American Politics Commons^™

The State Of The Unions 2026: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

The 2026 State of the Unions report finds that while union density remains strong in New York, membership rates remain largely unchanged, despite renewed organizing, successful strikes and strong public support for labor. Union density stands at 20.5 percent in New York City and 20.9 percent statewide, more than double the national rate of 10 percent, yet well below levels recorded two decades ago. The report also examines the persistent divide between public- and private-sector unionization, the industries and workers sustaining organized labor, and the forces limiting growth. A special section considers Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s labor-friendly record and the opportunities …

Scientific Uncertainty As Political Aggression: A Manifesto For Those Who Value Science And Want To Save It From State And Corporate Control, Stephen Demeo

Publications and Research

A manifesto is an opportunity to publicly express strongly held beliefs about a topic that is personally important to an author. It is analytical as it is creative. “Scientific Uncertainty as Political Aggression” is a manifesto that intersects science and politics. It urges those interested in science to examine two different but related topics: scientific uncertainty in measurement—what it is, how it is determined, why it’s important— and the magnification of uncertainty through legal and linguistic tactics used by right-wing politicians and politically supported corporations.

For some time now, the Republican Establishment has cast excessive doubt on scientific findings through …

Fascism Usa: Class And Identity Politics In The Age Of Trump, Marc Edelman

Publications and Research

This essay argues that Trump’s triumph in the 2024 presidential contest represents the consolidation of an oligarchical authoritarian project, backed by a multi-class and (surprisingly, for some) multi-racial electorate. It brought intensified state and freelance attacks on immigrants, labor unions, women, LGBTQ+ people, journalists, civil servants, assorted “political enemies,” and other groups that the MAGA movement targets. It is institutionalizing authoritarian governance structures in ways that will be exceedingly difficult to undo. The paper first addresses the experience of growing up in the shadow of fascism. It analyzes various sectors that supported Trump and the impacts of inflation, incumbency, economic …

The State Of The Unions 2025: A Profile Of Organized Labor In New York City, New York State, And The United States, Ruth Milkman, Joseph Van Der Naald

Publications and Research

Organized labor has taken center stage in the 2020s, with workers leading successful organizing drives at Amazon, Starbucks, Apple, and across a range of industries from health care to higher education. Public approval of unions has reached its highest level in decades, and a new generation of workers is stepping forward as leaders in the movement. The State of the Unions 2025 provides the most comprehensive profile of organized labor in New York City, New York State, and the United States, highlighting where unions are growing, who is leading the charge, and how labor is shaping the future of work …

“Democracy,” Usa, Marc Edelman

Publications and Research

What does it mean to be an effective citizen in a democracy? Answering this question requires unpacking “democracy” and an analysis of institutions that systematically disempower and alienate citizens. This paper briefly examines the contributions of psychoanalysis to understanding democracy and authoritarianism. It scrutinizes U.S. governance institutions and points to democratic deficits and backsliding present even before Trump 1.0 and 2.0. These range from the Electoral College, the Senate, and the Supreme Court to the Federal Communications Commission. All contributed to institutionalizing minority rule and elite capture. Governance institutions failed to deliver what the American people tell opinion pollsters they …

With Fear, Favor, And Flawed Analysis: Decision-Making In The U.S, Immigration Courts, Karen Musalo, Anna O. Law, Annie P. Daher, Katharine Donato, Chelsea Meinders

Publications and Research

Immigration judges (IJs), housed within the Executive Office for Immigration Review within the Department of Justice (DOJ), make decisions in asylum and withholding claims, which are life or death matters. And although their title is “judge,” IJs are DOJ attorneys who lack independence and are par- ticularly susceptible to political pressures. Federal court judges and scholars alike have criticized the quality and fairness of IJ decision-making, and many studies have been carried out to better understand the factors that impact it. The prior studies have relied principally on quantitative data because IJ decisions are not publicly available or searchable in …

Kaleidoscopic Federalism, Roger Karapin

Publications and Research

This chapter focuses on state-level climate policies in the United States in the context of its federalist system. The empirical focus is on policies that have been adopted by many states and that have been most effective in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which include target setting, emissions trading, and sectoral policies on renewable energy, motor vehicles, appliances, and power plants (Karapin 2016; Karapin/Vogel 2024: ch. 1). It addresses five questions: First, what are the most important policies that state governments have adopted over the last few decades? Second, how have those efforts tied in with federal policies in the …

'I Can’T Vote If I Don’T Leave My Apartment’: The Problem Of Residential Violence And Its Impact On The Politics Of Black American Women Living Below The Poverty Line, Alex J. Moffett-Bateau

Publications and Research

Prior research examining political behavior outside of the United States, has shown that violence can have a mixed impact on political engagement. Building on that work, this research examines whether violence shapes the political lives of poor Black women within the United States. I argue, neighborhood violence in the United States can and often does, shape the political behavior of Black women living below the poverty line in public housing. I use ethnographic data to parse out a conceptual framework which articulates connections between residential violence experienced by Black women living in poverty and their politics. Ultimately, my analysis shows …

The Political Ramifications Of Judicial Institutions: Establishing A Link Between Dobbs And Gender Disparities In The 2022 Midterms, Udi Sommers, Or Rappel-Kroyzer, Amy Adamczyk, Lindsay Lerner, Anna Weiner

Publications and Research

In the American system of government, courts are designed to operate within the legal sphere, with limited political interference. Is it possible, though, that a behavior that is at the heart of the political process can be influenced directly by a judicial decision? Focusing on voter registration big data for the universe of voters in North Carolina around the time of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the authors assess the roles of gender, political party affiliation, and age in voter registration. North Carolina is the only state whose voter registry has the necessary granularity over time and information needed. …

Moving Beyond Niceness: Reading Bell Hooks Into The Radical Potential For The Discipline, Alex J. Moffett-Bateau, Jenn M. Jackson

Publications and Research

In honor of bell hooks’ legacy, we engage with her Black feminist scholarship to parse out what she offers to the study of Black politics. We explore the ways hooks rebuffed compulsory calls for niceness and obligatory congeniality via respectability politics. By interrogating the politics of the Black middle class, we locate hooks’ intellectual works as a repudiation of a “politics of niceness” that seeks to maintain the violent status quo of white capitalist heteropatriarchy. We then draw out why the rejection of a politics of niceness matters within broader discussions of race, power, politics, and oppression.

Interest Groups, Local Politics, And Police Unions, Daniel Disalvo

Publications and Research

Police unions raise issues of great importance for political scientists. Yet, the field has neglected them. This essay argues that political scientists should see police unions as important interest groups, empowered by state collective bargaining laws, that are important players in local politics and shapers of the criminal justice system in America. The organizational properties that make police unions important interest groups are described. The important political questions that arise once we consider police union as interest groups are examined. The existing research on police unions—especially their impact on government costs and police behavior—is detailed. Ultimately, the study of collective …

Participatory Budgeting: A Librarian’S Experience, John P. Delooper

Publications and Research

This article discusses one librarian’s experience with the Participatory Budgeting process in New York City. It includes information about how New York’s Participatory Budgeting process works, as well as Participatory Budgeting’s principles, and some discussion of how libraries have utilized PB. In addition, it includes discussion of how librarian skillsets can be especially useful for participatory budgeting.

Partisanship And The Politics Of Covid Vaccine Hesitancy, David Jones, Monika L. Mcdermott

Publications and Research

Has partisan polarization reached the stage that it now affects Americans’ decisions whether or not to get vaccinated against a pervasive and deadly virus such as COVID-19? To date, the evidence has largely been hypothetical—collected before the vaccine was widely available—superficial, or contradictory. Using two original surveys conducted at two different time periods after vaccines became available, this study represents one of the first efforts to systematically analyze the role of party affiliation in predicting vaccine hesitancy. We find that even after controlling for a host of demographic and attitudinal variables, Republicans are significantly less likely—and Democrats more likely—to be …

Critical Dialogue: The Stupidity Of War: American Foreign Policy And The Case For Complacency And American Dove: Us Foreign Policy And The Failure Of Force, Zachary C. Shirkey, John Mueller

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

"Divide, Divert, & Conquer” Deconstructing The Presidential Framing Of White Supremacy In The Covid-19 Era, Vivian Louie, Anahi Viladrich

Publications and Research

Based on the analysis of President Donald J. Trump’s social media, along with excerpts from his speeches and press releases, this study sheds light on the framing of white supremacy during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Our findings reveal that the triad of divide, divert, and conquer was crucial to Trump’s communications strategy. We argue that racist nativism—or racialized national threats to American security—is key to comprehending the external divisiveness in this strategy. When Trump bitterly cast China as the cause of America’s pandemic fallout and Mexico as the source of other key American …

De Rafael Edward A Ted O Com S'Arriba A Ser "Blanc" Als Eua, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

És possible que els lectors hagin sentit contar aquesta anècdota a altra gent, però a mi també em va passar. Dia 8 de novembre del 2016, de bon matí, vaig anar a votar al meu districte electoral de Nova York i me’n vaig anar a la feina amb la satisfacció, no tant d’haver complit el meu deure com a ciutadà, sinó amb la seguretat que el meu vot es materialitzaria en la primera presidenta dels EUA.

Online Or In-Person? Examining College Decisions To Reopen During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Fall 2020, Jacob Felson, Amy Adamczyk

Publications and Research

When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became a major impediment to face-to-face college instruction in spring 2020, most teaching went online. Over the summer, colleges had to make difficult decisions about whether to return to in-person instruction. Although opening campuses could pose a major health risk, keeping instruction online could dissuade students from enrolling. Taking an ecological approach, the authors use mixed modeling techniques and data from 87 percent of two- and four-year public and four-year private U.S. colleges to assess the factors that shaped decisions about fall 2020 instructional modality. Most notably, the authors find that reopening decisions about whether …

Nelson I La Bombolla Electoral De Nova York, Antoni Pizà

Publications and Research

Durant molt de temps m’he enganyat a mi mateix, i de rebot he enganyat els altres: em pensava que no coneixia cap republicà. Quan els amics d’Europa em demanaven detalls sobre les idiosincràsies de la vida nord-americana, sabent que jo vivia a Nova York, la conversa començava o acabava dient: «Però, és clar, tu vius a NY. NY no és els EUA». Certament la «bombolla» de NY és un fet fefaent que en el meu cas s’accentua i es blinda gràcies a una membrana protectora de múltiples teguments.

We Need A Loud And Fractious Poor, Jeff Maskovsky, Frances Fox Piven

Publications and Research

This article explores the political consequences of four decades of consistent humiliation of the poor by the most authoritative voices in the land, and offers insights into ways that new movements are creating spaces for poor people’s political voices to surface and become relevant again. Our specific concern is the challenge that the current humiliation regime poses to those who seek to revive radical, disruptive and fractious anti-poverty activism and politics. By humiliation regime, we mean a form of political violence that maltreats those classified popularly and politically as “the poor” by treating them as undeserving of citizenship, rights, public …

Stop Disparaging Professors. They Work For A Better America, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

Many professors are involved, in one way or another, outside of campus but in much less incendiary activities than politics; they take seriously their roles as public intellectuals. Some actively promote the arts, others are involved with local planning, while even more work with adult education, in programs for school children and curriculum development on the local public-school level. Some even work to break down the barriers between academia and the commercial world, an unenviable but important task.

The Prometheus Bomb: The Manhattan Project And Government In The Dark By Neil J. Sullivan, Peter Parides

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Opening Up To Oers: Electronic Original Sourcebook Vs. Traditional Textbook In The Introduction To American Government Course, Shawna M. Brandle

Publications and Research

Traditional American Government textbooks are expensive and often unpopular with students. New technologies and Open Educational Resources (OERs) open up the potential for change, but questions of quality are ever present: can OERs really help students learn better, or are they just cheaper? I developed an OER based on original sources and compared student learning outcomes with the OER section to those in a free digital textbook section. While the OER I created did not work as well as I had hoped, I nonetheless developed a redesign of my course and my approach to teaching, which is the true benefit …

Predicting The Next Us President By Simulating The Electoral College, Boyan Kostadinov

Publications and Research

We develop a simulation model for predicting the outcome of the US Presidential election based on simulating the distribution of the Electoral College. The simulation model has two parts: (a) estimating the probabilities for a given candidate to win each state and DC, based on state polls, and (b) estimating the probability that a given candidate will win at least 270 electoral votes, and thus win the White House. All simulations are coded using the high-level, open-source programming language R. One of the goals of this paper is to promote computational thinking in any STEM field by illustrating how probabilistic …

Vicarious Retribution In U.S. Public Support For War Against Iraq, Peter Liberman, Linda J. Skitka

Publications and Research

U.S. public anger and desires to avenge the 11 September 2001 terror attacks were redirected toward Iraq partly because of its identity as an Arab and Muslim state. Online panel survey data reveal that citizens who were relatively angry about the terror attacks were more belligerent toward Iraq, and that this effect was strongest among those who perceived Arabs and Muslims in monolithic terms. Angry desires to avenge 9/11 were more persistent for those who saw Arabs and Muslims in that light, and their effects on war support were partially mediated by worsened feelings about Arabs and Muslims in general. …

Is There “Hope For Every Addicted American”? The New U.S. War On Drugs, B Stone

Publications and Research

The U.S. has been waging a War on Drugs for the last forty years. But in the mid-2010s, a series of reforms have rejected this militant approach. How did these policies manage to break through a gridlocked Congress? What is the nature of these reforms, and what are their political implications? Using critical discourse analysis, I demonstrate that a new policy framework of “addiction recovery” defines the political crises of the opioid epidemic, the failure of the War on Drugs, and mass incarceration in terms of disease, attributing Drug War injustices to prejudice against “addiction,” rather than a constellation of …

The Punishment Marketplace: Competing For Capitalized Power In Locally Controlled Immigration Enforcement, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

Neoliberal economics play a significant role in US social organization, imposing market logics on public services and driving the cultural valorization of free market ideology. The neoliberal ‘project of inequality’ is upheld by an authoritarian system of punishment built around the social control of the underclass—among them unauthorized immigrants. This work lays out the theory of the punishment marketplace: a conceptualization of how US systems of punishment both enable the neoliberal project of inequality, and are themselves subject to market colonization. The theory describes the rescaling of federal authority to local centers of political power. Criminal justice policy activism by …

Multiple Baskets: Diverse Racial Frames And The 2016 Republican Primary, Michael Lee

Publications and Research

A strain of racist, xenophobic populism is sweeping through many democracies, jumping from the fringes of political discourse to the mainstream. Understanding how Donald Trump was able to take power while making explicitly racist appeals is vital to understanding this phenomenon. This article examines the 2016 Republican primary, drawing on data from the National Election Study pilot survey to explore how, and why some voters favored Trump over other Republicans. Were Trump voters reacting to the adverse economic effects of globalization, or the 2008 financial crisis? Were they traditional “Southern Strategy” Republicans? Were they white nationalists? While I find evidence …

Introduction To "Migration And The Crisis Of The Modern Nation State", Frank Jacob, Adam Luedtke

Publications and Research

Introduction to an anthology dealing with the interrelationship between migration and a supposedly existing crisis of the modern nation state.

The Triumph Of The Lie: How Honesty And Morality Died In Right-Wing Politics, Aaron Barlow

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Remotivating The Black Vote: The Effect Of Low-Quality Information On Black Voters In The 2016 Presidential Election And How Librarians Can Intervene, Andrew P. Jackson, Denyvetta Davis, James Kelly Alston

Publications and Research

In a phenomenon that was surprising to many, given the racially charged nature of the 2016 presidential election, black voter turnout was significantly lower than the previous two elections. Donald Trump’s victory is attributable to many factors, one of which was the lower participation of black voters in several swing states. To a lesser extent, black support for third-party candidates also aided Trump’s victory. The lower black turnout itself is attributable to several factors, but one factor specifically in the LIS realm was the prevalence of low-quality information and rhetoric and a susceptibility that some black voters had to this …