Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Isn’T There A Better Way To Nominate Presidential Candidates?, Elaine Kamarck

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

This lecture examines why every four years the major political parties undertake a drawn-out, confusing series of primaries, caucuses, and conventions to determine their presidential nominees. Over the years, a number of rational and more orderly ways to select presidential nominees have been proposed but none of these ideas have been adopted. Brookings Institution scholar Elaine Kamarck, who has written extensively on the topic and served as a presidential and presidential campaign advisor, addresses these topics and more.

2022 Midterm Election Voter Turnout In The Mountain West, Ayda Atici, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents voter turnout rates in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, and Utah) for the 2022 midterm election. The data are retrieved from the 2023 Brookings Institution report “New Voter Turnout Data from 2022 shows some surprises, including lower turnout for youth, women, and Black Americans in some states” by William H. Frey.

Distribution Of Federal Expenditures And Receipts In The Mountain West, 2019-2021, Isabelle G. Graham, Emily J. Daclan, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet presents data on state and federal fiscal relations from 2019 to 2021 in five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report from The Rockefeller Institute of Government is published each fiscal year and includes information on state and federal government expenditures and the net difference between state and federal spending for all 50 states. The original report sources data from the “Budget of the U.S. Government, Fiscal Year 2023.”

Twitter Trends During The 82nd Session Of The Nevada Legislature, 2023, Annie Vong, Zachary Billot, Mary Blankenship, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet examines Twitter trends during the 82nd Session of the Nevada Legislature (2023). Data are comprised of tweets posted on Twitter by users located in Nevada addressing the most discussed topics during the session.

Refugee Arrivals In The Mountain West, Fy 2021-2022, Saha Salahi, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet explores data on the influx of refugee arrivals by nation to the Mountain West region: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Refugee Processing Center data, selected from annual reports and limited to the years 2021-2022, are presented in this factsheet.

The Analysis Of Wartime Rape Using Postmodern Feminism In The Conflicts Of Sierra Leone 1991, Bosnia-Herzegovina 1992, Darfur 2003, Allyssa Sabelle Chua

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This research examines how patriarchal institutions weaponize the act of rape in times of conflict. Rape is understood and conceptualized through the language of masculinity, especially the dominance of the masculine recognized and practiced in various cultures. Postmodern feminists argued that a woman or femininity is regulated, constructed, and defined by men through gender roles and symbols. As such, a woman does not exist as her own individual, but follows a constructed identity given by patriarchal institutions. In the theater of war, when a man rapes a woman, she is not only a victim of this violation, but further, the …

Bipartisanship Of Mountain West Members Of Congress, 2013-2022, Eshaan Vakil, Issac Hernandez-Alcaraz, Katie Lim, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet reports data on bipartisanship scores from the Bipartisan Index, a data collection produced by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. We present data for members of Congress in the 113th to 117th Congresses (2013—2022) from Mountain West states (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and include additional analysis of members of Congress from Nevada.

Wildfire Risk In Mountain West States, 2017-2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Corryn Richardson, Zachary Billot, Miguel Soriano Ralston, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet examines data on wildfire destruction in the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The original report from the Insurance Information Institute presents findings on percent of properties at risk of wildfire destruction, the number of wildfires by state, and numbers of acres burned per state.

Best Cities For Affordable Homeownership In The Mountain West, Kelliann Beavers, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Housing & Real Estate

This fact sheet highlights data on the best cities for affordable homeownership in the Mountain West, based on the SmartAsset report, “Best Cities to Buy an Affordable Family Home – 2021 Edition.” The report is SmartAsset’s second annual study, following the 2020 report, and includes data on 100 of the largest cities in the United States. This fact sheet highlights the rank, index, down payment-to-income ratio, housing costs as a percent of income, and four-year change in homeownership rate within each of the 15 Mountain West cities included in the original report.

Automatic Voter Registration And Voter Turnout In Nevada Elections, Dielle T. Telada, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

For the first time in Nevada’s history, voters who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans (i.e., nonpartisans and minor party registrants) constitute a majority of active registered voters. In particular, the rapid growth in nonpartisan registrants corresponds with Nevada’s adoption of Automatic Voter Registration (AVR) in January 2020, resulting in the addition of more than 320,000 new voters to the electorate. This fact sheet summarizes voter registration and voter turnout statistics reported by the Nevada Secretary of State for elections since 2012.

Student And Faculty Diversity: University Of Nevada, Las Vegas (Unlv) And University Of Nevada, Reno (Unr), 2012-2020, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet highlights data on the racial and ethnic diversity of students, tenured faculty, tenure-track faculty, and non-tenured/tenure-track faculty at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Data are presented for each year from 2012 to 2020. The UNLV Office of Decision Support and representatives at UNR assisted in the compilation of this data.

Nevada Economic Development And Public Policy 2022-2026: A Sustainable Future For All Nevadans, The Lincy Institute, Brookings Mountain West

Policy Briefs and Reports

This report evaluates economic development efforts in the State of Nevada since the 2011 publication of Unify, Regionalize, Diversify: An Economic Development Agenda for Nevada; assesses demographic and economic trends for Nevada and its regions; examines how state and federal actions since the onset of COVID-19 can position Nevada and its regions to address long-standing economic, educational, and social deficits; and offers policy recommendations to be implemented in the next four years to facilitate a sustainable future for all Nevadans.

Electric Vehicle (Ev) Infrastructure In The Mountain West, 2020-2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Transportation & Infrastructure

This fact sheet highlights data on electric vehicles (EVs) and EV charging stations, as originally reported by Zutobi in The 2022 EV Charging Station Report. This report examines the presence of EV infrastructure across the United States. The Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are considered here.

The Theoretical Challenges In Ukraine, Andrew Kim

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The unfolding situation in Ukraine seems like a scene out of the Cold War, the complexity within it not only lies in how fast these events are occurring but also in the unpredictability of Russia’s leader; to address this current conflict requires the acknowledgment of a brief background within these events and also the possible responses which we could expect to see. The following policy brief addresses the matter of the historical influences and challenges that would be facing US national security policy because of the Russia and Ukraine conflict and how this question isn’t a historical question, but rather …

2023 Graduate Program Rankings, Unlv & Unr, Olivia K. Cheche, Joshua Padilla, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet highlights the 2023 U.S. News and World Report graduate program rankings for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Rankings are displayed for graduate programs in the following fields: business; education; engineering; fine arts; law; medical; sciences and mathematics; and social sciences and humanities.

Both UNLV and UNR first achieved Carnegie R1 status in 2018 and retained the designation of very high research activity in December 2021. The graduate program rankings explored in this fact sheet help to illuminate efforts toward enhancing graduate education, an important metric to achieving and …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Capacity In Mountain West Metros, Olivia K. Cheche, Ally M. Beckwith, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet highlights data on artificial intelligence (AI) growth in Mountain West metropolitan areas over the last several decades, as originally reported by Mark Muro and Sifan Liu from the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program. The Brookings report examines how various metros across the United States contribute towards AI technology creation and business activity.

Nevada Campaign Financing: U.S. House Of Representatives, 2020, Kristian Thymianos, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Elections & Governance

In the 2020 election cycle, Nevada’s U.S. House of Representatives delegation fundraised a combined total of $9,994,636. This fact sheet summarizes the campaign donations and expenditures of these representatives. The data are collected from the Open Secrets website.

Refugee Arrivals In The Mountain West, 2017-2021, Saha Salahi, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet displays data on the influx of refugee arrivals by nation to five Mountain West States: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. Refugee Processing Center data, selected from annual reports and limited to the years 2017-2021, are presented.

Small Business Equity In Nevada, 2021, Ally M. Beckwith, Olivia K. Cheche, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet highlights data on minority and women-owned small businesses in Nevada in 2021, as originally reported by the Small Business Equity Tool. This tool examines the representation of Black, Asian, Latino, minority, and women-owned small businesses in the largest metropolitan areas and cities across the United States.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (Lvmpd) Budget Review, Fiscal Years 2018-2021, Olivia K. Cheche, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s (LVMPD) annual budget increased every fiscal year (FY) from 2018 to 2021. Using data provided by the LVMPD’s final budget reports for FY 2018 to 2021, this Fact Sheet details LVMPD funding increases and summarizes budget expenditures by unit and area command.

The Role Of International Factors In Electoral Volatility In Latin America: An Examination Of Structural Adjustment, Michelle Kuenzi, Hafthor Erlingsson, John P. Tuman

Political Science Faculty Research

Does structural adjustment increase party system instability in Latin America? We employ the Latin American Presidential and Legislative Elections (LAPALE) database (http://www.lapaledata.com) and our own original data set for structural adjustment to assess the effects of structural adjustment and other economic, social, and political variables on legislative volatility in 18 Latin American countries during the period of 1982 to 2016. The results of our study indicate that structural adjustment results in higher levels of within-system electoral volatility and support a broad version of economic voting theory. Extra-system electoral volatility is driven primarily by institutional and demographic factors. Our findings also …

Police Shootings In The Mountain West, 2015 - 2021, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Madison Frazee-Bench, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Criminal Justice

The Washington Post publishes and regularly updates a dataset regarding the use of deadly force by police since 2015. This fact sheet extracts data for each state in the Mountain West (Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah), and presents a regional perspective on the total number of individuals shot and killed by police, including demographic variables such as race, gender, and age. Two additional variables are included in this examination: the presence or absence of mental illness in the individual killed by police, and the presence or absence of a body-worn camera in incidents of deadly force by police.

The Non-Consensus 1992 Consensus, Austin Horng En Wang, Yao Yuan Yeh, Charles K.S. Wu, Fang Yu Chen

Political Science Faculty Research

The 1992 Consensus is perhaps the most crucial political term for cross-strait relations. Surveys show that the public consistently supports it in Taiwan. Despite the alleged broad support, there has not been an academic study examining if Taiwanese people understand the content of the 1992 Consensus. Such an inquiry is important as the administration in Taiwan has yet accepted the Consensus in its interactions with Beijing. A nearly representative online survey was conducted in July 2018, and 1001 Taiwanese respondents were recruited to choose among different “definitions” of the 1992 Consensus. Results show that only one-third of the respondents chose …

Sacrifice For The Mandate Of Heaven? Regression Discontinuity Of Death Penalty Execution In Taiwan, Austin Horng En Wang, Yuan Ning Chu, Fang Yu Chen, Ming Jui Yeh

Political Science Faculty Research

© 2021 Western Social Science Association. The death penalty enjoys overwhelmingly cross-partisan support among Taiwanese citizens. Politicians, mass media actors, and anti-death-penalty activists all believe that death penalty executions boost the president’s approval. As a result, Taiwanese presidents are motivated to strategically execute prisoners, trying to improve their approval rate. To examine this myth, we exploit data from a nationally representative survey conducted in 2012; six inmates were unexpectedly executed during the survey period. This unique opportunity enables us to examine the causal relationship between implementing a welcoming policy and its effect on public opinion. Contrary to popular belief, however, …

Nevada Ballot Question 1: Reforming Higher Education Governance, 2020, Olivia K. Cheche, Vanessa Booth, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr., Fatma Nasoz

Elections & Governance

This fact sheet explores voting data of 1,407,761 Nevadans who participated in the 2020 election through in-person early, mail-in, absentee, or election day voting. The Secretary of State publishes the outcomes of each race, and results are broken down by county. Voting data are displayed as raw vote totals and percent shares of the total vote. Also included are data on the number of voters who declined to vote on each of Nevada’s five ballot questions. These data are calculated by subtracting the “yes” and “no” votes for each ballot measure from the total number of ballots cast both statewide …

Out-Of-Control Covid-19 Pandemic Hampers The Nationalism, Aly Hiko, Austin Horng En Wang

Political Science Faculty Research

© The Author(s) 2020. Early studies show that the COVID-19 pandemic causes the rally-around-the-flag effect and increases the level of nationalism among the voters after the outbreak. However, how long does this boost last? Voters may cognitively withdraw their identification to the beloved country if the pandemic is rampant in where they live as well as when the government fails to address it thoroughly. We conducted a pre-registered MTurk experiment (n = 606) on 20 April 2020, in the United States—3 months after the first confirmed case and weeks after the large-scale lockdown. Results show that US subjects who were …

Population Density Of Congressional Districts In The Mountain West, Eshaan Vakil, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This fact sheet reports the population density of congressional districts in the Mountain West states, and the party representation in the House of Representatives for both the 2016 and 2018 general elections. This fact sheet utilizes a model from Bloomberg CityLab, the Congressional Density Index (CDI), originally published November 20, 2018.

Measuring ‘Closeness’ In 3-Candidate Elections: Methodology And An Application To Strategic Voting, Daniel Kselman, Emerson Niou, Austin Horng-En Wang

Political Science Faculty Research

Past research suggests that voter behavior is influenced by perceptions of electoral competitiveness. For example, when an election is perceived to be close, voters will be more likely to turnout and/or cast strategic votes for their second-most preferred candidate. Operationalizing electoral competitiveness in three-candidate elections presents previously unrecognized methodological challenges. This paper first shows that many past strategies for measuring ‘closeness’ in three-candidate contests have violated at least one of three basic properties that any such measure should satisfy. We then propose a new measurement grounded in probability ratios, and prove formally that ratio-indices satisfy these axiomatic criteria. Empirical analyses …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Labor Market Conditions In Nevada: A Preliminary Assessment, John P. Tuman

Political Science Faculty Research

This study provides a preliminary assessment of the impact of the pandemic on labor market conditions in Nevada. The analysis applies a locally weighted regression method (Lowess curve fitting) to time‐series data on weekly initial and continuing unemployment claims. Other measures of labor market outcomes are also included in the analysis. The findings suggest that while baseline conditions were relatively stable, the pandemic has generated an increase in unemployment in Nevada, and a steep rise in the number of unemployed workers covered by unemployment insurance. However, the largest growth in initial weekly unemployment claims may have already occurred. In addition, …

Immigrants And Their Voting Power In Nevada, Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Demography

This Fact Sheet presents the number of both documented and undocumented immigrants in Nevada, synthesizing data provided by New American Economy (NAE), a bipartisan research non-profit organization. To estimate the total number of immigrants in the U.S. and across each of the 50 states, researchers reviewed various data sources including the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, the Center for Migration Studies, and the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).