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The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior

George E. Marcus, W. Russell Neuman, and Michael MacKuen (eds)

Passion and emotion run deep in politics, but researchers have only recently begun to study how they influence our political thinking. Contending that the long-standing neglect of such feelings has ... More

Passion and emotion run deep in politics, but researchers have only recently begun to study how they influence our political thinking. Contending that the long-standing neglect of such feelings has left unfortunate gaps in the understanding of political behavior, this book provides a comprehensive overview of current research on emotion in politics and where it is likely to lead. In sixteen chapters, thirty scholars approach this topic from an array of angles that address four major themes. The first section outlines the philosophical and neuroscientific foundations of emotion in politics, while the second focuses on how emotions function within and among individuals. The final two sections branch out to explore how politics work at the societal level and suggest the next steps in modeling, research, and political activity itself.Less

Affirmative Advocacy: Race, Class, and Gender in Interest Group Politics

Dara Z. Strolovitch

The United States boasts scores of organizations that offer crucial representation for groups that are marginalized in national politics, from women to racial minorities to the poor. This systematic ... More

The United States boasts scores of organizations that offer crucial representation for groups that are marginalized in national politics, from women to racial minorities to the poor. This systematic study of these organizations explores the challenges and opportunities they face in the new millennium, as waning legal discrimination coincides with increasing political and economic inequalities within the populations they represent. Drawing on data from a survey of 286 organizations and interviews with forty officials, the author finds that groups too often prioritize the interests of their most advantaged members: male rather than female racial minorities, for example, or affluent rather than poor women. But she also finds that many organizations try to remedy this inequity, and concludes by distilling their best practices into a set of principles that she calls affirmative advocacy—a form of representation that aims to overcome the entrenched but often subtle biases against people at the intersection of more than one marginalized group.Less

America's Inequality Trap

Nathan J. Kelly

Economic inequality in the United States has followed a distinct U-shaped pattern since the end of WWII - a dramatic decline until the 1970s followed by a steady increase that puts current levels of ... More

Economic inequality in the United States has followed a distinct U-shaped pattern since the end of WWII - a dramatic decline until the 1970s followed by a steady increase that puts current levels of inequality as high or higher than they've been in measured history. This book argues that connections between economic and political power help to explain these patterns. When domestic and global economic conditions generate higher levels of inequality, this concentration of income also produces a concentration of political power that further benefits the rich. Using various analytical approaches and a variety of data sources, the book demonstrates that as inequality rises: Republican candidates perform better in elections, public opinion fails to become more supportive of redistribution, the status quo bias inherent in the U.S. policy making process induces more inequality, and when policy agreement does occur it is more likely to generate inegalitarian policy changes. All of these patterns point to a self-reinforcing pattern in which inequality reshapes American politics (both political behavior and political institutions) in ways that further reinforce inequality in the U.S. political economy.Less

Aristotle: Democracy and Political Science

Delba Winthrop

Harvey C. Mansfield (ed.)

In our time democracy is seen as the best or even the only legitimate form of government, and not in need of defense. Delba Winthrop in this posthumous publication takes up the challenge of ... More

In our time democracy is seen as the best or even the only legitimate form of government, and not in need of defense. Delba Winthrop in this posthumous publication takes up the challenge of justifying democracy through Aristotle’s political science. She begins from the fact that democrats want inclusiveness; they want above all to include everyone as a part of a whole. But what makes a whole? Winthrop pursues the answer with a comprehensive interpretation of Aristotle’s Politics, Book3, uncovering the insights philosophy brings to politics and, especially, the insights politics brings to philosophy. Central to politics is the quality of assertiveness—the kind of speech that demands to be heard. Aristotle, as shown for the first time, carries assertive speech into philosophy, where human reason claims its due as a contribution to the universe.Less

Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria

Lisa Wedeen

If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of ... More

If the Arab uprisings initially heralded the end of tyrannies and a move toward liberal democratic governments, their defeat not only marked a reversal but was of a piece with emerging forms of authoritarianism worldwide. In Authoritarian Apprehensions, Lisa Wedeen draws on her decades-long engagement with Syria to offer an erudite and compassionate analysis of this extraordinary rush of events—the revolutionary exhilaration of the initial days of unrest and then the devastating violence that shattered hopes of any quick undoing of dictatorship. Developing a fresh, insightful, and theoretically imaginative approach to both authoritarianism and conflict, Wedeen asks, What led a sizable part of the citizenry to stick by the regime through one atrocity after another? What happens to political judgment in a context of pervasive misinformation? And what might the Syrian example suggest about how authoritarian leaders exploit digital media to create uncertainty, political impasses, and fractures among their citizens? Drawing on extensive fieldwork and a variety of Syrian artistic practices, Wedeen lays bare the ideological investments that sustain ambivalent attachments to established organizations of power and contribute to the ongoing challenge of pursuing political change. This masterful book is a testament to Wedeen’s deep engagement with some of the most troubling concerns of our political present and future.Less

Behind the Development Banks: Washington Politics, World Poverty, and the Wealth of Nations

Sarah Babb

The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) carry out their mission to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth based on the advice of professional economists. But as is ... More

The World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) carry out their mission to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth based on the advice of professional economists. But as is argued in this book, these organizations have also been indelibly shaped by Washington politics, particularly by the legislative branch and its power of the purse. Tracing American influence on MDBs over three decades, this volume assesses increased congressional activism and the perpetual “selling”; of banks to Congress by the executive branch. The author contends that congressional reluctance to fund the MDBs has enhanced the influence of the United States on them by making credible America's threat to abandon the banks if its policy preferences are not followed. At a time when the United States' role in world affairs is being closely scrutinized, this book will be necessary reading for anyone interested in how American politics helps determine the fate of developing countries.Less

Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy

Rachel Augustine Potter

Who determines the fuel standards for our cars? What about whether Plan B, the morning-after pill, is sold at the local pharmacy? Many people assume such important and controversial policy decisions ... More

Who determines the fuel standards for our cars? What about whether Plan B, the morning-after pill, is sold at the local pharmacy? Many people assume such important and controversial policy decisions originate in the halls of Congress. But the choreographed actions of Congress and the president account for only a small portion of the laws created in the United States. Most law is actually created by administrative rules issued by federal agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services, where unelected bureaucrats with policy goals and preferences respond to the incentives created by a complex, procedure-bound rulemaking process. With Bending the Rules, Potter shows that rulemaking is an intensely political activity in its own right. Because rulemaking occurs in a separation of powers system, bureaucrats are not free to implement their preferred policies unimpeded: the president, Congress, and the courts can all get involved in the process, often at the bidding of interest groups. However, rather than capitulating to demands, bureaucrats routinely employ “procedural politicking,” using their deep knowledge of the process to strategically insulate their proposals from political scrutiny and interference. Tracing the rulemaking process from when an agency first begins working on a rule to when it completes that regulatory action, Potter shows how bureaucrats use procedures to resist interference from Congress, the President, and the courts at each stage of the process. This exercise reveals that unelected bureaucrats wield considerable influence over the direction of public policy in the United States.Less

Beyond Ideology: Politics, Principles, and Partisanship in the U. S. Senate

Frances E. Lee

This book argues that the congressional agenda includes many issues about which liberals and conservatives generally agree. Even over these matters, though, senators from the Democratic Party and ... More

This book argues that the congressional agenda includes many issues about which liberals and conservatives generally agree. Even over these matters, though, senators from the Democratic Party and Republican Party tend to fight with each other. What explains this discord? This book contends that many partisan battles are rooted in competition for power rather than disagreement over the rightful role of government. This is the first book to systematically distinguish Senate disputes centering on ideological questions from the large proportion of them that do not, and it foregrounds the role of power struggle in partisan conflict. Presidential leadership, for example, inherently polarizes legislators who can influence public opinion of the president and his party by how they handle his agenda. Senators also exploit good government measures and floor debate to embarrass opponents and burnish their own party's image — even when the issues involved are broadly supported or low-stakes. Moreover, the book suggests that the congressional agenda itself amplifies conflict by increasingly focusing on issues that reliably differentiate the parties. With the new president pledging to stem the tide of partisan polarization, this book provides a timely taxonomy of exactly what stands in his way.Less

Billionaires and Stealth Politics

Benjamin I. Page, Jason Seawright, and Matthew J. Lacombe

Although recent research has demonstrated that public policy responds disproportionately to the preferences of affluent Americans, much less is known about the preferences of the truly wealthy – ... More

Although recent research has demonstrated that public policy responds disproportionately to the preferences of affluent Americans, much less is known about the preferences of the truly wealthy – billionaires whose massive fortunes enable them to contribute millions of dollars to politics on an annual basis. Systematic knowledge of the preferences of this elite group is vitally important if we want to test the hypothesis that money tends to produce influence. Obtaining such knowledge has long proved challenging, however, because the ultra-wealthy are very difficult to study: their small numbers make it impossible to distill their preferences from even the largest existing public opinion surveys. And surveying them directly is impossible due to their very busy schedules and very private lives. This book addresses this problem using what can be called a web-scraping and public records approach, gathering and analyzing publicly available information about the wealthiest 100 Americans. It uses a novel, systematic online search process that identified nearly all public stances taken by these billionaires on an important economic and social issues over an approximately 10 year period. It also uses a comprehensive dataset of their financial contributions to political causes in order to examine their political actions, as well as several illuminating case studies to examine their behavior in greater depth. We find that these billionaires engage in stealth politics: they are exceptionally politically active, but strategically hide their political activities when their views differ from those of average citizens.Less

Black Wave: How Networks and Governance Shaped Japan's 3/11 Disasters

Daniel P. Aldrich

Japan's triple disasters - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown- on March 11 2011 took more than 18,400 lives and caused $235 billion in damage across the Tohoku region. This book tackles ... More

Japan's triple disasters - earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown- on March 11 2011 took more than 18,400 lives and caused $235 billion in damage across the Tohoku region. This book tackles several pressing mysteries about the catastrophes, including how more than 96% of the residents of inundated areas survived despite 60-foot waves. Further, mortality rates varied tremendously from town to town in the region, with some communities losing one in ten residents to the disaster and others having no casualties. So too in the recovery process, rates of return and rebuilding have not moved in lockstep across Tohoku. Where some communities have rebounded and even gained population, others have lagged behind. Some observers have been content to explain the 3/11 crises and recovery in terms of culture. Moving beyond that narrow lens, Black Wave looks at multiple levels of recovery - individual, town, regional, national, and international - with a focus on connections and governance. Drawing on years of field work, extensive interviews, hundreds of surveys, and quantitative and qualitative analyses, this book illuminates the ways that social ties and the quality of political guidance and leadership influenced survival and recovery after one of the worst compounded disasters in memory.Less

Campaign Finance and American Democracy: What the Public Really Thinks and Why It Matters

David M. Primo and Jeffrey D. Milyo

Campaign finance reformers, politicians, and academics have been arguing for decades that democracy is imperiled by a threat that permeates all of politics: money. Money in politics, these elites ... More

Campaign finance reformers, politicians, and academics have been arguing for decades that democracy is imperiled by a threat that permeates all of politics: money. Money in politics, these elites tell us, is to blame for a wide array of ills in American society that threaten democracy: moneyed interests buying elections, rampant corruption, and declining trust in government. The elites are wrong, yet the American public believes them. This book is about why that matters. David Primo and Jeffrey Milyo use original survey data to show that the public is misinformed about money in politics, its support for free speech is often driven by partisan or ideological considerations, and it “sees” corruption in the everyday activities of politicians. Moreover, the public is skeptical that campaign finance reform will fix American democracy, and its support for specific reforms is often driven by misinformation about the role of money in campaigns. Having established what the public thinks about money in politics, Primo and Milyo next use survey data spanning thirty years to show that state-level campaign finance reforms have no meaningful effect on trust and confidence in government, contrary to the claims of reformers but consistent with public skepticism about reform. Given that the US Supreme Court’s justification for upholding the constitutionality of campaign finance laws rests on public attitudes toward government—specifically, limiting “the appearance of corruption”—Primo and Milyo’s results call into question 40 years of campaign finance jurisprudence.Less

Changing Their Minds?: Donald Trump and Presidential Leadership

George C. Edwards III

Despite popular perceptions, presidents rarely succeed in persuading either the public or members of Congress to change their minds and move from opposition to particular policies to support of them. ... More

Despite popular perceptions, presidents rarely succeed in persuading either the public or members of Congress to change their minds and move from opposition to particular policies to support of them. As a result, the White House is not able to alter the political landscape and create opportunities for change. Instead, successful presidents recognize and skillfully exploit the opportunities already found in their political environments. If they fail to understand their strategic positions, they are likely to overreach and experience political disaster. Donald Trump was a distinctive president, however. Could someone with his decades of experience as a self-promoter connect with the public and win its support? Could a president who is an experienced negotiator obtain the support in Congress needed to pass his legislative programs? Would we need to adjust the theory of presidential leadership to accommodate a president with unique persuasive skills? Building on decades of research and employing extensive new data, George C. Edwards III finds that President Trump was no different than other presidents in being constrained by his environment. He moved neither the public nor Congress. Even for an experienced salesman and dealmaker, presidential power is still not the power to persuade. Equally important was the fact that, as Edwards shows, Trump was not able to exploit the opportunities he had. In fact, the patterns of the president’s rhetoric and communications and his approach to dealing with Congress ultimately lessened his chances of success. President Trump, it turns out, was often his own agenda’s undoing.Less

Citizen Speak: The Democratic Imagination in American Life

Andrew J. Perrin

When we think about what constitutes being a good citizen, routine activities such as voting, letter writing, and paying attention to the news spring to mind. But this book argues that these ... More

When we think about what constitutes being a good citizen, routine activities such as voting, letter writing, and paying attention to the news spring to mind. But this book argues that these activities are only a small part of democratic citizenship—a standard of citizenship that requires creative thinking, talking, and acting. For it, the author met with labor, church, business, and sports organizations and proposed to them four fictive scenarios: what if your senator is involved in a scandal, or your police department is engaged in racial profiling, or a local factory violates pollution laws, or your nearby airport is slated for expansion? The conversations these challenges inspire, he shows, require imagination. And what people can imagine doing in response to those scenarios depends on what's possible, what's important, what's right, and what's feasible. By talking with one another, an engaged citizenry draws from a repertoire of personal and institutional resources to understand and reimagine responses to situations as they arise. Building on such political discussions, the book shows how a rich culture of association and democratic discourse provides the infrastructure for a healthy democracy.Less

Civic War & the Corruption of the Citizen

Peter Alexander Meyers

This book leads us through the social processes by which shock incites terror, terror invites war, war invokes emergency, and emergency supports unchecked power. It then reveals how the domestic ... More

This book leads us through the social processes by which shock incites terror, terror invites war, war invokes emergency, and emergency supports unchecked power. It then reveals how the domestic political culture created by the Cold War has driven these developments forward since 9/11, contending that our failure to acknowledge that this Cold War continues today is precisely what makes it so dangerous. The author argues that the mantra of our time—“everything changed on 9/11!”—is false and pernicious. By contrast, this book provides an account of long-term transformations in the citizen's experience of war, the constitution of political powers, and public uses of communication, and from that historical basis explains how a convergence of these social facts became the pretext for unprecedented opportunism and irresponsibility after 9/11. Where others have observed that our rights are under attack, the author digs deeper and finds that, today, “government by the people” itself is at risk. With historical and philosophical insight, this is a diagnosis of the American political scene that at once makes clear the new position of the citizen and the necessity for active citizenship if democracy is to endure.Less

The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism

Paul O. Carrese

This book provides a provocative and original analysis of the intellectual sources of today's powerful judiciary, arguing that Montesquieu, in his Spirit of the Laws, first articulated a new ... More

This book provides a provocative and original analysis of the intellectual sources of today's powerful judiciary, arguing that Montesquieu, in his Spirit of the Laws, first articulated a new conception of the separation of powers and of strong but subtle courts. Montesquieu instructed statesmen and judges to “cloak power” by placing the robed power at the center of politics, while concealing judges behind citizen juries and subtle reforms. Tracing Montesquieu's conception of judicial power through Blackstone, Hamilton, and Tocqueville, the book shows how it led to the prominence of judges, courts, and lawyers in America today. But it places the blame for contemporary judicial activism squarely at the feet of Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and his jurisprudential revolution—which it is argued is the source of the now-prevalent view that judging is merely political. To address this crisis, the book argues for a rediscovery of an independent judiciary-one that blends prudence and natural law with common law and that observes the moderate jurisprudence of Montesquieu and Blackstone, balancing abstract principles with realistic views of human nature and institutions. It also advocates for a return to the complex constitutionalism of the American founders and Tocqueville and for judges who understand their responsibility to elevate citizens above individualism, instructing them in law and right. Such judicial statesmanship, moderating democracy's excesses, the book explains, differs from an activism that favors isolated individuals and progressive policies over civic duties, communal principles, and constitutional tradition.Less

Congress and the First Civil Rights Era, 1861-1918

Jeffery A. Jenkins and Justin Peck

This book tells the story of the rise and fall of the First Civil Rights Era—which extends from 1861 through 1918, or the Civil War through the First World War—viewed through the lens of action in ... More

This book tells the story of the rise and fall of the First Civil Rights Era—which extends from 1861 through 1918, or the Civil War through the First World War—viewed through the lens of action in the U.S. Congress. During that time, the formal status of African-Americans in the United States shifted from slave to citizen and then to something in between. We explore how Republicans in Congress, aided by the political activism of black citizens in the states, used legal enactments to establish an inclusive, multi-racial democracy in the United States. We also explain why their efforts could not survive a political onslaught carried out by 19th century white supremacists and their more “moderate” allies. In sum, over the years that define this era, civil rights politics went from being a central preoccupation for members of Congress to almost entirely disappearing from the agenda. By the second decade of the 20th century both political parties wholly abandoned black civil rights in the name of national reconciliation and political opportunism. Our detailed analysis of civil rights bills provides a granular look at the way the Republican Party slowly withdrew its support for a meaningful civil rights agenda, as well as how both Democrats and Republicans, at various points, worked together to keep civil rights off the legislative agenda.Less

Congress in Reverse: Repeals from Reconstruction to the Present

Jordan M. Ragusa and Nathaniel A. Birkhead

Countless observers, from the Framers to modern day academics, examine the government's capacity to enact new legislation. Congress in Reverse is the first book to focus on repeals as an important ... More

Countless observers, from the Framers to modern day academics, examine the government's capacity to enact new legislation. Congress in Reverse is the first book to focus on repeals as an important and distinct legislative action. It examines two primary questions. First, are law creation and law repeal are governed by the same dynamics? As a technical matter, the constitutional and institutional constraints are the same, so perhaps a repeal is “just another law.” Despite this, Ragusa and Birkhead show that repeals face a unique set of constraints and are therefore harder to pass than any other type of legislation, including amendments, reauthorizations, and new laws. Further, the data reveal that productive congresses do not automatically repeal a large volume of statutes and that the usual determinants of law creation are poor predictors of repeal occurrence. Second, which of the leading theories of lawmaking—problem solving, parties, or preferences—best explain when and why repeals occur? Although all three help make sense of repeals, Ragusa and Birkhead develop an explicit theory that focuses on the majority party’s cohesiveness its recent experience out of power. Ultimately, the data show that repeals are most likely to succeed when the majority is ideologically cohesive and recently won power after a long time in the minority. In this respect, while most lawmaking follows exogenous policy problems and takes place on a bipartisan basis, when Congress tries to undo landmark legislation—such as the Affordable Care Act—it tends to do so for partisan reasons.Less

Congress Overwhelmed: The Decline in Congressional Capacity and Prospects for Reform

Timothy M. LaPira, Lee Drutman, and Kevin R. Kosar (eds)

Congress is overwhelmed. It has become so overwhelmed its constitutional status as a co-equal branch of government is at serious risk. In this volume, leading congressional scholars explore the ... More

Congress is overwhelmed. It has become so overwhelmed its constitutional status as a co-equal branch of government is at serious risk. In this volume, leading congressional scholars explore the causes and consequences of Congress’s decades-long neglect in itself. The first branch of government no longer has the capacity to govern as it once did. The volume explores the state of congressional capacity, or the human capital and other resources that Congress has available to perform its role in resolving public problems by legislating, budgeting, holding hearings, conducting oversight, and serving constituents. In so doing, it offers a new perspective to existing scholarship, which focuses only on partisan polarization as the source for legislative dysfunction. The chapters assess Congress’s declining capacity using a variety of analytic approaches and data sources. Several contributions report the first findings from the 2017 Congressional Capacity Survey, the largest and most comprehensive mixed-method study of congressional staff ever conducted. Some chapters investigate Congress’s political development to illuminate how capacity has changed throughout history in response to broader political forces. Others evaluate how Congress manages its legislative workload despite heightened polarization and the perpetual campaign. And, several scholars explore how Congress could reform itself. Taken together, the volume offers new ways for thinking about congressional capacity, and ample evidence to show that Congress is approaching, if it has not already reached, the nadir of its ability to solve problems on behalf of the American people.Less

The Congressional Endgame: Interchamber Bargaining and Compromise

Josh M. Ryan

In bicameral legislatures like Congress, the two chambers must reach agreement before a bill is enacted into law, a process that is often chaotic and contentious. In The Congressional End Game: ... More

In bicameral legislatures like Congress, the two chambers must reach agreement before a bill is enacted into law, a process that is often chaotic and contentious. In The Congressional End Game: Interchamber Bargaining and Compromise in Congress, Josh Ryan offers a coherent theory of how this process works and the types of policy outcomes produced. He shows that both conference committees and an alternative resolution venue, amendment trading, create policy that approximates the preferences of the more moderate chamber, though neither chamber receives exactly what it wants. Using comprehensive data on recent congressional legislation and an array of empirical tests, The Congressional Endgame explains how the chambers seek agreement, why failure at the resolution stage is so rare, and what types of legislation are likely to emerge from negotiations. The book finds that the characteristics of the winning coalition are critically important to which chamber "wins" after bargaining, with more moderate chambers receiving more of what they want. The results are especially relevant in the current age of party polarization and strong leadership, where divided party control of the House and Senate is common. These factors contribute to the public perception that the House and Senate are unable to compromise, and call into question the relevance and effectiveness of the bicameral system as designed by the Framers. Instead, The Congressional Endgame demonstrates interchamber negotiations serve their intended purpose well: they increase the odds of compromise while at the same time offering a powerful constraint on dramatic policy changes.Less

Conservative Innovators: How States Are Challenging Federal Power

Ben Merriman

This book describes how conservative state-level officeholders, including governors, attorneys general, and secretaries of state, mounted a major challenge to the Obama Administration and federal ... More

This book describes how conservative state-level officeholders, including governors, attorneys general, and secretaries of state, mounted a major challenge to the Obama Administration and federal power more generally. The opportunity for this challenge to federal power arose from the conjunction of several processes: marked growth in executive power at both the national and state level; shifts in administrative law doctrine friendly to state litigation; and high party polarization that yielded regularly divided national government but single party dominance of state governments. Conservative executive officials cooperated across states in litigation and through various administrative practices; they also adopted a notably uncooperative, conflictual stance in their relations with the Obama Administration. Through chapters examining multistate litigation, new uses of interstate compacts, and new elections administration practices, this book shows that state executive officeholders have used an innovative combination of means to successfully pursue a familiar set of conservative policy goals. A chapter on the small government experiment in Kansas shows that this activity is not a crudely anti-government stance, but rather a particular program of reform grounded in a sophisticated understanding of law and modern administrative institutions. The concluding chapter shows that the domestic agenda of the Trump Administration is substantially a continuation of this earlier state-level activity, and that liberal state officeholders have been quick to emulate new conservative strategies. The likely result is a rearranged, conflictual American federalism in which the states are more important and powerful than they have been since the Progressive Era.Less