American Politics Commons^™

The Evolution Of Distributive Benefits: The Rise Of Letter-Marking In The United States Congress, Russell W. Mills, Nicole Kalaf-Hughes

The Journal of Economics and Politics

The recent moratorium on earmarks has given rise to a new and largely hidden practice for securing distributive benefits: letter-marking. Letter-marking occurs when members of Congress ask (in writing) the head of an agency to retain or allocate distributive benefits in their districts. While letter-marking is common in Washington, the scholarly literature has ignored this practice. We use a unique dataset of 101 congressional letters relating to FAA funding and empirically assess the degree to which the letter-writer’s characteristics and the letter’s content impact the likelihood of achieving the objectives. In doing so, we offer a nuanced understanding of letter-marking.

Identity And Efficacy: Latinos In The United States, Ryan Salzman, Shauna Reilly

The Journal of Economics and Politics

Questions about the effect of identity on political attitudes and behavior in the United States are increasingly important as its population becomes more diverse. The primary driver of that increased diversity is the expansion of the Latino population. Most research focuses on differences between various ethnic groups. This research project seeks to understand the effect of identity strength within the Latino population on attitudes about government. Using the 2006 Latino National Survey, the role of identity on efficacy is explored. The results indicate that efficacy among Latinos is related to identity. We also find results that reinforce the presence of …

Academic Unions In Recessionary Times, John Rothgeb, Katherine Mitakides

The Journal of Economics and Politics

This article investigates how unionization affected the way colleges and universities handled issues relating to faculty pay and layoffs, degree program cancellations and teaching loads, and student services during the severe recession that hit the country between late 2007 and early 2010. The data are from a national survey of department chairs. The results reveal that unionization reduced the likelihood of faculty pay actions and that classes would be taught at extended times, but was associated with a greater chance that classes would be offered at off-campus locations. Unionization had no effect on budget cuts, whether faculty were laid-off or …

Weapons Of Mass Destruction In The Curriculum: Textbook Narratives And Georgia's Standards Of Excellence, Kason Kendall, Robby Freetly

Teaching Social Studies in the Peach State

This article examines how weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and the 2003 invasion of Iraq are represented in Georgia's social studies curriculum. Standard SSUSH23.a of the Georgia Standards of Excellence requires instruction on the War on Terror but does not specify how WMDs or the Iraq War's contested justification should be addressed, leaving curriculum deelopers significant discretion. This study analyzes two widely circulated U.S. history textbooks, The American Visoin and United States History: Reconstruction to the Present, finding that both emphasize WMDs as a central justification for invasion while giving limited attention to post-invasion findings that no stockpiles were discovered. …

I, Too, Am America: Latino Men, American Identity, And Support For Conservative Immigration Policy, Nadia Ratib-Eixarch

Holster Scholar Projects

In the 2024 Presidential election, Donald Trump won 43% of the Latino male vote and 32% of the Latina vote, despite his history of anti-immigration and anti-Latino rhetoric. This 11-point gender gap among Latino voters exceeded the seven-point gender gap among white voters. Although Trump ran on anti-immigration policy, Latino male voters recorded their main concerns as inflation and jobs, suggesting a divergence between Latino male voters’ perceptions of their interests and those of the larger Latino community. Schaffner and Soler (2025) argue that this divergence is because Latino men who support Trump no longer identify primarily as Latino.

This …

Mapping St. Louis History: Slavery, Redlining, And The May 16th Tornado, Safa M. Altamimi, Aster Horbanova, Riley J. Bearden, Vivian B. Rhodes, Bridget Ragan

Undergraduate Research Symposium

For this project, our group members are traveling across St.Louis to areas that are affected by the May 16th tornado. We will be taking pictures and using ArcGIS survey123 to input data connecting the tornado to historical forces such as Redlining and Slavery. Using this data, we will be creating an ArcGIS StoryMap and presenting our findings.

Fewer Polling Places, More Choices For Voters, Jake Shaw, David C. Kimball, Anita Manion

Political Science Faculty publications

Voting is the most basic act of democratic participation, yet for many Americans the hardest part is simply getting to the right place at the right time. Vote centers offer a way forward, but only with careful implementation. Vote centers are an alternative to assigned polling places, where jurisdictions host fewer voting locations but allow residents to vote at any location. While vote centers began roughly 20 years ago, most of the adopters shifted to vote centers after the COVID pandemic in 2020.Our research team has compiled a database of jurisdictions that have adopted vote centers. We have documented at …

Eviscerating The State: An Update, Jean L. Cohen

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

A year after the publication of her article “Eviscerating the State: The New Oligarchic and Authoritarian Project to Undermine American Constitutional Democracy (Emancipations, Vol.4: Iss.2, July 2025) Jean Cohen looks again at the threats to American constitutional democracy posed by new oligarchic and authoritarian actors in the economy, the state, and society.

Border Fascism And The Fascistization Of Society, Nicholas P. De Genova

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

The massive destruction and social dislocation wrought by capitalist crisis has culminated, historically, in the brutal cataclysms of fascism and other forms of authoritarian rule. Today, across the globe, we are confronted with the aggressive advance and entrenchment of a variety of such authoritarian political projects. Anxious discourses about ascendant fascism have become perfectly mainstream. These developments command our acute attention and critical analysis. This essay addresses these dire questions and the conceptual vexations surrounding the concept of fascism, particularly as it has been elaborated in various Marxist analyses.  Specifically, much of the debate around fascism as an analytical category …

Understanding The Political Profile Of Long Island’S Central American Electorate: A Case Study Of Long Island’S Majority-Latino Towns, Brett J. Patrick

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

As Salvadoran and Guatemalan migrants settled en masse across Long Island from the 1980s to the 2010s, seven Latino-majority towns emerged, each with distinct voting patterns that diverge from broader national Latino trends and from one another. This study examines how and why these Central American communities vote by integrating precinct-level election returns with the U.S. Census’ American Community Survey data. Using variables such as income, population density, education, citizenship status, and language, it identifies correlations between demographic conditions and partisan vote share. This approach reveals how socioeconomic factors shape political behavior within Salvadoran-American and Guatemalan-American enclaves in Nassau and …

Boot Camp For The Mind: The Role Of Jpme In Developing National Security Strategists, Joseph Gagliano, Nick Gvosdev, Derek Reveron, Rebecca Russo, Dana Struckman

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint professional military education (JPME) plays a deliberate and pivotal role in an officer’s operational and strategic growth. JPME provides a structured environment for officers to develop the intellectual agility, critical thinking, and collaborative skills necessary to lead complex decisionmaking at headquarters away from the battlefield. Translating broad strategic guidance into employable strategies and executable plans requires (1) assessing the international security environment and (2) analyzing domestic policymaking system constraints. This approach stresses that a comprehensive education in national security affairs must acknowledge that a well-crafted security strategy is meaningless if not informed by the domestic policymaking system that develops …

“As The Developing Situation Warrants”: U.S. Counterterrorism Policy Considered Through The 1994 Gerry Adams Visa Debate, Olivia T. Sullivan

Swarthmore Undergraduate History Journal

This thesis analyzes the 1994 U.S. decision to grant Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams a visa and what it reveals about American counterterrorism policy in the immediate post–Cold War period. Long suspected of senior involvement in the Provisional Irish Republican Army during the Troubles (1968–1998), Adams had previously been denied entry under terrorism-related immigration provisions. His case became a flashpoint inside the U.S. government: officials debated whether diplomatic opportunity, domestic political incentives, and momentum toward peace in Northern Ireland warranted a departure from the prior “no concessions” posture toward IRA-linked figures. Situating the controversy within U.S. terrorism discourse from the …

Carnival In Tijuana: A Visual Study Of The Brinco Del Chinelo, Nancy Rios-Contreras, Chenesia Brown

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

The Mexico–United States border is politicized and perceived as an undesirable, violent place and simultaneously a desirable cultural location rich in tradition. This study aimed to develop a comprehensive understanding of the dynamic nature of the Tijuana–California border by exploring the performance of culture in a geopolitical border place. So far, most border research has concentrated on negative portrayals of cities and the border rather than on the joyful and festive lived experiences. Grounded in a visual sociology methodology, data collection included photo-ethnography and fieldwork observations conducted between 2022 and 2024 during an annual summer carnival, Carnaval Sin Fronteras [Carnival …

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 …

The Influence Of Childhood Experiential History On U.S. Vice President Jd Vance’S Personality, Amelia Brower, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of a developmental causal analysis of the adult personality of U.S. vice president JD Vance, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data relating to Vance’s personality were collected from biographical sources and media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and DSM-5-TR.

The findings of the personality assessment were previously reported in a separate paper. Vance’s primary personality patterns were found to be Dominant/controlling and Ambitious/confident, supplemented by …

Authoritarianism, Hostility And Threat: An Analysis Of American Political Podcasts Surrounding The 2024 Presidential Election, Noah D. Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Political rhetoric surrounding key events has seen sharp increases in emotionally affective speech, intergroup sentiment, and rhetoric unbecoming of democratic societies in recent years. Similarly, semi-democratic and ideologically driven speech has become increasingly normalized within an era of political polarization and hardline beliefs in modern media. Within this economy of outrage, sensational and largely unmoderated media formats, particularly podcasts, have become a mainstay of political information and discourse. This raises an important question: how does rhetoric surrounding political events construct intergroup sentiment and authoritarian rhetoric within political media, particularly American political podcasts? Further, given political podcasts’ growing social influence in …

Congressional Oversight Reports As Legislative Branch Work Product And Research Resource, Grace A. Moore, David Rapallo, Sean M. Theriault

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy at Wayne State University Law School is in the process of creating the first-ever comprehensive database of congressional oversight reports for all House and Senate Committees since the 106th Congress (1999–2000). In this article, we place these reports into the broader context of the tools Congress has to conduct oversight in service of its many legislative branch responsibilities under the Constitution. We also explain the development of the database. We conclude the article by discussing how the congressional scholars in this special issue use this database to examine how Congress conducts oversight, and …

Cosmetic Nationalism: Fashion And Feminine Performance In Trump-Aligned America, Nicola Rountree-Williams

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This paper examines how fashion, beauty, and feminine presentation operate as political tools within Trump-aligned American culture. Drawing on historical examples from fascist Italy, Francoist Spain, and European aristocratic fashion, it argues that aesthetics have long been used to reinforce nationalism, gender hierarchy, and political authority. The paper analyzes contemporary trends such as “Republican makeup” and “Mar-a-Lago face,” arguing that these hyper-feminine and highly racialized beauty standards function as performances of loyalty, wealth, and traditional femininity within Trump-aligned politics. Through figures such as Kristi Noem, the paper demonstrates how women’s appearances can visually legitimize masculine authority while limiting women’s autonomy …

Replication Stata File For The Article "Charlie Kirk's Assassination And Cross-Partisan Dialogue", Andrew Scott Bledsoe, Susan Turner Haynes

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.