Tobias Heide-Jørgensen, University of Copenhagen Peter Thisted Dinesen, University of Copenhagen Kim Mannemar Sønderskov, Aarhus University Why do people disagree strongly over how much the government should redistribute economic resources? This is an important question if we want to understand the foundation and dynamics of support for the welfare state, which has income redistribution as one of its main functions. One dominant perspective in the literature emphasizes the role of ideology when people form political attitudes, in general, and toward redistribution more specifically. Another, a ..read more

Randy Besco, University of Toronto Mississauga J. Scott Matthews, Memorial University As Western European and North American societies have diversified in racial and ethnic terms, so have their political systems. Increasing numbers of racialized persons have entered electoral politics in these countries, despite pervasive racism and discrimination in politics and beyond. What happens when racialized politicians ascend to the highest levels of politics to become party leaders? Michael Tesler’s research on “racial spillover” has shown how the race of a political leader connects racial ..read more

Taka-aki Asano, The University of Tokyo Atsushi Tago, Waseda University Seiki Tanaka, University of Groningen Public broadcasting under attack NHK (Nippon Hōsō Kyōkai or the Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is the Japanese public broadcasting service. Despite its mission to appeal to all citizens, NHK has recently been criticized for its biased coverage in favor of the LDP-Komeito government and for its boring content (except sumo) geared to older viewers. Although all owners of TV sets in Japan are obliged to pay subscription fees for NHK, some have been tryi ..read more

Miles T. Armaly, University of Mississippi David T. Buckley, University of Louisville Adam M. Enders, University of Louisville What explains popular support for political violence in the contemporary United States, particularly the anti-institutional mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol in January 2021? While rioters utilized a wide variety of symbols and slogans in the planning and execution of those attacks, religious motifs were a regular fixture of what one reporter labeled “a Christian insurrection.” Religion’s appearance that afternoon was not unexpected, as prominent religious supporters ..read more

Paul A. Djupe, Denison University Jacob R. Neiheisel, SUNY-Buffalo Once reserved for groups on the political margins, questions of whether to extend basic rights and liberties have entered the mainstream. The last several election cycles were filled with rhetoric raising the stakes of control over the federal government by threatening that the other side will move to strip the losing party of, effectively, their freedom to organize. In one August 2020 rant, then-President Trump asserted that a Democratic administration would “[t]ake away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment. No religion ..read more

Aidan Milliff, Massachusetts Institute of Technology What makes violence political? Accumulated knowledge from political science, psychology, and criminology suggests that violence frequently leads to outcomes like political mobilization, revenge-taking, or spirals of conflict escalation. Violence generates grievances and anger, which, depending on the study, are causing such diverse outcomes as cycles of retribution and revenge (Costalli and Ruggeri, 2015; Balcells, 2017, and others), increased participation in politics (Bateson, 2012), withdrawal and skepticism toward government (Webster, 20 ..read more

Alessandro Del Ponte, Yale University Andrew Delton, Stony Brook University Peter DeScioli, Stony Brook University How much would you sacrifice to help your political party? When the news reports long lines at the polls, some voters persevere and some stay home. Similarly, when the party’s leaders falter—abandon principles, mishandle a crisis, commit crimes—some members endure the shame and carry on, while others turn against the leaders. Citizens also make tradeoffs to hurt the opposing party. When the opponents take our rights and flout our values, some citizens charge in protests while othe ..read more

blog post authored by Gianni Galasso, Michael Allison, Christine Hutchinson, and Holly Lawrence This year, similar to last, the country will be hit by an above-average number of extreme weather events, including several major hurricanes. These natural disasters are known to cause immense economic and environmental damage. While the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration urges communities to act on these forecasts and prepare, the US government has for decades under-invested in disaster preparedness. According to a new study by Michael Bechtel and Massimo Mannino (forthcoming ..read more

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