Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Organizational And Partisan Brokerage Of Social Benefits: Social Policy Linkages In Mexico, Candelaria Garay, Brian Palmer-Rubin, Mathias Poertner

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

The expansion of large-scale non-discretionary social policy has been one of the most important policy innovations in Latin America in recent decades. While these benefits have reduced the political manipulation of low-income citizens, discretionary social programs—whose distribution follows opaque criteria and are often allocated according to political considerations—continue to exist. Employing an original survey in Mexico, we explore how citizens, both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries, experience and perceive access to discretionary social programs. While the literature on clientelism emphasizes the distribution of discretionary benefits by party agents in exchange for electoral support, a number of recent studies have found that access …

Ending Federalism As We Know It: Review Of The Divided States Of America By Donald F. Kettl, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Revising The "Hibernation" Narrative: Technocratic Legal Experts And The Cold War Origins Of The "Justice Cascade", Mark S. Berlin

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Accounts of the rise of atrocity justice often characterize the Cold War decades as a time of "hibernation." I argue that this hibernation narrative, and explanations for the rise of atrocity justice in general, overlook important developments during the Cold War period that later helped facilitate the so-called "justice cascade." Specifically, this period witnessed consequential advancements in the institutionalization, domestication, and professionalization of international criminal law. In contrast to studies that emphasize the roles of civil society activists or policymakers in the rise of atrocity justice, the developments I highlight were often driven by the work of technocratic legal experts.

Trump Is Attempting A Brazen, Anti-Democratic Power Grab. And It Has Nothing To Do With The Election, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Organizing Twenty-First-Century Activism: From Structure To Strategy In Latin American Social Movements, Jessica Rich

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

This article examines how the organizational structure of a social movement affects the tactics it is likely to adopt. Hybrid movements gained prominence at the start of the twenty-first century. Like movements of the past, they protested on the streets; but unlike the movements of the past, they also acted like interest groups by lobbying government over policy. Considered through the lens of traditional scholarship, this phenomenon presents a puzzle. Loose networks of activists are thought to be good at contentious politics but incapable of negotiating with government. By contrast, federations of interest groups are seen to be good at …

Direct Democracy And The Fate Of Medicaid Expansion, Philip Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Affordable Care Act In The States: Fragmented Politics, Unstable Policy, Daniel Beland, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Many argue that the frustrated implementation of the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) stems from the unprecedented level of political polarization that has surrounded the legislation. This article draws attention to the law's “institutional DNA” as a source of political struggle in the 50 states. As designed, in the context of US federalism, the law fractured authority in ways that has opened up the possibility of contestation and confusion. The successful implementation of the ACA varies not only across state lines but also across the various components of the law. In particular, opponents of the ACA have experienced their greatest …

Food And Power, Brian Palmer-Rubin

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Stuck In Neutral? Federalism, Policy Instruments, And Counter-Cyclical Responses To Covid-19 In The United States, Philip Rocco, Daniel Beland, Alex Waddan

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Federalism plays a foundational role in structuring public expectations about how the United States will respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, as both an unprecedented public-health crisis and an economic recession. As in prior crises, state governments are expected to be primary sites of governing authority, especially when it comes to immediate public-health needs, while it is assumed that the federal government will supply critical counter-cyclical measures to stabilize the economy and make up for major revenue shortfalls in the states. Yet there are reasons to believe that these expectations will not be fulfilled, especially when it comes to the critical …

Designing Policy Resilience: Lessons From The Affordable Care Act, Daniel Beland, Michael Howlett, Philip Rocco, Alex Waddan

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Public policies are the products of political conflict, constituted by mixes of diverse tools and instruments intended to achieve multiple goals that may change over time and not always be internally consistent or coherent. Recent studies dealing with policy robustness and resilience have theorized about the temporal development of mixes of policy instruments and the need to ensure consistency and coherence over time, yet they have generally failed to develop these insights into lessons for policymakers and practitioners. Drawing on evidence from the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in the USA, this paper examines the …

Review Of Red State Blues: How The Conservative Revolution Stalled In The States, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Trump’S Fight Over Covid-19 Numbers Shows How The Hollowing Out Of Expertise Can Be Dangerous For American Democracy, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

As in any emergency or disaster, institutional agreement over the statistics of the Covid-19 pandemic is incredibly important. During the crisis, President Trump has questioned federally requested research around the spread of the pandemic and the amount of equipment needed to tackle it. Philip Rocco writes on how Trump’s efforts to undermine a common understanding of the numbers around the crisis can be a threat to democracy itself.

Wisconsin’S Pandemic Primary Will Put Voters’ Lives In Danger, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

We Must Ensure Free And Fair Elections Do Not Become Another Casualty Of Covid-19, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

With the outbreak of Covid-19, much of the nation’s infrastructure is being tested as never before, including its electoral institutions. Philip Rocco writes that decisions now being taken by public officials about primary elections now, and the general in November, need to take into account of both how the pandemic may make it harder for some at-risk populations to vote, and how delaying votes can create new barriers to participation.

Introduction: An Unsettled Time From American Political Development And The Trump Presidency, Philip B. Rocco, Zachary Callen

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

As the words of his inaugural address echoed across a rain- soaked National Mall, Donald Trump cut a hole in time. His presidency, he said, marked a breaking point in American politics. No longer would a “small group” of elites reap the benefits of government while “forgotten Americans” bore the cost. “Now,” Trump suggested, “we are only looking to the future.” Even so, the speech telegraphed a dystopian pre sent; the United States had become a landscape of rusted- out factories, cities teeming with crime, and national borders defenseless against terrorist threats. Gone was the promised land that Trump’s predecessors …

Primary Primers: While Trump’S Impeachment Now Seems Forgotten, It Damaged His Political Capital And Reduced His Sway In The Republican Party, Julia R. Azari

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

To say that 2020 has been an eventful year is an understatement. A global pandemic, national uprisings against racial injustice, an economic collapse – these are just the major items. It’s easy to forget that earlier this year, President Trump survived an impeachment trial. Below, Julia Azari explores how this has affected the 2020 election. She argues it appears to have damaged his standing as an individual and made him even more reliant on the Republican Party, thus giving him less influence in shaping the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and reducing his political capital in an election year.

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Inequality In The Social Mind: Social Comparison And Support For Redistribution, Meghan Condon, Amber Wichowsky

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

Income inequality is fundamentally relational in nature, but research on the American public’s response to it tends to examine individuals in isolation, concluding that support for redistribution is unresponsive to inequality. We focus instead on perceptions of relative socioeconomic position, which we manipulate experimentally through imagined social interactions with high- or low-status others. We find that subjects who make social comparisons between themselves and someone who is socioeconomically advantaged perceive their own status as lower, assess their own socioeconomic status more accurately, and become more supportive of social welfare spending, even though we provide no factual information about the income …

Trumpism And The Dual Tracks Of American Polarization, Paul Nolette

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Policy State And The Post-Truth Presidency, Philip B. Rocco

Political Science Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.