Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20
The Symbolic Politics of Poverty in the United States: A Review Essay
Elizabeth Rigby reviews two recently published books on the politics of poverty in the United States: Lawrence J. McAndrews’s The Presidents and the Poor: America Battles Poverty 1964-2017 and Kristina C. Miler’s Poor Representation: Congress and the Politics of Poverty in the United States . Rigby argues that the books highlight that while policymakers continue calls for action on the issue of poverty, the actual policy response has been limited and the problem of poverty remains largely unsolved.
Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20
How Foreign Policy Shapes American National Identity
PAUL T. McCARTNEY discusses how foreign policy has shaped American national identity. He argues that American national identity has changed since the nation’s founding and that foreign policy contributed to this evolution.
Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20
Process Learning in Foreign Policy: From the Bay of Pigs to the Berlin Crisis
Rebecca Friedman Lissner introduces the concept of foreign policy “process learning” and applies it to a comparative case study of the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Berlin crisis in the first year of the Kennedy administration. She argues that under certain conditions leaders can and do learn from foreign policy failures.
Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20
Striking a Blow for Unity? Race and Economics in the 2010 New Orleans Mayoral Election
MAREK STEEDMAN, ILIYAN ILIEV, Marcus Coleman , and Allan McBride analyze the 2010 New Orleans mayoral election. They find that racial, economic, and partisan context affected voting behavior. They argue that analytical approaches that account for the effects of social context on political behavior are important to understanding urban politics.
Volume 134 - Number 4 - Winter 2019–20
The Soviet Legacy in Russian Foreign Policy
Mark Kramer explores formal and informal aspects of the Soviet legacy in the making and nature of Russian foreign policy. He argues that the Russian government has departed from Soviet foreign policy on few matters, but most of it shows a good deal of continuity.
Volume 134 - Number 3 - Fall 2019
Political Groups, Coordination Costs, and Credible Communication in the Shadow of Power
BRANDON K. YODER, KURT TAYLOR GAUBATZ and Rachel A. Schutte argue that when political actors adopt public discourse that misrepresents their preferences, they risk hindering the effectiveness of private discussion required for them to meet their goals.
Volume 134 - Number 3 - Fall 2019
A Prologue to Manifest Destiny: Why Britain Allowed the United States’ Unchallenged Rise in North America, 1836–1848
Dong Jung Kim analyzes why Britain did not respond militarily to the United States’ massive territorial expansion during the period of 1836–1848. Building on leading theories of great power politics, he argues that three considerations constrain a leading power’s military behavior against a rising power.
Volume 134 - Number 3 - Fall 2019
Hazy Accountability in a Federal System: The Role of Air Quality in Gubernatorial Performance Evaluation
Bradford H. Bishop and Jason A. Kalmbach discuss whether citizens hold state governors accountable for local air quality. They argue that their findings suggest that the public holds the president accountable for air quality, but not the governor.
Volume 134 - Number 3 - Fall 2019
Beyond Likely Voters: An Event Analysis of Conservative Political Outreach
Angie M. Bautista-Chavez and Sarah E. James look at the constituency-building strategies of three politically conservative organizations designed to reach veterans, millennials, and Latinos. They show how these organizations vary their outreach tactics to align the target audience with the political right.
Volume 134 - Number 3 - Fall 2019
American Grand Strategy and the Rise of Offensive Realism
Ionut Popescu outlines the principles of a new American grand strategy grounded in an offensive realist theoretical framework. He argues that offensive realism is better suited to the new era of geopolitical competition with China and Russia.
