Comparative & Multi-Method Approaches within Political Economy Research | Apply Here Join us for an in-person workshop held during the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting, on Wednesday, September 4, in Philadelphia, PA. Co-Leaders: Dr. Javier Pérez Sandoval, University of Oxford Dr. Elizabeth G. Pfeffer, Dartmouth College Deadline: Sunday, May 19, 2024. Click here to apply →  Workshop Description: Comparative scholars increasingly draw upon a variety of methods to investigate key questions raised by political economies across the global community. This “triangula ..read more

Black Politics in the United States | Apply Here Join us for an in-person dissertation workshop on “Black Politics in the United States,” held during the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting, on Wednesday, September 4, in Philadelphia, PA. Co-Leaders: Dr. Periloux Peay, University of Maryland, College Park Dr. Jenn Jackson, Syracuse University Deadline: Sunday, May 19, 2024. Click here to apply →  Workshop Description: Many scholars of Black Politics find themselves at a troubling crossroads. There is currently a concerted effort at the local, state, and federal levels of government to underm ..read more

Dark Parties: Unveiling Nonparty Communities in American Political Campaigns By Stan Oklobdzija, University of California, Riverside Since 2010, independent expenditures have grown as a source of spending in American elections. A large and growing portion comes from “dark money” groups—political nonprofits whose terms of incorporation allow them to partially obscure their sources of income. I develop a new dataset of about 2,350,000 tax documents released by the IRS and use it to test a new theory of political spending. I posit that pathways for anonymous giving allowed interest groups to fo ..read more

Each year, the Guggenheim Foundation awards approximately 175 fellowships to individuals making their mark in the social sciences, the natural sciences, the humanities, and the creative arts. This year, the Guggenheim Foundation has announced their list of 188 appointees in the United States and Canada chosen from nearly 3,000 applicants working across 52 scholarly disciplines, included are the 2024 Guggenheim Fellows in Political Science: Kosuke Imai, Professor of Government and of Statistics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Jan-Werner Müller, Roger Williams Straus Professor of Socia ..read more

Voice and Balancing in US Congressional Elections By Till Weber, University of New York If the median voter wrote the Constitution, every Tuesday would be Election Day. Consider the case of the United States: Halfway into a presidential term, congressional elections allow the people to adjust the course of federal policy. Two complementary mechanisms describe how this opportunity is embraced by centrists: a direct mechanism, which strengthens the out-party in Congress to “balance” the president’s policy impact, and an indirect mechanism, by which midterm voting serves to “v ..read more

Under the Veil of Democracy: What Do People Mean When They Say They Support Democracy? By Hannah S. Chapman, University of Oklahoma, Margaret C. Hanson, Arizona State University, Valery Dzutsati, Southern Illinois University, and Paul DeBell, Fort Lewis College Scholars have expressed concern over waning support for democracy worldwide. But what do ordinary citizens mean by the term “democracy,” and how do their definitions of democracy influence their support for it? Using global cross-national survey data, this study demonstrates that individual variation in the understanding of democracy is ..read more

The Realignment of Political Tolerance in the United States By Dennis Chong, University of Southern California, Jack Citrin, UC Berkeley Political Science, and Morris Levy, University of Southern California Studies conducted between the 1950s and 1970s found that the principles embodied in the First Amendment constituted a “clear norm” endorsed by large majorities of community leaders and virtually all legal practitioners and scholars. This consensus has since weakened under the strain of arguments that racist slurs, epithets, and other forms of expression that demean social identities are an ..read more

Party Types in the Age of Personalized Politics By Gideon Rahat, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Democracies in general and political parties in particular have undergone political personalization in recent decades. The power balance between politicians (one or many) and the team (the party as a collegial entity) has changed, and existing party typologies are no longer suited to the analysis of today’s democratic politics. Although some new personalized party types have been added, what is missing is a systematic attempt to contrast them with the collegial option. This article proposes a new cl ..read more

Partisanship in the #MeToo Era By Mirya R. Holman, University of Houston, and Nathan P. Kalmoe, University of Wisconsin-Madison Partisanship structures mass politics by shaping the votes, policy views, and political perceptions of ordinary people. Even so, substantial shifts in partisanship can occur when elites signal clear differences on a political issue and attentive citizens update their views of party reputations. Mismatched partisans who strongly care about the issue respond by changing parties in a process of “issue evolution” when writ large. Others simply update their views to match ..read more

Are Stealth Democrats Really Committed to Democracy? Process Preferences Revisited By Andrew J. Bloeser, Allegheny College, Tarah Williams, Allegheny College, Candaisy Crawford, The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Brian M. Harward, Harvard University Scholarship on “stealth democracy” finds that many citizens want to avoid the debate and conflict that often come with democratic governance. This scholarship has argued that citizens adopt this posture because they are uncomfortable with disagreement and desire a more expedient political process that enables leaders to m ..read more