

Policy or Pique? Trump and the Turn to Great Power Competition
Deborah Welch Larson analyzes Donald Trump’s policy toward China and Russia and the return of great power competition. She argues that Trump’s personalization of foreign policy undermined his trade war with China, and efforts to improve relations with Russia and that the Joe Biden administration will continue to compete but seek cooperation in areas of shared interests.

U.S. Geopolitics and Nuclear Deterrence in the Era of Great Power Competitions
Peter Rudolf argues that in the new era of great power competitions the United States is faced with the question of whether to seek some form of geopolitical accommodation based on de facto spheres of influence and buffer zones or to push ahead with strategic rivalries overshadowed by the risk of a military conflict with a nuclear dimension.

How America Lost Its Mind: The Assault on Reason That’s Crippling Our Democracy, Thomas E. Patterson
Reviewed by Andrew Hacker

Entrenchment: Wealth, Power, and the Constitution of Democratic Societies, Paul Starr
Reviewed by James A. Morone

Paradigm Lost: From Two-State Solution to One-State Reality, Ian S. Lustick
Reviewed by DOV WAXMAN

Volume 135 - Number 4 - Winter 2020-21

The Emergence of a Latino Political Ethnicity: 1990 to the Era of Trump
Alan Yang examines how ordinary U.S. Latinos of different national origin ancestries have become an increasingly cohesive panethnic political group since the time of the 1990 Latino National Political Survey. He argues that this trend towards increasing convergence across national origin has been both reinforced and disrupted on questions related to politically relevant sentiments and perceptions two years into the Trump presidency.

Is the Republican Party Destroying Itself? (And Why It Needs to Reclaim Its Conservative Ideals), Downfall: The Demise of a President and His Party, Thomas E. Patterson
Reviewed by Gary Wasserman

Dangerously Divided: How Race and Class Shape Winning and Losing in American Politics, Zoltan L. Hajnal
Reviewed by Natalie Masuoka

Vengeful Citizens, Violent States: A Theory of War and Revenge, Rachel Stein
Reviewed by Peter Liberman

Volume 135 - Number 3 - Fall 2020

Limits of the Conservative Revolution in the States
MATT GROSSMANN analyzes the policy consequences of increasing Republican control of U.S. state governments since the 1990s. He finds that Republican states have enacted some new conservative policies, but many other liberal policy revolutions have continued unabated. He argues that conservative policymaking is difficult because federal policy and electoral incentives incentivize continued government expansion.

Why Cities Lose: The Deep Roots of the Urban-Rural Political Divide, Jonathan Rodden
Reviewed by Jamie Monogan

Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison, Ahmet T. Kuru
Reviewed by Elizabeth R. Nugent

Secret Wars: Covert Conflict in International Politics, Austin Carson
Reviewed by ERIK J. DAHL

Conformity: The Power of Social Influences, Cass R. Sunstein
Reviewed by Frank J. Gonzalez