Political Science Commons^™

Geographies Of Quiescence? Social Movements, Panoramas Of Struggle And Baltic Austerity Politics, Jokubas Salyga

Political Science Faculty Publications

The recent thirtieth anniversaries of restored Baltic territorial sovereignties coincide with a quandary in which the region appears “highly unequal but classless.” This article revisits the conduct of the 2008–2011 crisis management operations through the prisms of class struggle and social movements. It conceptualizes the imposition of austerity measures as a class-constituted social movement from above. I argue that the latter has to be positioned relationally against locally articulated forms of resistance from below that have so far remained insufficiently explored. Therefore, the practice of unearthing Baltic “militant particularisms” carries the potential of subverting the “absent protest thesis” in the …

Policy Stringency, Political Conditions, And Public Performances Of Pandemic Control: An International Comparison, Dan Chen, Yong Li, Jiebing Wu

Political Science Faculty Publications

What factors might explain the cross-country variations in COVID-19 public performances and what lessons can be drawn to be better-prepared for future pandemics? This study focuses on the effects of policy stringency on COVID-19 public health outcomes to gain insights into national-level state responses to COVID-19 and the conditions for their effectiveness. Using data from 136 countries comprising 91.4% of the global population, we find that more stringent policies lead to lower infection and death rates. More importantly, the negative effects of restrictive policies on infection and death rates are moderated by political trust and democracy levels, possibly through the …

An Overview Of The Republican Party After The 2022 Midterm Elections, Michael Espinoza

Political Science Faculty Publications

Key Takeaways

• The supposed red wave ended up being a red trickle – a missed opportunity but not a complete failure.
• The opportunity for a sizeable swing to the right went unfulfilled – but the Republican Party still won a narrow House majority.
• Trump backed Senate candidates cost the Republican Party a Senate majority.
• The Republican Party still grapples with the Trump dilemma; however, moving on from Trump would not be easy, nor would it signal change within the Republican Party, ‘Make America Great Again’ cultural conservatism took hold of the party before Trump – it merely went by another …

Political Competition And Judicial Independence: How Courts Fill The Void When Legislatures Are Ineffective, Joshua Boston, David Carlson, J. Brandon Duck-Mayr, Greg Sasso

Political Science Faculty Publications

What effect does political competition have in generating de facto judicial independence? We argue that competition in a legislature can drive increases in de facto judicial independence. Our game-theoretic model reveals that increased competition for seats impedes legislators’ ability to enact their platforms, regardless of government turnover probability, and increased legislative fractionalization also makes court intervention more likely. Utilizing a sample of democratic states, empirical evidence suggests when a country’s legislature is increasingly fractionalized among parties or has increasing seat turnover, we observe increases in de facto independence. This research provides new perspectives on the link between independence and competition.

An Equality Of Security. Bentham, Thompson, And The Principles Subsidiary To Utility, Mark J. Kaswan

Political Science Faculty Publications

In the “Principles of the Civil Code,” Jeremy Bentham identifies four “principles subsidiary to utility”: subsistence, abundance, equality, and security. Whereas these subsidiary principles form part of the bedrock of classical liberalism, in this essay I show that in the hands of his friend and disciple William Thompson, they are transformed into the foundations for socialism. Where Bentham prioritizes security over equality, and security of property takes a preeminent role, Thompson shows that the system of individual competition and private property—his way of describing capitalism—is best characterized by the “inequality of security.” Based on the labor theory of property, Thompson …

Banshees Of Late Capitalism: War, Ecology, & Alienation, Bryant W. Sculos

Political Science Faculty Publications

This review essay explores the concepts of war, ecology/human-nonhuman relations, and alienation through a critical analysis of McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).

More Equitable Fiscal Systems Are Needed To Improve Welfare Provision For Migrant Workers In China And Vietnam, Jake Lin, Jingyu Mao

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Profits Of (The Critique Of) Patriarchy: On Toxic Masculinity, Feminism, & Corporate Capitalism In The Barbie Movie, Bryant W. Sculos

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article explicates the political, social, economic, and cultural contribution of Barbie (2023). Through a critical and normative analysis of four different prominent reviews of the film, this essay explores the quality of discourse surrounding Barbie, with particular emphasis on its feminist critique of toxic masculinity and lack of a coherent criticism of capitalism.

Chinese Celebrities’ Political Signaling On Weibo, Dan Chen, Gengsong Gao

Political Science Faculty Publications

In China, celebrities can dominate public discourse and shape popular culture, but they are under the state’s close gaze. Recent studies have revealed how the state disciplines and co-opts celebrities to promote patriotism, foster traditional values, and spread political propaganda. However, how do celebrities adapt to the changing political environment? Focusing on political signaling on Weibo, we analyze a novel dataset and find that the vast majority of top celebrities repost from official accounts of government agencies and state media outlets, though there are variations. Younger celebrities with more followers tend to repost from official accounts more. Celebrities from Taiwan …

La Globalización Y El Surgimiento Del Estado Fortaleza, Clyde W. Barrow

Political Science Faculty Publications

A partir de la década de 1990, la teoría de la globalización ha descartado rutinariamente el Estado-nación como irrelevante para comprender el desarrollo político y económico contemporáneo. Así, una serie de libros y artículos han defendido la crisis del Estado-nación, la retirada del Estado e incluso el fin del Estado-nación. En cambio, este artículo considera la relación entre la teoría de la globalización y la teoría del Estado para argumentar que los Estados-nación son los principales agentes de la globalización, así como los garantes de las condiciones políticas y materiales necesarias para la acumulación de capital global. Este texto argumenta …

Could Canada Lead The Formation Of A New Global Geoengineering Regime?, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

As the effects of climate change continue to worsen, nations will have the opportunity to develop and deploy climate manipulation techniques known as geoengineering to forestall the worst effects. Indeed, some have argued that the nations of the world cannot meet their Paris Agreement goals without them. However, these technologies can be global in their effects, ecologically uncertain, and potentially prejudicial to non-deploying nations. Canada is well suited to lead the formation of an anticipatory governance regime due to its technological knowledge, the proximity of the Arctic as a potential testing ground, and its role as an internationally respected middle …

Celebrity Politics In The American South: The Case Of Ben “Cooter” Jones, Richard T. Longoria

Political Science Faculty Publications

Celebrities get involved in American politics as activists and candidates for office. The literature suggests that celebrities have many advantages over traditional political candidates. However, the case of Ben Jones, “Cooter” from The Dukes of Hazzard, suggests that fame is not enough to win elections. The political environment is the decisive factor in determining whether a celebrity candidate wins or loses an election. The South’s realignment from Democrat to Republican made it difficult for Democrat Ben Jones to succeed in a changing South. Like other celebrities that lost the fundraising battle Jones lost several bids for office. Celebrities, like Fred …

A Tough Woman Around Tender Men: Dilma Rousseff, Gendered Double Bind, And Misogynistic Backlash, Farida Jalalzai, Brianna Kreft, Lizbet Martinez-Port, Pedro A. G. Dos Santos, Brigid M. Smith

Political Science Faculty Publications

Dilma Rousseff's presidency ended in controversial form. The first woman elected to the position in Brazil, Rousseff's 2016 impeachment was seen as a coup by her supporters and as a necessary step for democracy by her detractors. With the Brazilian economy facing its worst recession in history and the Car Wash corruption scandal ravaging the political class, critics continually raised questions about Rousseff's leadership style and abilities. This article analyzes how this criticism in part can be attributed to gendered subjective understandings of preferred leadership traits. Using a thematic analysis of interviews with political actors in five different Brazilian states …

Chapter 1: Celebrity Society, Richard T. Longoria

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Domestic Impact Of International Shaming: Evidence From Climate Change And Human Rights, Faradj Koliev, Douglas D. Page, Jonas Tallberg

Political Science Faculty Publications

Do international shaming efforts affect citizens’ support for government policies? While it is a frequent claim in the literature that shaming works through domestic politics, we know little about how and when international criticism affects domestic public opinion. We address this question through an originally designed survey experiment in Sweden, which (i) compares the effects of international shaming in two issue areas—human rights and climate change, and (ii) tests whether government responses to criticism moderate the impact of shaming. Our main findings are fourfold. First, we find substantial effects of international shaming on domestic public opinion. These effects hold across …

Gendering Coalitional Presidentialism In Brazil, Malu A. C. Gatto, Pedro A. G. Dos Santos, Kristin N. Wylie

Political Science Faculty Publications

Coalitional presidentialism is a power-sharing strategy deployed in multiparty presidentialist democracies that entails the distribution of cabinet positions to coalition partners to facilitate governability. This model of governance is increasingly common worldwide, gaining growing scholarly interest. The consequences of coalitional presidentialism for women’s cabinet representation, however, have received scant attention. In this article, we provide a gendered analysis of the Brazilian experience with coalitional presidentialism. Through the quantitative analysis of an original dataset of all ministerial appointments (N = 597) under eight Brazilian presidents (1985–2019) and a descriptive assessment of the coalitional dynamics during that period, we evaluate the …

Gendered Political Violence As A Legal Framework: An Analysis Of The Brazilian Reality, Adriana Jacob Carneiro, Farida Jalalzai, Pedro A. G. Dos Santos

Political Science Faculty Publications

In August of 2021, the Brazilian government sanctioned in the Electoral Code and the Penal Code the typification of violence against women in politics (VAWIP) as a punishable crime. This research provides a critical analysis of the implementation of the 2021 Law n. 14.192 that typifies VAWIP as a crime. To do so we discuss how the law addresses, in theory, the types of VAWIP identified in the extant literature (physical, psychological, sexual, economic, and semiotic). We then discuss Brazil’s VAWIP law contextualizing it within the Brazilian political landscape, regional (as well as global) perspectives on the issue, and comparing …

Review Of Cachita’S Streets: The Virgin Of Charity, Race, And Revolution In Cuba By Jalane D. Schmidt, Gary Prevost

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

George Murphy: A Celebrity Politician, Richard T. Longoria

Political Science Faculty Publications

There is a growing literature on celebrity involvement in American politics. Celebrities have advantages that are beneficial when they seek elected office, but they can also lose elections despite these advantages. Because George Murphy was a Hollywood actor who both won and lost electoral contests, his case can provide insights about why celebrities win and lose elections. Having appeared in over forty movies, Murphy was a nationally recognized figure when he ran successfully for the U.S. Senate in 1964. He demonstrated that celebrities have the talents, fame, and resources to succeed in the electoral arena. These attributes alone, however, were …

Monoliths Of Authoritarianism, Cartographies Of Popular Disenfranchisement And The Ascendance Of The Far-Right In Estonia, Jokubas Salyga

Political Science Faculty Publications

This article approaches the electoral success of Estonia’s Conservative People’s Party (EKRE) from a Critical Political Economy perspective. It explores immediate and longer-term factors conducive to the surge in the support of this far-right party. After situating the radical rightist reaction in Estonia within the wider continuum of far-right morphologies across Europe, the article attributes the immediate factors explaining EKRE’s ascendence to the conjuncture of the 2008 economic crisis and its resolution. It is contended that the authoritarian neoliberal (post-)crisis environments engendered a surveillance-based imposition of fiscal restraint at the European level and recalibrated the repertories of state interventionism at …

Reevaluating Islamist Electoral Success And Participation In Government, Justin Curtis

Political Science Faculty Publications

Under what conditions will Islamist parties perform well in elections and what happens to the political regime should they gain political power? The canonical hypothesis—“one man, one vote, one time”—argues that Islamist parties are likely to perform well whenever elections become free and that their electoral success is likely to lead to a democratic backslide. Others argue that Islamists are not as popular as this hypothesis suggests or that only moderate Islamist parties are likely to perform well and these parties are unlikely to deliberalize a regime. I propose a modification to these hypotheses, and argue that participation in governments, …

Changing Household Registration And Worker Welfare In China And Vietnam, Jake Lin, Jingyu Mao

Political Science Faculty Publications

China and Vietnam are of the few countries that still implement household registration (hukou in Chinese and ho khau in Vietnamese). Regarded as one of the most important institutional mechanisms that underlie and sustain the profound rural–urban division in both countries, the systems record the mundane attributes of each individual of a household yet determine many of the vital aspects of the life, if not the fate, of citizens, particularly the rural-urban migrants. The change and continuity of these systems are closely associated with these countries’ economic and social development, interacting with other processes such as industrialisation, liberalisation of the …

The More Things Change ... Governance And Resistance Along The Mexico–Guatemala Border, Carla Angulo-Pasel

Political Science Faculty Publications

With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López …

The More Things Change ... Governance And Resistance Along The Mexico–Guatemala Border, Carla Angulo-Pasel

Political Science Faculty Publications

With the politics of borders, the socio-economic divide between the United States and Mexico is evident. The geographic proximity to the U.S. makes the Mexico–Guatemala border an extension of the U.S. border enforcement regime. This article argues that the politics surrounding the U.S.–Guatemala border have not necessarily changed, because, at the core, the main objective of these border governance practices is to stop the movement of undesirable bodies (Khosravi 2011). Further, the article argues that the practices of containment force migrants to resist through their movement and seek strategies of survival. By comparing the administrations of Peña Nieto and López …

Nationalism In The ‘Nation Of Immigrants’: Race, Ethnicity, And National Attachment, Joe R. Tafoya, Álvaro José Corral, David L. Leal

Political Science Faculty Publications

This paper compares nationalist attitudes among Whites, Latinos, and African Americans. The research on nationalism and national attachment draws varied conclusions about how race and ethnicity structure such attitudes; some find that Whites have the strongest views, while others see more similarities than differences. Using the General Social Survey of 2014, we examine three separate dimensions of nationalism: American nationalism, American national identity, and American national pride. We test for differences across race and ethnicity as well as how such attitudes structure opinions about immigrants. Despite some expectations in the literature that views might vary by group, we generally find …

Property, Ownership And Employee Ownership: Employee Control In Esops, Mark J. Kaswan

Political Science Faculty Publications

Purpose

Most people associate ownership with the ability to control something. In the USA, employee share (or stock) ownership plans (ESOPs) are one of the principal forms of employee ownership. However, most ESOPs give employees very limited rights of control over the company they own. This paper explore this conflict by examining theories of property and ownership to determine whether the right to participate in decision-making is inherent in the idea of ownership as it is generally understood. Ultimately, the author argues that the law governing ESOPs should be revised to give employees a larger role in the governance of …

Maximizing Social Equity As A Pillar Of Public Administration: An Examination Of Cannabis Dispensary Licensing In Pennsylvania, A. Lee Hannah, Daniel J. Mallinson, Lauren Azevedo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Public administration upholds four pillars of an administrative practice: economy, efficiency, effectiveness, and social equity. The question arises, however, how do administrators balance effectiveness and social equity when implementing policy? Can the values contributing to administrative decisions be measured? This study leverages the expansion of medical cannabis programs in the states to interrogate these questions. The awarding of dispensary licenses in Pennsylvania affords the ability to determine the effect of social equity scoring on license award decisions, relative to criteria that represent the other pillars. The results show that safety and business acumen were the most important determining factors in …

Citizens In Peace Processes, Caroline A. Hartzell, Felix Haass, Martin Ottmann

Political Science Faculty Publications

Citizen engagement in and support for peace processes have been deemed important for sustainable peace after civil wars. Yet much of what we know about peace processes in civil wars centers on the interests of elite actors. This special feature aims to advance a research agenda focusing on citizens in peace processes to address this mismatch. In the introduction to the special feature, we first present empirical evidence situating citizens in relation to civil war peace processes. We then trace the current state of the literature on the roles of citizens in peace processes. Following that, we introduce a conceptual …

For Hemispheric Unity, A Change In U.S. Foreign Policy Is Needed, Brett J. Kyle, Andrew G. Reiter

Political Science Faculty Publications

On March 10, President Joe Biden announced that the United States would designate Colombia as a Major Non-NATO Ally. This designation extends special military and economic privileges to Colombia, including participation in joint defense research and training, and the ability to purchase weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and other surplus war material from the United States. This came on the heels of a U.S. delegation traveling to Venezuela for the first time since the United States broke off diplomatic relations and closed its embassy there in 2019. Motivating the U.S. overture is the potential to resume purchasing Venezuelan oil to compensate for …

Facebook Algorithm Changes May Have Amplified Local Republican Parties, Kevin Reuning, Anne Whitesell, A. Lee Hannah

Political Science Faculty Publications

In this research note we document changes to the rate of comments, shares, and reactions on local Republican Facebook pages. Near the end of 2018, local Republican parties started to see a much higher degree of interactions on their posts compared to local Democratic parties. We show how this increase in engagement was unique to Facebook and happened across a range of over a thousand local parties. In addition, we use a changepoint model to identify when the change happened and find it lines up with reported information about the change in Facebook’s algorithm in 2018. We conclude that it …