Abstract Kate Cronin-Furman reviews Rochelle Terman's The Geopolitics of Shaming: When Human Rights Pressure Work-and When It Backfires. Terman offers a theory of human rights shaming and its impact that focuses on the relational context within which such shaming occurs. The book's core contention that shaming may have little to do with genuine interest in improving target states' human rights performance anchors a novel account of backlash and the strategic weaponization of stigma. Its attention to the complex motivations that underly human rights shaming, and the multiplicity of audiences involved, are insights that extend beyond the state-to-state relationships it theorizes.

Abstract Partisan Hostility and American Democracy: Explaining Political Divisions and When They Matter explores the growing phenomenon of partisan animosity in American politics and its profound consequences for democracy. Authored by James N. Druckman, Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, Matthew Levendusky, and John Barry Ryan, the book offers a comprehensive analysis of how identity-driven divisions between partisans shape public perceptions, policy support, and democratic norms. Moving beyond traditional perspectives that focus more generally on partisan loyalty and its negative side effects, the authors investigate the more insidious threat posed specifically by partisan animus (i.e., hostility toward the opposing party) and its potential to erode democratic cohesion. With a balanced approach and thoughtful study design, the book examines the conditional nature of partisan hostility, its corrosive effects on political compromise, and how party cues contribute to increasing polarization on key issues. Drawing on extensive panel data from 2019 to 2021, the authors analyze the complex interplay between partisan animosity, the personal relevance of policies, and the rhetoric of political elites. Their findings highlight the urgent need to address partisan hostility in our research and public discourse as a means of preserving democratic values and fostering more effective governance.

Abstract Katherine Krimmel reviews The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics by Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld. She argues that the book offers valuable new concepts and historical context for understanding pathologies of modern American democracy.

Abstract Richard Hasen's A Real Right to Vote powerfully critiques barriers to voting and persuasively defends a proposed constitutional amendment to address them. We agree the right to vote is fundamental and share Hasen's urgency for reform. But we also think our greatest threats to democracy today come from more than just the electoral process. In this review article, we argue that Donald Trump's election just as urgently threatens substantive democratic guarantees—like the freedom to dissent, equal citizenship, and the rule of law—that make democratic procedures worth defending. In our view, then, democracy reform must mean more than election reform. To safeguard the full range of democratic values that Trump's ascendance puts in jeopardy, we need to build a constitutional constituency of citizens committed to a politics of democratic defense throughout public life.

Abstract Did Trump and his Make America Great Again followers inflict damage on American political institutions via election denialism and the assault on the U.S. Capitol? Although most pundits and many scholars find this a question easy to answer in the affirmative, to date, little rigorous evidence on Trump's institutional consequences has been adduced. Based on surveys of representative samples of the American people in July 2020, December 2020, March 2021, and June 2021, this detailed analysis examines whether American political institutions lost legitimacy over the period from before the presidential election to well after it and whether any such loss is associated with acceptance of the “Big Lie” about the election and its aftermath. My highly contrarian conclusion is simple: try as they might (and did), Trump and his Republicans, in fact, did not succeed in undermining American national political institutions. The empirical evidence indicates that institutions seem to be more resilient than many have imagined, just as legitimacy theory would predict.

Abstract Largely obscured in the rankings of national education systems is the concept of equity. In addition to fair funding, sustained comprehensive instruction is fundamental to equity. Conversely, beyond unfair funding, early tracking of students onto academic or vocational paths is basic to inequity. In The Politics of Comprehensive School Reforms: Cleavages and Coalitions, Katharina Sass documents how Norway achieved equity by keeping students together until age 16, while Germany accomplished the opposite by putting students onto academic or vocational paths at age 10. Applying Stein Rokkan's theoretical framework of cleavages and coalitions, Sass explains how political forces, not pedagogical expertise, determined these divergent outcomes. As early tracking precludes the discovery of intellectual talent among late bloomers, forfeits significant socialization, and reproduces class differences, such education policy has substantial implications for inclusion and enfranchisement. With her meticulous attention to how Norway and Germany developed such different school systems, Sass at once lays the foundation for a better understanding of these implications and paves the way for a more nuanced appreciation of the generation of education policy itself.

Abstract This study examines the role of new ultra-Orthodox civil society organizations in Israel, focusing on their impact on democratization and liberalization within ultra-Orthodox society. Through 40 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with leaders of these organizations, the research reveals two main voices: a dominant conservative voice and a minority civic-democratic voice. Contrary to prevailing theories linking the growth of civil society with democratization, this study finds that ultra-Orthodox civil society organizations primarily aim to preserve and fortify their community's boundaries rather than promote integration or liberal values. These organizations, while providing services in areas such as education, employment, and military service, primarily seek to maintain ultra-Orthodox identity and religious observance in the face of increased exposure to secular Israeli society. The findings contribute to the theoretical discourse on civil society and democracy, challenging assumptions about their relationship, particularly in religious contexts. The study suggests that ultra-Orthodox civil society can be characterized as illiberal, using civic engagement tools to reinforce conservative religious values rather than promote liberal democratic principles. This research adds nuance to our understanding of civil society's role in religious communities and its complex relationship with processes of democratization and liberalization.

Abstract Sean Gailmard's Agents of Empire is a fascinating argument about imperial institutional legacies and a major contribution to the flourishing literature in historical political economy. Gailmard argues that British strategies of colonial governance in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in what would become the United States had lasting and counterintuitive consequences. Colonial autonomy and legislative independence fused in a self-reinforcing bundle, even if British colonial rule itself consisted of a hodgepodge of imperfect institutions and various workarounds and patches layered on top of these institutions. Agents of Empire both contributes to and challenges the burgeoning new literature in historical political economy (HPE). Although much of the scholarship in historical political economy skates over causal mechanisms, Gailmard's analytical move is to emphasize these processes and mechanisms. This is a provocative and powerful argument that points out both the challenges of colonial rule and its surprising institutional consequences.

Abstract Yuhua Wang's The Rise and Fall of Imperial China and Yasheng Huang's The Rise and Fall of the EAST (Exams, Autocracy, Stability, and Technology) take on grand history with big social science data. While both analyze China's rise and decline, they fundamentally disagree on what rose and fell, whether the imperial state was weak or strong, and whether the driving forces were social terrains or the emperor's designs. Wang's central puzzle is the “sovereign's dilemma” that presents a negative correlation between the emperor's duration and state strength. He uses elite social networks to explain why the Tang-Song transition brought about longer imperial reigns but weaker state strength. A closer look at Wang's data, however, suggests that state strength as fiscal capacity went up alongside the emperor's longevity in the Song. Huang offers a different “emperor's dilemma”: how the rational autocrat could ensure a competent yet loyal staff. Huang features “trailblazing emperors” who crafted the civil service examinations, called keju, to assert “end-to-end controls over the entire pipeline—nomination, evaluation, and final selections.” Keju also dissolves Wang's “sovereign's dilemma” by simultaneously enhancing ruler survival and state strength. For Huang, what rose and rose were keju and state strength; what rose and fell were societal diversity and inventiveness. Imperial China collapsed when the Qing abandoned keju. Both books inform today's China: if the autocrat's relentless pursuit of power through fragmenting the elites was “the final culprit” for imperial China's fall, readers should be deeply concerned about Xi Jinping's China.