Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Imperative Protection Or Veiled Persecution? Balancing §230 Immunity And The First Amendment In The Censorship Of Social Media, Emily A. Middleton Valdés

New England Journal of Political Science

In the new age of fast-paced digital news, the primary platform for political discourse has evolved from the static town square to an ever-expanding, broadly accessible, and immediately available forum of global proportions. As traditional publishers scramble to adapt to this shift, social networking platforms like Twitter and Meta (“Facebook”) have become harbors of unverified, even dangerous, information. This position has prompted the creation of “fact-checkers,” which attempt to identify and block information deemed subjectively inappropriate from disseminating into the public. Other industry leaders, like Google, have adopted a similar policy of censoring information and choosing market winners, through the …

Maine, James P. Melcher

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

New Hampshire, Christopher J. Galdieri

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Note From The Editor

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Rhode Island, Emily K. Lynch

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

R&R: Retirements From And Retentions In The Popularly-Elected Senate, Hanna K. Brant, Theodore J. Masthay, L. Marvin Overby

New England Journal of Political Science

While there has been a good bit of scholarly attention paid to career dynamics in—including retirements from—the U. S. House of Representatives, relatively less attention has been paid to the Senate. The few studies of career decisions in the upper chamber (e.g., Bernstein and Wolak 2002; Masthay and Overby 2017) have focused on the more or less modern Senate. In this study, we extend the time series back to the early 1900s, taking in the entire century of the popularly elected Senate. In doing so, we increase our analytical leverage to explore dynamics in the frequency, ratio (compared to …

Race And Reparations In Providence, Rhode Island: The Role Of Public History In Racial Justice, Patrick Shea

New England Journal of Political Science

Contemporary critiques of race reparations programs in the United States often highlight two primary concerns: the shortcomings of similar policy in the past, and a perception of reparations as a kneejerk response to nationwide protests against police violence. This article presents the city of Providence’s 2020 reparations project as a potential response to these criticisms. By contextualizing the bill within the history of reparations in the United States and decades of historical activism on racial violence in the history of Southern New England, this article establishes Providence’s reparations project not simply as a reaction to recent racial justice activism, but …

Fiscal Crisis As Political Artifact: The Problem Of Misplaced Trust, Marc A. Eisner

New England Journal of Political Science

This article examines how early decisions regarding the financial model supporting Social Security—a dedicated payroll tax and a fully-funded reserve account—shaped the understanding of revenue flows and, ultimately, the debt. Although the original model was discarded, the residual features of the model had unintended consequences. The segregation of payroll taxes from the general fund and the distinction between the debt held by the public and the intragovernmental debt accentuated concerns over an imminent fiscal crisis and created pressure for austerity in discretionary spending. The projections of trust fund insolvency, in turn, framed a larger narrative about the entitlement crisis. To …

Connecticut, Paul Petterson

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Massachusetts, Jerold J. Duquette

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

Vermont, Paul Petterson

New England Journal of Political Science

No abstract provided.

All Politics, No Longer Local? A Study Of The New Hampshire House Of Representatives, 2001-2021, Dante J. Scala, J. Mitchell Scacchi

New England Journal of Political Science

New Hampshire’s state legislature is at the heart of its political culture. The Granite State prides itself on the legislature’s intensely local brand of politics, in which representatives remain highly attuned and accountable to their constituents. In this article, we explore whether state representatives still possess strong local ties.

We use biographical data to examine whether legislators build robust local public service experience before joining the legislature. We conclude that the latest generations of New Hampshire state legislators were less likely over the past decade to bring significant local experience with them to the legislature. This decline occurred among both …