American Political Science

Bargaining in legislatures is conducted according to formal rules specifying who may make proposals and how they will be decided. Legislative outcomes depend on those rules and on the structure of the legislature. Although the social choice literature provides theories about voting equilibria, it does not endogenize the formation of the agenda on which the voting is based and rarely takes into account the institutional structure found in legislatures. In our theory members of the legislature act noncooperatively in choosing strategies to serve their own districts, explicitly taking into account the strategies members adopt in response to the sequential nature of proposal making and voting. The model permits the characterization of a legislative equilibrium reflecting the structure of the legislature and also allows consideration of the choice of elements of that structure in a context in which the standard, institution-free model of social choice theory yields no equilibrium.

This article contributes to current debates and discussions in critical social theory about diversity, inclusion/exclusion, power, and social justice by exploring intersectionality as an important theoretical resource to further develop and advance care ethics. Using intersectionality as a critical reference point, the investigation highlights two key shortcomings of care ethics which stem from this ethics’ prioritization of gender and gendered power relations: inadequate conceptualizations of diversity and power. The article draws on concrete examples related to migrant domestic work to illustrate how an intersectionality lens can advance new theoretical insights for understanding caring practices (or lack of them), and generate new methodological and practical strategies for confronting and transforming the deeply entrenched interlocking power inequities that undermine the realization of care in an increasingly complex context of national and international policy and politics.

Partisanship in American politics is inextricably linked with social identities, and sentiments toward party-aligned groups affect political orientations. However, out-group animosity may operate differently depending on the party or elite. We investigate the extent to which citizens’ animus toward (Democratically aligned) minority groups drove political support for Donald Trump, whose incendiary rhetoric regarding such groups is unique in modern presidential politics. Leveraging panel data beginning before Trump’s candidacy, we find that animus toward Democratic-linked groups in 2011 predicts future support for Trump regardless of party identity. This animus does not predict future support for other Republican or Democratic politicians or either party. Nor do we find that animus toward Republican groups predicts support for Democratic elites. Trump’s support is thus uniquely tied to animus toward minority groups. Our findings provide insights into the social divisions underlying Am...

ABSTRACT This study applies insights from principal-agent models to examine whether and how the language assistance provisions of the Voting Rights Act, Sections 203 and 4(f)(4), affect Latino representation. Using panel data from 1984–2012, we estimate two-stage models that consider the likelihood and extent of Latino board representation for a sample of 1,661 school districts. In addition, we examine how policy design as well as federal oversight and enforcement shape implementation and compliance with the language assistance provisions. Our findings not only provide the first systemic evidence that the language assistance provisions have a direct effect on Latino representation, but also link the efficacy of the language assistance provisions to the duration and consistency of coverage and the presence of federal elections observers. Overall, our study underscores the continued need for federal government involvement in protecting the voting rights of underrepresented groups, in this case, language minority citizens.

Page 1. Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988* John L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota Amy Fried, Colgate University Mary G. Dietz, University of Minnesota Recent circumstantial and journalistic evidence suggests that the patriotism issue may have ...

Hannah Mather Crocker was the leading American political theorist between 1800 and 1820 to engage the controversial question of sex equality. In the wake of the postrevolutionary backlash against political radicalism, she became a subtle rhetorician of women's rights. She ...

Donald Trump's transformation of Republican Party and conservative ideology has helped reveal major problems in the political science discipline's conceptualization and measurement of ideology. Previous political science scholarship is dominated by the mistaken view that party ideology changes can best be described by parties moving "left" or "right" on a static ideological, spatial spectrum. In reality, the meaning and content of "left" and "right" ("liberal" and "conservative") constantly evolve along with the issue positions of the two major parties. Thus, it makes no sense to describe the parties as moving to the "left" or "right" over time when the very meaning of "liberalism" and "conservatism" change during the same time period. By understanding the dynamic character of ideology, we can reconcile the paradox of how Trump's Republican Party can change its ideology even while continuing to be identified with "conservatism" and the "Right."

Why are some democratic governments more successful than others? What impact do various political institutions have on the quality of governance? This paper develops and tests a new theory of democratic governance. This theory, which we label centripetalism, stands in contrast to the dominant paradigm of decentralism. The centripetal theory of governance argues that democratic institutions work best when they are able to reconcile the twin goals of centralized authority and broad inclusion. At the constitutional level, our ...

... rect when they note that "political science research needs more of this kind of reliability assessment" (1996, footnote 3). Page 7. 85o BEAR F. BRAUMOELLER AND GARY GOETZ TABLE 2 A Test of the Democratic Peace Proposition Ho: Presence of ... .. necessary for... ...

Although all theories that oppose the subordination of women can be called feminist, beyond this common denominator, feminisms vary in terms of what they see as the cause of women's subordination, alternatives to patriarchal society, and proposed strategies to achieve the desired change. This article offers a critical examination of theinteractionof feminist theories and the international human rights discourses as articulated at the UN forums and documents. It contends that although a range of feminisms that elucidate the diversity of women's experiences and complexities of oppression have been incorporated into some UN documents, the overall women's rights approach of the UN is still informed by the demands and expectations of liberal feminism. This is particularly evident in the aggregate indicators that are employed to assess the “empowerment of women.” In addition to explaining why liberal feminism trumps other feminisms, the article addresses the problems with foll...

Contemporary political science has fetishized a product of its own invention: the elite theory of democracy. American political science’s understanding of “democratic elitism” is founded on a fundamental misreading of the Italian School of Elitism and Joseph Schumpeter’s political thought. This essay historicizes the early phases of the interpretive tradition known as democratic elitism, represented by the following authors: 1) Gaetano Mosca, Vilfredo Pareto, Robert Michels, 2) Joseph Schumpeter, and 3) Robert Dahl. I not only track how the Italian School’s concern over the threat of plutocracy was suppressed, and their aspirations for political transparency discounted by American political science, but also trace the shift, over time, in the literary dispositions that undergird what we now call “elite” or “minimal” theories of democracy. I argue that in contrast to the Italian theorists’ and Schumpeter’s pessimism, Dahl infused optimism into his understanding of representative government with pernicious consequences for democratic theory.

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/701636

... CONTENTS Forewords ix R. Gordon Robertson Len Edwards William L. Holland Editor's Preface xiii Introduction: The Contemporary Relevance of Herbert Norman's Emergence xv Lawrence T. Woods Japan's Emergence as a Modern State / 1 Then and Now: EH Norman's ...