Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

Deterrence Without Mutual Destruction
Samuel Issacharoff reviews David Sloss’s Tyrants on Twitter and reflects upon the book’s argument that the correlation between democratic decline and foreign interference establishes the causal role of the latter. The review article ends with a note of caution on the costs associated with democratic societies closing up in the face of foreign challenge.

Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

Reforming the Bench: Public Support for Supreme Court Institutional Change
ANNA MCCAGHREN FLEMING, MATTHEW D. MONTGOMERY, AND Natalie C. Rogol use a survey experiment to assess how media framing can influence public support for reforms pertaining to packing and term limits of the U.S. Supreme Court. They find that media messages can decrease support for reform, but not increase it.

Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

Good Governance and the Partisan Wars: The Effects of Divided Government on Administrative Problem Solving and Oversight Agenda Setting in Congress
Claire Leavitt assesses the effects of partisanship on Congressional oversight by constructing a new, independent, and non-partisan oversight agenda for Congress based on the Government Accountability Office’s biennial “high risk list” of federal agencies and programs most vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. Leavitt finds a lack of partisan effects on Congress’ ability to investigate these high-risk issues specifically, while confirming the effect of polarization on other types of oversight.

Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

Anti-Asian Racism and the Rise of Hawkish Mass Opinion in China
D.G. KIM analyzes the Chinese state media coverage of anti-Asian racial violence. Kim argues that this political narrative boosts racial and nationalistic sentiments which in turn garner greater support for hawkish foreign policy.

Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

The New Racial Spillover: Donald Trump, Racial Attitudes, and Public Opinion Toward Accountability for Perpetrators and Planners of the January 6 Capitol Attack
JESSE RHODES AND Tatishe M. Nteta explore how racism affects the public’s attitudes towards accountability for those responsible for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. They argue that racial hostility is undermining norms of respect for elections, belief in the peaceful transfer of power, and belief in the rule of law.

Volume 138 - Number 3 - Fall 2023

Mobilizing the Shy and Closed-Minded into Politics: The Mediating Role of Political Trust for Conventional Participation in the Americas
Matthew Cawvey looks at why individuals low in extraversion and openness engage in public affairs. Using mediation analysis of AmericasBarometer survey data from North America, Latin America, and the Caribbean, he argues that introverted and close-minded individuals tend to be more politically engaged because of higher levels of political trust.

Volume 138 - Number 3 - Fall 2023

Keeping Your Mouth Shut: Spiraling Self-Censorship in the United States
James L. Gibson AND Joseph L. Sutherland discuss self-censorship in the United States. They note that the percentage of Americans not feeling free to express their views has tripled since the time of McCarthyism. They argue that micro-environment sentiments, such as worrying that expressing unpopular views will isolate and alienate people from their friends, family, and neighbors, may be the driver of self-censorship.

Volume 138 - Number 2 - Summer 2023

Taking Ideas Seriously in Political Science: The Diffusion of Presidentialism in Latin America after Independence
CRAIG PARSON, ADOLFO GARCÉ, AND DANIEL BÉLAND survey the asymmetrical status of “ideational theorizing” in political science and present and assess methodological and epistemological views that underlie the asymmetry. They illustrate their arguments empirically by examining Latin American constitutional choice. They argue that the Latin American case illustrates that there are good reasons to think that an ideational account connects in more concrete ways to available evidence than leading alternative hypotheses about constitutional choice.

Volume 138 - Number 2 - Summer 2023

Counting Like a State: The Politics of Intergovernmental Partnerships in the 2020 Census
Philip Rocco analyzes variation in state and local government investments in the implementation of the 2020 census. He argues that census investments depend on the salience of the 2020 count to public officials, the governing coalition’s partisan identities and incentives, and the availability of subnational institutional capacity for census operations.

Volume 138 - Number 2 - Summer 2023

Police Unions, Race, and Trust in the Police
DANIEL DISALVO AND MATTHEW NAGLER look at the effect of police unionization on trust in the police and, in particular, in mediating the adverse impacts of police killings of civilians on trust within the U.S. multiracial context. They find that in jurisdictions where police bargain collectively the drop in non-black trust is effectively eliminated, suggesting that police unionization essentially abets the polarization of trust in the police between blacks and non-blacks.