Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Black Political Representation And American Feelings, Jhanae George

Governance: The Political Science Journal at UNLV

Research on Black stereotypes argue that Black politicians are often labeled or perceived differently from the Black population as a whole. This research has led to questions on whether or not Black politicians can influence the overall perception of Blacks in America. Due to stereotypes leading to prejudicial treatment of certain groups, increases in representation of these groups in respected positions can aid in moving past the negative generalizations and any resultant treatment. By examining the number of Black representatives in America, along with feeling thermometer data from American National Election Studies, I find that there is little correlation between …

Administration As Democratic Trustee Representation, Katharine Jackson

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The “folk” theory of democracy that typically justifies the administrative state cannot help but lead to a discourse of constraint. If agency action is only legitimate when it mechanically applies the will of the voters as transposed by Congress through statutes, then the norms guiding that action will inevitably restrain agency discretion. As a result, attempts to establish the democratic credentials of the administrative state ironically obstruct the application of collective power. But this “folk” theory of democracy is bad theory. It is empirically incredible and, alarmingly, facilitates dangerous populist politics. Political theory instead suggests that a theory of democratic …

The Descriptive Representation Of Women In The 9th European Parliament, Licinia Güttel

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

The European Parliament is often praised for its gender-equal composition and its high descriptive representation of women. However, there is a remarkable gender gap between the representation of women at the national and European level, and it is debated how these variations can be explained. After discussing theories of representation and reviewing data from the European Parliament on the share of women in national delegations and the political groups in the 9th European Parliament after Brexit, this paper evaluates whether institutional and contextual factors can explain the gender gap between the national and supranational level. It argues that the representation …

The Impact Of State Legislative Term Limits On Descriptive Representation, Matt Baldwin

Honors Theses

Do term limits make state legislatures more descriptively representative of their population? If the composition of a state legislature is a function of its ruleset and design, then term limits—a major shift in the rules—would change who is running for office and who is getting elected. In order to explore this question, a dataset was created by contacting a number of states to solicit responses on the demographics of their state legislatures from 1990-2018. In addition, information regarding some control variables (partisanship, time, economy) was gathered. A gap variable was created to see what difference existed between the proportion of …

Black Curativeness: Understanding Black Voter Selection Through An Assessment Of Racially-Charged Districts, Timothy E. Lewis

SIUE Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity

Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 most scholarship on Black voter selection explains who Black voters select as opposed to why they select them. This study seeks to deepen understandings of Black voter selection beyond descriptive explanations through an assessment of a racially-charged district. Racially-charged districts can be used as microcosms for understanding political thought and behavior of racial minorities, particularly Black voter selection. These locales, where proven racial inequity propels race and racism as the overarching themes for all political and social concerns, are important in understanding why Black voters show positive affect towards viable …

What Happens When Insurers Make The Insurance Laws? State Legislative Agendas And The Occupational Makeup Of Government, Eric Hansen, Nicholas Carnes, Virginia Gray

Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Do the occupational backgrounds of politicians affect the government’s agenda? Businesses have long thought so. The first occupational data on state legislators were collected by the Insurance Information Institute, an interest group representing major insurance companies. In this paper, we test one potential motive for these kinds of efforts: the idea that the occupational makeup of governments affects the agendas they pursue, an argument that has been largely neglected in research on politicians’ occupational backgrounds. We focus here on the insurance industry. Using original data, we find that state legislatures with more former insurers consider fewer bills regulating insurance (negative …

The People's College? An Examination Of Who Governs Community Colleges At The Local Level, Katheryn Christine Brekken

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important role in national and local postsecondary education and economic development policy arenas. These two-year institutions educate 46 percent of American undergraduates, including the majority of African American, Hispanic and Native American undergraduate students. However, community colleges are failing to graduate students, particularly students of color (AACC, 2012). Given the national demand for graduates, policymakers are struggling to help more under-represented groups succeed and complete their college degrees. Therefore, an examination of who is governing community colleges and making important policy decisions to address student success is critical. While there are a variety of …

Gender In Politics, Sheri L. Kunovich, Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes

Sociology Research

Women’s political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. We selectively review the literature on gender in politics, focusing on women’s formal political participation.

We discuss both traditional explanations for women’s political participation and representation, such as the supply of women and the demand for women, and newer explanations such as the role of international actors and gender quotas. We also ask whether women are distinctive—does having more women in office make a difference to public policy? Throughout the review we demonstrate that a full understanding of women’s political representation requires both deep knowledge of individual cases such …

Race And Gender Matter: Refining Models Of Legislative Policy Making In State Legislatures, Byron D. Orey, Wendy Smooth, Kimberly S. Adams, Kisha Harris-Clark

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

In this article, we explore the degree to which African American state legislators have been able to translate election to office into substantive representation. We are particularly interested in the impact of race and gender on the likelihood of legislative bill submission and passage. While previous studies have focused on inter-group representation, our analysis examines intra-group representation by disaggregating race, gender, and party identification. By doing so, we are able to capture the intra-group variation between various groups such as black Democratic men and black Democratic women and white Democratic women and white Republican women. Using the case of Mississippi, …

Pathways To Power: The Role Of Political Parties In Women’S National Political Representation, Sheri L. Kunovich, Pamela Paxton

Sociology Research

The authors extend previous research on women’s participation in politics by examining the role of female elites in political parties in selecting and supporting women as political candidates. They hypothesize that political parties, in their role as gatekeepers, mediate the relationship between country-level factors, such as women’s participation in the labor force, and political outcomes for women. The article focuses on three outcomes for women: the percentage of female political party leaders, the percentage of female candidates in a country, and the percentage of women elected. New cross-national measures of women’s inclusion in political parties are developed and analyzed in …