American Politics Commons^™

California's Local Elections, Joe Mathews

Local Government Reconsidered

"When it comes to understanding the problem of low turnout in California’s local elections, we are overlooking a fundamental cause: Californians are not nearly divided enough."

Democratic Innovations And Local Governance: An International Perspective, Daniel Schugurensky

Local Government Reconsidered

"In the last two decades, two parallel developments could be observed in many countries around the world. One is a so-called ‘democratic deficit’; the other is the proliferation of participatory democracy experiments. The democratic deficit refers to a general dissatisfaction with the institutions of representative democracy. This is expressed in low voter turnouts, low confidence in government and politicians, low levels of political engagement, and a general weakening of the social contract between citizens and their representatives. For instance, in one of the largest polls on this topic, Gallup and BBC (2005) surveyed 50,000 people in 68 countries, and found …

Kindness Initiative, Tom Tait

Local Government Reconsidered

"Five years ago, when Tom Tait began his first term as the Mayor of the Great City of Anaheim, he took the reins of a complex set of challenges.

To most of the world, Anaheim is known as the home of world-class sports teams, internationally renowned attractions, and of course - a very famous mouse. Yet in stark parallel, the city also faced some of the most challenging issues to confront a mayor; homelessness, drug abuse, gang violence and human trafficking.

However Tom had a plan. A single strategy to bring together the polar opposites; to empower law enforcement, community …

Los Angeles County: A Global Metropolis With A Rancho-Era Governing Body, Peter Hong

Local Government Reconsidered

"I open with this tale mainly to give context to a remarkable fact of Los Angeles County government: Ten million people, spread over 4,000 square miles, are governed today by a Board of Supervisors with five members, just as it was during the earliest years of statehood in the Wild West. We can now fly across the country faster than it would have taken Vasquez’s band to go from Monterey Park to San Fernando through the Arroyo Seco, yet we maintain a government structure configured in the horse and telegraph days."

Making Cities And Counties Work In The 21st Century, William Fulton

Local Government Reconsidered

"Most American cities are either too big or too small to serve the people who live in them in a cost-effective manner. The system that created them has ossified over time, making change difficult if not impossible. But short of wholesale change, there are some ways cities large and small can become both more responsive and most cost-effective."

Metropolitan Governance Reform, Myron Orfield, Baris Dawes

Local Government Reconsidered

"The highly fragmented nature of the political systems that govern America’s metropolitan areas contributes mightily to all of these problems. The harms of political fragmentation are many and tightly interrelated. The excessive competition triggered by political fragmentation encourages local jurisdictions to pursue socially and economically undesirable policies. Cities steal malls and office parks from each other, fight tax incentive wars for auto malls, and zone out the poor for fiscal advantage in a process rife with haphazard planning and NIMBY biases. This disjointed status quo scatters new jobs like grapeshot at the furthest edge of development and in so doing …

Next Stop City Hall: Towards A World League Of Participatory Cities And Regions, Bruno Kaufman

Local Government Reconsidered

"Fortunately, there is another side to the backlash against democracy at the national and transnational levels. That side is the subnational one. With urban settlements becoming the preferred place of living, acting and producing across the globe, cities and regions are now quickly evolving into our centers of democracy, the true beacons of people power"

People With Disabilities, Public Spaces, And Democracy, Art Blaser

Local Government Reconsidered

I explore accessible environments by examining the nexus between people with disabilities (PWDs), public spaces, and democracy. Understanding this nexus is essential in local governance.

Rethinking The Systems Of Public Engagement, Matt Leighninger

Local Government Reconsidered

"Over the last twenty years, local officials have pioneered many new engagement processes, tools, and techniques. Some of them are highly intensive, deliberative discussions with citizens. Others are fast, convenient, information-rich digital tools; still others are online networks that add technological dexterity to the power of face-to-face relationships.

Many of these innovations are not only satisfying citizens, they also demonstrate the potential of public engagement for helping officials make difficult decisions and solve formidable problems. But so far, these innovations have been pursued primarily on a temporary, ad hoc basis, and have not been incorporated into the way that governments …

Why Cities Need Strategic Plans By Former Portland, Oregon Mayor Sam Adams, Sam Adams

Local Government Reconsidered

"Will a given public project help a city? Hurt it? Make no difference? What appears to be good for a city might actually be bad. A project that helps out some residents may gentrify out many others. It is often hard to tweeze out the costs, benefits and unintended consequences of the projects and policies that cities take on. Although we will never have a perfect algorithm that weighs the costs and benefits of a given project or policy, we can improve upon relying too much on good intentions and political expedience."

Challenging The Violence And Invisibility Against Women Of Color – A Marxist Imperative, Lilia D. Monzó, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

"We are heading into an era where unbridled greed, racism, sexism, and other forms of hate are, once again, unabashedly proclaimed to the world without remorse. This turn from the once negative association with racism and attempts to avoid being labeled racist has became increasingly evident in the U.S. since 2014, when, astoundingly, a string of White police killings of unarmed Black men went unpunished or unprosecuted (Monzó & McLaren, 2014). In some of these cases the police officers evidenced a complete lack of compassion for the men in their final seconds of life. National coverage of these events made …

Review Of 'Republican Theology: The Civil Religion Of American Evangelicals', John Compton

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"Although I find Lynerd’s characterization of the Christian Right unpersuasive (for reasons explained below), Republican Theology nonetheless performs a valuable service in highlighting the reciprocal influence of religious and political ideas, particularly in the early years of the republic... Lynerd makes a strong case that American evangelicals, while aware of the potential for tension, viewed each commitment as indispensable to the formation of a Godly republic."

Campaign Finance Makes America Go ‘Round: Individual Campaign Contributions And The Effects Of Citizens United On The American Election System, Geneva Sherman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

How political campaigns are financed directly affects every citizen in the United States. This can be attributed to the fact that campaign money is correlated to the laws that pass through congress and the interests that are taken into consideration. After the passage of Citizens United in 2010, campaign donation caps were lifted to allow for virtual unregulated money in politics with PACs, Super PACs and 501(c)(4)s. Although the 2010 passage of Citizens United has increased the influence of corporate and wealthy interests, individual campaign donations represent a major percentage of funds raised and are heavily relied upon. The present …

Muslim Stereotypes And Nuclear Iran, David S. Norick

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Popular opinion among American citizens would attest that the United States should promote the restriction of nuclear weapons being developed. While other nations already have or are developing nuclear weapons, Iran continues to dominate the conversation. It may be possible that the prolonged focus on Iranian nuclear weapons development could be the result of past American intervention, but the United States has not directly attacked Iran since 1988. While the past has impacted opinion, it is not because of Iran itself. After the events of September 11^th, 2001 and the wars in the Middle East, American paranoia has …

Voter Trust And The Power Of Direct Democracy: An Exploration Into The Importance Of Legitimate Forms Of Governing In A Democracy, Emma Brent

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Legitimacy is the only concept that gives a government control of a population. For a democracy, legitimacy is especially imperative to its function. Current polling in the United States reflects the lowest approval ratings of Congress in history, and a sense of hopelessness in the system. Civil unrest has become a trademark of the 21st century, and much of the unrest has spawned from voters believing their voice is lost in a system that never valued it to begin with. When it comes to direct democracy in the U.S., initiated through ballot measures, many studies point to trust in government, …

The Calculus Of Consent, John Thrasher, Gerald Gaus

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy is a groundbreaking work in democratic theory. This chapter argues that it is of continued relevance today, due both to its methodological innovations and its use of those innovative techniques to solve the fundamental problem of democratic justification. In Calculus, James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock fuse economic methods, political theory, and the normative project of showing how democratic institutions of a particular sort can be justified contractually, creating a unique form of democratic contractualism that came to be known as “Constitutional Political Economy” and the more general research program of “Public …

Choosing Progress: Evaluating The "Salesmanship" Of The Vietnam War In 1967, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"As the president and his war managers increasingly saw Vietnam as a 'race between accomplishment and patience,' publicizing progress became an integral part of the war. Yet far from a unique case of bureaucratic dishonesty, the 1967 salesmanship campaign demonstrates the reality, even necessity, of conversation gaps when one is assessing progress in wars where the military struggle abroad matters less than the political one at home."

Nichter On Burr And Kimball, 'Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert Of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, And The Vietnam War', Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Nixon's Nuclear Specter: The Secret Alert of 1969, Madman Diplomacy, and the Vietnam War by William Burr and Jeffrey P. Kimball.

Review Of Global Activism In Food Politics: Powershift, Ashley Wendell Kranjac

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Alana Mann's Global Activism in Food Politics: Power Shift.

Smoller/Grindle: Time Is Now For An Ethics Commission, Fred Smoller, Shirley Grindle

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

"Orange County is the only major metropolitan jurisdiction in California that does not have an Ethics Commission… For these reasons, a group of citizens have written an ordinance to establish an independent, non-partisan Ethics Commission tasked with overseeing ethics and campaign law violations by county elected and appointed officials and county employees."

Political Activism And Trust In Government, Josh Nudelman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

22 percent of United States citizens believe that they can trust the government in Washington to do the right thing most of the time, and Congress has an 11 percent approval rate according to a Gallup Poll. These numbers statistically indicate that citizens do not believe that the individuals they elected to represent them are truly representing them and are advocating on their own behalf. Individuals do not believe congressmen and women have their best interest at hand and are simply trying to please party leaders so they can get reelected. Elected officials are often times wrapped up in scandals …

Partisanship And Foreign Policy, Sauran Mussin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Throughout the Cold War era matters of US foreign policy have been met with increasing bipartisanship as a result of the looming threat of a possible military confrontation with the USSR. Divergence between the two parties was sidelined due to the necessity for unity on account of the military and economical threat that rivaled US interests. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, more recently post 9/11 era and the launch of the Global War on Terror there has been an increasing partisanship disagreement within the US government towards foreign policy. This research paper will attempt to explain the relationship …

Campaign Finance Makes America Go Round: A Demographic Study Of Individual Campaign Contributions, Geneva Sherman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

How political campaigns are financed directly affects every citizen in the United States. This can be attributed to the fact that campaign money is correlated to the laws that pass through congress and the interests that are taken into consideration. Although the 2010 passage of Citizens United has increased the influence of corporate and wealthy interests, individual campaign donations represent a major percentage of funds raised and are heavily relied upon. The present study investigates what type of individual makes these political contributions based on household income, education level, age, gender, race, political party identification and trust in government. The …

The Decline Of Marginal Districts In Congressional Elections, Daniel Zimmerman

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Recent research suggests that competition in Congressional elections has been on the decline for more than 50 years, based on incumbent reelection rates and the percentage of close races. Recent elections show the least competitive outcomes dating back to the Post-War era. Currently, there is a multitude of proposed explanations attempting to figure out why there has been such a significant decline in marginal districts. This includes the advantages incumbents have in the reelection process, the effects of redistricting/gerrymandering, the impact of recent partisan polarization, and the significance of campaign finance. In my research I will look at precinct and …

The Public Choice Theory In Public Opinion, Dorji Tshoden

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The World Bank defines corruption as “the abuse of public office for private gain” and while this social phenomenon exists at many levels of institutions, I will be focusing on corruption in the American political system in this analysis. This paper seeks to focus on the impact of one’s distrust in the government and how they perceive the economy and corruption in the government. Therefore I will be testing the subsequent hypothesis of: people who view the government officials to be corrupt, will be more likely to be of the notion that the state of the economy is bad than …

Economic Voting: Election Outcomes At The Toss Of A Coin?, Damaris Bangean

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Given the severe shock of the 2008 economic crisis, this paper examines the relationship the relationship between individual and aggregate economic evaluations and democratic accountability through data analysis of the 2012 American National Election Studies. It includes statistical analysis of presidential and congressional approval, personal restrospective and prospective economic evaluations, macroeconomic restrospective and prospective evaluations, and other relevant variables, such as income and ideological preferences to broaden the scope of analysis on political behavior. As the notion of democratic accountability is a foundational pillar of the American political system, such studies are critical to election years following economic fluctuations, where …

Support For Welfare, Matthew Reminick

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Although there is much debate over the effectiveness of social programs, there has not been much research attempting to discover who exactly supports spending government resources on welfare. Previous research suggests that the American people are divided over creating a welfare state. Many economic data shows that providing assistance is beneficial short-term, but can have varying effects in the future. The research I conducted attempts to define and analyze welfare while surmising which groups of Americans are most likely to back increased federal spending towards welfare. Using the ANES 2012 data, I evaluated voter responses to election surveys, paying close …

The Effect Of Voter Identification Laws On Voter Turnout, Robert Heins

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

My research project studies the relationship between voter turnout and voter identification laws. This is a very controversial topic, with proponents for each side arguing that the change, or lack of change, would affect voter turnout in some way. Some states have implemented different forms of voter identification, and by comparing the state’s voter turnout before and after the new polices, the effects of voter identification laws become more apparent. Studies have been completed on this topic, however many are contradictory and do don't address specific changes but overall trends.

My independent variable is the status of voter identification laws …

Young Voter Turnout, Conner Larkin

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Low voter turnout amount young adults in the United States is problematic especially compared to older adults. This paper will explore why there is a low young voter turnout rate. Recent literature has proposed that educational achievement and economic advancement has accounted for higher voter turnout in older adults, while the lack there of is attributed to lower young turnout. Other literature also points to apathy as a possible causation for low youth votes. The Youth don't realize the impact they can have on an election, or the impact the election can have on them, because of lack of interest. …

Political Participation Of Millennials In The United States And Western Europe, Jenny Bhatia

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Millennials are a very large generation, the second largest in the US history. More than half of the millennials are already of voting age adults, have graduated from schools or college, and are into careers. Millennials are often described with more than a bit of a sneer, as the new "me" generation and have always participated in politics at a lower rate due to a various reasons such as the generation’s size, demographics, and views on cultural, foreign policy, role of government, and economic issues which somehow, make them unique when compared to the older generation. This research will analyze …