Political Science Commons^™

Vote Center Experience Data Brief – Final, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu, Max Dunsker, Vishnu Akella

StudyLA Data Briefs

The 2020 Presidential Primary Election Exit Poll asked LA County voters for whom and for what they voted and their overall voting experience at their respective vote centers. The following data brief reports on questions related to the vote center experience as well as knowledge about the switch from polling places for 3,596 respondents. See Addendum for questions crossed by the time the respondent voted.

Police Transparency Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Research Question

Do you agree or disagree that your police department is doing enough to be transparent with the public?

• Strongly agree
• Somewhat agree
• Somewhat disagree
• Strongly disagree

Highlights

• City of LA residents are less likely to agree that the LAPD is doing enough to be transparent (66.5%) than the rest of LA County residents with respect to their own local departments – Sheriff’s Department (73.6%) or other (79.4%)
• By race, African Americans (57.7%) are less likely to agree that their local police department is doing enough to be transparent than Asians (80.5%), whites (74.2%), and Latinas/os (73.4%).
• By tenure, …

Vote Center Experience Data Brief – Update, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

The 2020 Presidential Primary Election Exit Poll asked LA County voters about whom they voted for in the Presidential and District Attorney Races, how they voted on various measures, and their overall voting experience at their respective vote centers. The following data brief reports on questions related to the vote center experience as well as knowledge about the switch from polling places for 1,253 respondents (preliminary data).

School Closure Data Brief: 2020 Covid-19 Public Opinion Survey, Brianne Gilbert, Fernando J. Guerra, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

ABOUT THIS STUDY

The COVID-19 Survey conducted by StudyLA involved 15-minute telephone sessions and online surveys with 2,000 adults living in Los Angeles County (1,000 in the city of Los Angeles and 1,000 in the rest of LA County). The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish from March 23rd to April 8th, and respondents were asked a range of questions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Survey results are presented in two sections:

(1) toplines, or total responses to the question, and (2) crosstabs, or the question crossed by school district and major demographics.

The margin of …

Police Data Brief: 2020 Police And Community Relations Survey, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu, Max Dunsker

StudyLA Data Briefs

ABOUT THIS STUDY

The 2020 Police and Community Relations Survey conducted by StudyLA involved 20-minute telephone sessions and online and face-to-face surveys with 1,753 adults living in the city of Los Angeles. The survey was conducted in English, Spanish, Mandarin, and Korean from August 31st to October 25th, and respondents were asked a range of questions concerning policing in Los Angeles.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Survey results are presented in two sections: (1) toplines, or total responses for each question, and (2) crosstabs, or all questions crossed by major demographics. The following report presents data pertaining to all substantive questions. Note …

Police Trust Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Research Question

How much of the time do you trust the following groups to do what is right?

• Just about always
• Most of the time
• Only some of the time
• None of the time

Highlights

Trust

Don’t Trust

• Just over 60% of Angelenos trust their police department to do what is right, a consistenttrend since 2017.
• Only one in three African Americans trust their police department to do what is right.
• Trust increases with age and higher annual household income and is highest among Asians (76%), those with an annual household income of $150K or higher (71%), conservatives (71%), and …

Climate Change Data Brief: 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey, Brianne Gilbert, Fernando J. Guerra, Max Dunsker, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

Research Question How much do you think climate change will affect of the following groups?

• You personally
• People in the LA region
• People in the U.S.
• Future generations of people

Highlights

• Concern over climate change increases as Angelenos think of large-scale effects. Only one in three Angelenos (39.6%) are concerned climate change will affect them personally while two in three are concerned it will affect future generations (65.9%).
• Concern over climate change affecting “you personally” and “people in the LA region” either “a great deal” or “a moderate amount” is over 80% for all demographics.
• Concern over climate change affecting …

Covid-19 Data Brief: 2020 Covid-19 Public Opinion Survey, Brianne Gilbert, Fernando J. Guerra, Mariya Vizireanu, Max Dunsker, Vishnu Akella

StudyLA Data Briefs

ABOUT THIS STUDY

The COVID-19 Survey conducted by StudyLA involved 15-minute telephone sessions and online surveys with 2,000 adults living in Los Angeles County (1,000 in the city of Los Angeles and 1,000 in the rest of LA County). The survey was conducted in both English and Spanish from March 23rd to April 8th, and respondents were asked a range of questions concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

Survey results are presented in two sections:

(1) toplines, or total responses for each question, and (2) crosstabs, or all questions crossed by major demographics.

The margin of error for the …

Vote Center Awareness Data Brief, Fernando J. Guerra, Brianne Gilbert, Mariya Vizireanu

StudyLA Data Briefs

ABOUT THIS STUDY

The annual Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey conducted by StudyLA involved 20-minute telephone sessions and online surveys with more than 2,000 adults (1,100 phone and 900 online) living in Los Angeles County. Respondents were asked about quality-of-life perceptions, personal economic wellbeing, economic concerns, overall life satisfaction, and various civic issues. The margin of error is ±3.0% for the entire sample.

ABOUT THIS REPORT

The following report contains responses to the question on vote center awareness for (1) respondents (voters) to the 2018 Exit Poll (n=1,546) and the 2020 Los Angeles Public Opinion Survey (n=2,002), and (2) respondents …

Electoral College Reform: Past, Present, And Future Implications Of The United States Electoral College System, Madison Mckinney

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The United States’ Electoral College system has been a topic of debate for several years, gaining even more attention from the recent 2000 and 2016 elections. This has become a controversial topic throughout history for several reasons, but mostly because twice in the modern presidency, candidates have won the presidency by winning the electoral vote while losing the popular vote. This paper will examine the history and creation of the Electoral College, how the Framers’ intended it to function, several positive and negative factors of the current system, and compare arguments for and against Electoral College reform. Some reform options …

The Impact Of Globalization As An Economic Theory On The Mass Migration Of Vulnerable Populations, Amalia Luxardo

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, the question of economy, of who hinders it or allows it to blossom, has become a point of contention that has led to many acts of violence. This research utilizes globalization as an economic theory as the underlying factor that causes these violent conflicts and imminent mass movements of migration. In using this lens, I emphasize that economically fueled violent conflict leads to the migration of populations and their ultimate elimination. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate and draw data from major violent conflicts in different nation-states and perform a quantitative …

Conflict Resolution: A Critical Analysis Of The Challenges Of The Government Amnesty Program In The Niger Delta And The Way Forward, Sarah Emmanuel Isong

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This is a qualitative research study that used a narrative approach to explore the perspectives of the research participants (indigenes of the oil communities) on the challenges of the government amnesty program in the Niger Delta. Cyril Obi (2014) argues that the program is an unsustainable state-imposed peacebuilding project that only brought about a “graveyard peace” that enabled continued access to oil by the state and the oil companies operating in the region. Like other analysts and scholars, he explained that for peace to be sustained in the region, the underlying issues such as oil revenue allocation, environmental damage, poverty, …

Why Would I Want To Talk To Them? An Exploration Of Perceptions Of Talking Across Political Divides, Melinda Burrell

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

Americans are increasingly reluctant to talk across the political divide, a problematic situation for a system predicated on a citizenry exploring a marketplace of ideas and arriving at policy consensus. This study seeks to illuminate this problem through a qualitative, exploratory study around the research question of how conservatives and liberals experience communicating across the political divide. Results are examined through a research framework that first posits the benefit of deliberative democracy (Habermas, 1996), then identifies two major challenges to such – the tendency to avoid uncomfortable political discussions (Eliasoph, 1998) and the emotional, identity-driven process of polarization (Iyengar and …

Historical Memory And The Role Of The Media In Conflict Resolution: A Study On Prolonged Conflict In Catalonia, Hannah Zwolensky

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The process of peacebuilding in post-conflict regions is a delicate process, contingent upon the participation of all societal groups and the search for a culture of peace. This process is greatly impacted by the role of the historical memory within a state, as well as the mass media’s shaping and maintenance of historical memory of which is influenced greatly by the State Apparatus and state ideology. In this thesis we attempt to develop a solid basis for analyzing the interplay between the three concepts of historical memory, the role of the media in shaping historical memory, and the processes of …

Gopniki: Peripheral Masculinity In Post-Soviet Russia, Eli Loeb

Pomona Senior Theses

In the 1990s, packs of tracksuit-clad youth from the suburbs known as gopniki descended on Russia’s cities. These problematic youth, embodying a unique strain of violent masculinity, rapidly rose in prominence during a time of national crisis. The gopniki faded just as quickly when Russia entered the new millennium. The influence of gopnik worldview did not diminish with the movement, however, and gopniki continue to influence Russian culture. This study of primary Russian source material examines the theoretical, ideological, and historical origins of this under-researched group, and explains their lasting influence on Russians in a rapidly changing world.

Donald J. Trump And The Rhetoric Of Ressentiment, Casey Ryan Kelly

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay contributes to and reframes the preliminary scholarly assessments of President Donald J. Trump’s appeals to rage, malice, and revenge by sketching the rhetorical dimensions of an underlying emotional-moral framework in which victimization, resentment, and revenge are inverted civic virtues. I elaborate on the concept of ressentiment (re-sentiment), a condition in which a subject is addled by rage and envy yet remains impotent, subjugated and unable to act on or adequately express frustration. Though anger and resentment capture part of Trump’s affective register, I suggest that ressentiment accounts for the unique intersection where powerful sentiments and self-serving morality are …

Ethical Concerns Of Heroism Training, Brian R. Riches, Matt Langdon, Ari Kohen

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Heroism training programs originated in the mid-2000s with the goal to “Train everyday heroes” (Heroic Imagination Project, 2017). Most participants of these programs are students between the ages of 10 and 20. Anecdotal and empirical evidence suggests that these programs may create more courageous and prosocial people (Heiner, 2018; Kohen & Sólo, 2019), however there is very little discussion in the emerging academic field of heroism science about the potential ethical concerns of training minors to be heroes (Beggan, 2019; Franco & Zimbardo, 2016; Franco et al., 2017). With the growth of heroism science scholarship, it would be wise to …

Ideology And Predictive Processing: Coordination, Bias, And Polarization In Socially Constrained Error Minimization, Nathan E. Wheeler, Suraiya Allidina, Elizabeth U. Long, Stephen P. Schneider, Ingrid J. Haas, William A. Cunningham

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Recent models of cognition suggest that the brain may implement predictive processing, in which top-down expectations constrain incoming sensory data. In this perspective, expectations are updated (error minimization) only if sensory data sufficiently deviate from these expectations (prediction error). Although originally applied to perception, predictive processing is thought to generally characterize cognitive architecture, including the social cognitive processes involved in ideological thinking. Scaling up these simple computational principles to the social sphere outlines a path by which group members may adopt shared ideologies and beliefs to predict behavior and cooperate with each other. Because ideological judgments are of specific interest …

Territorial Threat And Women’S Legislative Representation, Alice J. Kang, Nam Kyu Kim

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Why do some countries have fewer women in parliament than do others? Recent studies find that women have less access to positions of political power in countries facing external threats. Exist-ing studies, however, do not differentiate between types of threat. We theorize that territorial threats are a particular driver of gender inequality in national parliaments. When a country’s land is under threat, people prefer having “tough” representatives in the national legislature who are competent on the military and defense moreso than when a country faces other threats. Moreo-ver, when countries face territorial threats, they build larger standing armies and adopt …

Diverse And Inclusive High Courts: A Global And Intersectional Perspective, Alice J. Kang, Miki Caul Kittilson, Valerie Hoekstra, Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon

Department of Political Science: Faculty Publications

Critical race feminists call attention to the ways in which multiple and overlapping forms of privilege and discrimination shape individual experiences and perspectives. In this article, we argue that judiciaries cannot be fully inclusive if their composition does not reflect a society’s intersecting sources of disadvantage. We consider intersectional inclusion on high courts from a compar-ative perspective. Most existing practices of representation on high courts promote the inclusion of groups as if they are internally homogenous. We explore the attempts at and successes of promoting intersectional inclusion in the context of the high courts of Canada and South Africa. Although …