American Politics Commons^™

The Commonwealth Takes An Important Step In Protecting Our Democracy, Ashish Vaidya

eJournal of Public Affairs

Northern Kentucky University’s President Ashish Vaidya wrote an article celebrating Kentucky’s new bipartisan voting rights bill. Signed into law in April, the legislation is contrary to what we are seeing in other states and expands voting options in Kentucky. As an immigrant to the U.S. from India, President Vaidya has a unique perspective on democracy in America, and he is very passionate about higher education’s role to inform its students on their responsibility.

A Democratic Norm Endures January 6th: Congress And Deference To States’ Election Certifications, Kevin R. Kosar, Elayne Allen

eJournal of Public Affairs

Congress rarely overturns elections to either of its chambers. legislators tend to follow a norm of deference to election results lawfully submitted by states. This norm is longstanding and is the product of the Constitution, federal law, and habit. Yet, on January 6, 2021, our national legislature flirted with violating that norm and denying the presidency to Joseph Biden based upon spurious claims of electoral fraud. Fortunately, legislators from both parties forged strong majorities to uphold the norm, and subsequently reaffirmed it during Congress' review of a disputed Iowa congressional election. Viewing both these events closely reveals both that those …

Democratic Isolation, Thin Citizenship, And Insurrection: A Theory, Kevin G. Lorentz Ii, Kimberly Saks Mcmanaway

eJournal of Public Affairs

Citizens are deeply cynical of the actual institutions and exercising of representative democracy, resulting in increased isolation and extremism rather than nuanced public debate and democratic involvement. Three interrelated background conditions led to this inevitable point: the erasure of political citizenship by neoliberalism, the ability of technology (especially social media) to provide perfect filtering, and the resulting fragmenting of civic experience. In this paper we outline a theory of democratic isolation that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, exploited by populist politicians, and ultimately led to the January 6 insurrection.

The Temple Of Liberty As Fort Knox: The Securitization Of Democratic Space In The U.S. Capitol, Alisa J. Rosenthal, Lauren C. Bell

eJournal of Public Affairs

In response to security threats in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the U.S. Capitol was made less accessible to the public through a series of security upgrades, including an expansion of the Capitol Police force, new visitor registration programs, and the construction and implementation of physical barriers in and around the Capitol building itself. However, increased safety for members and staff has had consequences for the important symbolic representation that the Capitol building itself provides. As Parkinson (2009, 10) notes: “Capital cities are, by design, by usage or both, symbols of national institutions, values, myths, and norms – they …

Framing An Insurrection: A Typology Of Responses By Evangelical Leaders, Andrea C. Hatcher

eJournal of Public Affairs

As the January 6 insurrection unfolded, religious leaders who had supported Donald Trump were set on a behavioral process of response or silence. Some religious leaders offered statements that largely condemned the violence, others promoted conspiracy theories about the actors involved, and still others offered a defensive response. This study compiles Twitter data of religious leaders from January 1 through the six-month anniversary on July 6, 2021, and finds that their responses form a typology from the conciliatory to the antagonistic. This typology is a useful framework to assess their immediate and changing responses in the contestation of January 6. …

The Public’S Preferences In Supreme Court Rationale, William Svob

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Public approval of the Supreme Court has been decreasing in recent years. Given the literature’s consensus that Supreme Court rulings coincide with popular opinion more often than not, the decrease in popularity cannot be explained away by assuming the justices have made a series of widely despised rulings. This raises questions about what exactly the public wants the Supreme Court to do. There is an abundance of research covering the many factors that influence a justice to rule in a particular manner, but there is little written about what the average American believes should influence the Court. This study is …

Women In Politics, Onu Institute For Civics And Public Policy, Kennedy Aikey, Hailey Trimpey, Andrea Hoffman

Critical Questions

Just over a century ago, women were given the legal right to participate in politics by earning the right to vote. Up until that point, women found creative ways to participate in public affairs. A century later, however, women are still underrepresented among public officials. This can be traced back to two main reasons–aversion to electoral politics by women and voter bias. Nonetheless, many notable Ohio women have contributed to robust representation in public office.

Legislative Bill 519: Creating And Lobbying For Original Legislation, Brooklyn Terrill

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project reflects the process of writing and attempting to pass state legislation, Legislative Bill 519, as a college student. LB 519 is an immunity policy for certain drug and alcohol charges that would be potentially prohibitive to a survivor or witness of sexual assault reporting the crime. The first several sections cover the process of developing and introducing legislation. These sections cover the process of developing the idea for LB 519 and the thought process behind the language and structure of the bill. It then covers the advocacy portion of passing a bill which includes testifying and lobbying for …

Fighting Gerrymandering By Automating Congressional Redistricting, Jacob Jenness

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

Gerrymandering is a political problem that the United States has had for more than 200 years. Politicians have taken the dull and routine process of drawing congressional districts and turned it into a highly-partisan process. However, with recent improvements in redistricting algorithms, researchers Harry Levin and Sorelle Friedler have introduced their recursive Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm. This algorithm has the potential to automate the process of congressional redistricting, thereby removing the potential for bias. By utilizing a set of partitioning and swapping algorithms, the Divide and Conquer Redistricting Algorithm achieves desirable goals, such as low population deviation, and high …

Has Academic Freedom Failed? Can Liberalism Defend It?, Dan Becker

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Patrick Deneen has argued that both the philosophy of liberalism and the principle of academic freedom are fundamentally flawed. In this piece I argue that the liberal philosopher John Stuart Mill provides a convincing counterargument to Deneen’s criticisms.

Author information: Dan Becker graduated from Ursinus College in May of 2019 with degrees in philosophy and psychology.

The Partisan Gender Gap: Why Democratic Women Get Elected But Republican Women Don't (Book Review), Shannon Mcqueen

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Suburban Cosmopolitanism: How Niceness Undermines Patriotism, Joseph Natali

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

Many prominent conservatives of the 20th century have commented on moral superiority of a love of a particular place and community over a general cosmopolitan love of humanity. For a multitude of reasons, suburban living does not help to foster this love of one’s immediate surroundings. Suburbs, despite being a “nice” and “comfortable” place to live, create a set of conditions that undermine the development of a genuine love of one’s land and neighbor by physically separating one from two of the most important aspects of human existence: work and community. In the absence of a genuine love of place, …

No Justice, No Peace: An Examination Of The Conditions Of The George Floyd Protests To Determine How To Facilitate Successful State Legislative Outcomes, Emily R. Funk

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

This thesis examines the relationship between the conditions of the George Floyd protests from May to August of 2020 to the impact they had state on policing reforms within state legislatures. I examine protests in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, looking at those protests’ size, media coverage, and violence and compare that to the degree of policy change achieved within each state. I find that, contrary to expectations, protest size was not associated with policy change, but that the party control of the state government was a strong predictor of how states responded to protests. Within some …

How Do Teachers’ Unions Influence Vaccine Mandates?, Kristian Thymianos

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

The COVID-19 pandemic presented an array of policy problems for school districts across the country. This included balancing social distancing during in-person learning. The creation of the COVID-19 vaccine made in-person learning a more viable option again. However, the political polarization that surrounded COVID-19 extended to vaccines, with many communities experiencing hurdles in vaccinating their populace. Previous research shows how teachers’ unions influenced school district reopenings during the height of the pandemic in fall of 2020; this paper seeks to expand on this literature by looking at how teachers’ unions influence the adoption of vaccination mandates and testing. I test …

The Gender Wage Gap As It Relates To State Partisan Control And Pay Equity Policy, Candace Wells

Spectra Undergraduate Research Journal

This study offers an explanation to the interstate variation of the gender wage gap in the United States. Looking at political explanations as an answer for the wage gap’s persistence, I hypothesize that Democratically controlled state government positively impacts the state having pay equity policies, and that having these pay equity policies positively impacts the state’s gender wage gap. Using U.S. Census Bureau, National Conference of State Legislatures, and American Association of University Women with U.S. Department of Labor Women’s Bureau data, I find that while there is a correlation between Democratically controlled state legislatures and pay equity policy and …

Framing The Democratic Socialist Movement: A Discourse Analysis Of Pro-Movement Literature, Elizabeth H. Rouse

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

In light of the rising prominence of the democratic socialist movement (DSM) in the United States, this thesis performs a discourse analysis of the frames utilized in pro-movement literature. Through the evaluation of five full-length books, I strive to answer the following research questions: How has pro-movement literature framed the DSM? What is the significance of the frames that have been employed? Based on qualitative observations reinforced with a minor quantitative study, I identify thirteen frames that are significant across pro-DSM literature. Then, in analyzing these frames, I argue that they can largely be categorized into three groups: 1) as …

Tocqueville And The Earthbound American Spirit, Jack Sauter

Compass: An Undergraduate Journal of American Political Ideas

This article assesses the gulf between Tocqueville’s claim that human beings have naturally transcendent souls and his observations of the democratic souls of Americans.

Author information: Jack Sauter is a senior at Northern Illinois University studying political science and Spanish. He plans to teach English abroad for a year before going to graduate school.

Institute For Public Policy National Poll - January 2022, Institute For Public Policy

Public Policy Poll Results

The Sacred Heart University Institute for Public Policy leveraged a quantitative research approach to address the following areas of investigation:

• Thoughts and beliefs regarding the January 6 U.S. Capitol riot
• Sentiments surrounding the U.S. Supreme Court
• Understanding of, and beliefs around, Critical Race Theory
• Sentiments and habits around charitable contributions
• Thoughts on school policies regarding transgender students
• Demographic profiles of respondents

The Increasing Latino Vote In Massachusetts: Results From The 2020 Presidential Election, Phillip Granberry, Luis F. Jiménez

Gastón Institute Publications

During the early 21st century, Latinos have grown as a part of the Massachusetts population. To a considerable extent, this growth is reflected in Latinos’ political participation, as shown by voting statistics. For example, the number of Latinos voting in presidential elections rose from 51,000 in 2000 to 227,000 in 2020, a remarkable increase of 345%. Similarly, the percentage of votes for president that were cast by Latinos rose from 1.8% in 2000 to 7.0% in 2020. However, Latino voting is still not fully proportionate to Latinos’ share of the statewide population. Both of these phenomena – the growth of …

Boston Discusses The Massacre, Jean C. O'Connor

The Montana English Journal

Teachers may use this chapter from The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution as a short story for grades 7 – 12., to explore themes of interpersonal conflict, conflict resolution, and the value of law.

The chapter “Boston Discusses the Massacre” is taken from The Remarkable Cause: A Novel of James Lovell and the Crucible of the Revolution (Knox Press, 2020), and used with permission. James Lovell, teacher at the Boston Latin School, discusses the pivotal events of March 5, 1770. As the conflicts that become the American Revolution begin a group of …