American Politics Research Articles

Who Gives to American Trade and Professional Association Political Action Committees and Why?

This paper asks: Why do people contribute to American trade and professional association political action committees (PACs)? Our data, which come from an original survey of donors during the 2021–2022 federal election cycle, indicate that trade and professional association PAC donors are not like other campaign donors. Specifically, unlike donors to candidates, who appear to be motivated primarily by purposive benefits and ideology, these PAC donors are motivated largely by material benefits. Our data also showthat trade and professional association PACs are constraining forces in American politics. While donors tend to hue to a strict ideological lane, PACs do not. In short, PACs are balanced in their giving, while individual donors are not.

Bankers and Sheriffs? The Economy, Public Security, and Vote Intention for Presidential Incumbents in Central America

ABSTRACT Students of Latin American politics have identified the economy and public security as relevant determinants of voting behaviour. This article extends those insights to Central America. We use a decade of AmericasBarometer data from 2008 to 2018 to study whether voters in six Central American countries prioritise economic or public security issues when casting votes for the incumbent candidate or party. The results reveal that positive economic perceptions – retrospective national outlook in particular – help explain rewarding incumbents. In turn, the perception of insecurity, more than crime victimisation, is related to punishing incumbents. Therefore, the evidence suggests Central Americans behave like bankers and sheriffs when casting votes, although economic views weigh more than public security perceptions. The results indicate strikingly similar accountability patterns across countries.

Not All Women: Partisanship’s Impact on Congressional Campaign Communication on Twitter

The 2022 midterm elections resulted in a record-breaking number of women being elected to the U.S. Congress. Previous research suggests that men and women adopt very different styles when campaigning for Congress on Twitter. Women tend to focus more on issues and especially women’s issues compared to men. This research examines gender dynamics during the 2022 midterm elections to uncover gender differences in congressional campaign communication. We find that while both gender and party play a role in the attention congressional candidates give to “women’s issues,” partisanship has a stronger role in shaping candidates’ attention to “men’s issues.” Democratic men and women focus significantly more on women’s issues compared to Republican men. Republican women focused more on women’s issues in the House but not the Senate races. Meanwhile, both Democratic women and men focused less attention on men’s issues; however, the differences between Republican men and women were insignificant. This research helps shed light on the role of gender and party in congressional campaign communication on Twitter at a highly polarized time in American politics.

The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding, by Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer

<i>The Classical and Christian Origins of American Politics: Political Theology, Natural Law, and the American Founding</i>, by Kody W. Cooper and Justin Buckley Dyer

The 4D Model of American Political Conservatism: Disgust, Disorder Aversion, Deontology, and (Social) Dominance

Over the decades, numerous researchers have identified psychological predictors of conservative and liberal political orientation. However, most research teams have focused on a single predictor at a time, occasionally two. Moreover, most researchers have tended to stay within the theoretical and methodological confines of their subdiscipline (e.g., social psychology vs. personality psychology). Here, we review and integrate evidence across different subdisciplines to propose a constellation of four psychological constructs (disgust sensitivity, preference for order, deontological morality, and social dominance orientation) that, working together, form a more nuanced and fine-grained account of why people are attracted to different ends of the political spectrum. In doing so, we demonstrate the usefulness of moving beyond operationalizing political orientation in a single-dimensional (left-to-right) manner. We suggest that the proposed “4D Model” represents an incremental advance that makes more specific predictions about who will be attracted to which strands of political conservatism.

Tradition and Disruption in Latinx and Latin American Political Thought

Abstract This article presents Latinx political thought as a distinctive tradition in political theory that reworks central concepts in response to historical experiences of conquest, colonialism, migration, and transnational politics. In reconstructing this tradition, we argue that its problem space converges with US-based Latin American political thought. The article first traces a genealogy of Latinx political theory and then explores three realms of theorizing around which Latinx and Latin American political thought cluster: sovereignty and state violence, peoplehood, and transnationalism. We explain how the surveyed works disrupt and enrich political theory accounts of these problems. In arguing for the recognition of this field as a tradition, the article also aims to make it intelligible as an area of concentration for PhD students in political science.

The “Indios” of Spain and the Mexican Revolution: Racial Ideologies and the Labor of Internationalist Solidarity

This article examines the influence of the Mexican Revolution (1906–40) on Spanish anarchists’ views on racial and class solidarity. Whereas recent transnational studies of the Spanish Civil War (1936–39) have highlighted the conflict's lingering imprint on Latin American politics and society, this essay explores why Spanish anarchists interpreted the Mexican Revolution as an insurrection led by Mexico's Indigenous communities. It argues that such readings of the conflict, most of which were advanced by non-Indigenous revolutionaries, both challenged and reinforced racialized notions of social and political upheaval. This article therefore demonstrates how these views challenged orthodox interpretations of social revolution while exposing the obstacles to building internationalist solidarity among laboring classes in postimperial and postcolonial societies.

Internationalism, Isolationism, and Racism: What Woodrow Wilson Inherited from Thomas Jefferson in the 14 Points

Thomas Jefferson and Woodrow Wilson are influential American political figures who are famous for the succession and development of Jeffersonianism. Through Jeffersonian liberalism and textual analysis of the 14 Points by Woodrow Wilson, the paper finds that 14 Points expand American politics from domestic affairs to international political (covenants and open diplomacy), economic (freedom to navigate of all time), military (reduction of armaments), moral and cultural (national self-determinism all over the globe) issues, through the League of Nations as a way to isolate itself from European order and alliances. Besides, the colonies are excluded from independence despite some equal treatment. Expansionism, isolationism and racism are what Wilson inherited from Thomas Jefferson.

The Post-Brown Era in Judicial Policymaking

Abstract Brown v. Board of Education marked the beginning of a long era in American politics in which courts, litigation and legal rights were associated with progressive causes. That association, however, is now eroding. The left’s discontent with the Supreme Court is well known, but less attention has been paid to liberal concerns about judicial policymaking – including some of the very mechanisms honed by liberals in the Brown era – that go well beyond the Court. The Brown era obscured a simple truth about lawsuits that the next few years are likely to clarify: They are much better at gumming things up than they are at making things work. Policymaking through litigation, though associated with liberals in the Brown era, in fact reflects a deep distrust of centralized governance. Given that it is conservatives, not liberals, who are more often interested in constraining government, this makes lawsuits ordinarily a more congenial policy tool for Republicans than Democrats. For many elements of the Democratic agenda of the next few years, litigation is likely to prove a clumsy tool, more effective in the hands of opponents than proponents.

Do South Asian Politicians Use More Metaphors Than Western Politicians? A Corpus-Based Comparative Study Of Metaphor In Bangladesh, British, And American Political Discourse

Several studies have investigated the relationship between metaphor and politics; however, no research has specifically focused on the use of metaphors by Bangladeshi politicians. This study aims to address this gap by analyzing the use of conceptual metaphors by Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina Wazed, drawing from the three major source domains of CONFLICT, JOURNEY, and RELIGION. The findings are then compared to those from a study by Charteris-Black (2004), which examined variations in metaphor choice in the inaugural speeches of American Presidents and the party political manifestos of two British political parties from 1974-1997. Since there are no available corpora in the Bangladesh context, I compiled a corpus with 91 speeches from PM Hasina Wazed, containing a total of 101,490 words. Data was analyzed using AntConc software. As Bangladesh is a developing country where religion holds a significant influence, this paper sheds light on how economic development programs have impacted the use of metaphors, while surprisingly religion has not. Additionally, there are some shreds of evidence of family and personal elements appearing in the data.

Towards the Politics of Difference: Mobility and Ethnic Identity in Richard Ford’s Bascombe Novels

Mobility holds profound ethnic, class, and cultural significance in the fiction of the contemporary American writer Richard Ford. Through an analysis of his representative works, including Independence Day, The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank with You, it becomes evident that Ford portrays the &amp;ldquo;negative mobility&amp;rdquo; of African Americans under spatial isolation, the transnational mobility of a Chinese immigrant, and the upward social mobility of both groups. In doing so, Ford illuminates disparities in mobility rights, routes, and friction among different ethnic groups, while also revealing shifts in their social status, values, and sense of identity. Furthermore, Ford reflects upon the social reality wherein ethnic minority groups encounter othering and marginalization upon integration into mainstream American society. This exposure lays bare the widespread systemic racial discrimination and deficiencies within the American political and economic system. Additionally, Ford&amp;rsquo;s depiction of upward social mobility among ethnic minorities underscores the effectiveness of the politics of difference as a means to resist authority and construct ethnic identity. Focusing on the mobility of ethnic minorities deepens our understanding of the survival dilemma and identity crisis faced by them.

Post-Truth American Politics: False Stories and Current Crises by David Ricci

Post-Truth American Politics: False Stories and Current Crises by <i>David Ricci</i>

How Did Medicare for All Influence Trump’s Electoral Prospects Across Different Levels of COVID-19 Perceived Political Engagement?

Background The 2020 US presidential election was a pivotal moment in American politics, with the healthcare system taking center stage as a critical issue. The COVID-19 pandemic significantly raised public awareness about the deficiencies of the US healthcare system, leading to increased support for comprehensive healthcare reforms, such as Medicare for All. Methods This study examines the relationship between the pandemic, support for Medicare for All, and voting choices in the 2020 presidential election. Logistic regression analyses were conducted using data from the Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) 2020 to explore the impact of support for Medicare for All on voting behavior. The analysis controlled for variables such as partisanship, race, gender, age, education, economic anxiety, and COVID-19 exposure. Results The findings indicate a negative relationship between support for Medicare for All and voting for Donald Trump. This relationship holds true across different levels of perceived COVID-19 political engagement. The analysis demonstrates that increased support for Medicare for All is associated with a decreased likelihood of voting for Trump. This effect is more pronounced among individuals who reported minimal impact of the pandemic on their political engagement. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic brought healthcare issues to the forefront of public discourse, reinforcing existing health policy preferences rather than altering them. The study provides insights into how major crises like the COVID-19 pandemic can influence public attitudes and political outcomes. These findings have significant implications for future healthcare policies and electoral strategies, emphasizing the need to consider both enduring health policy preferences and the situational effects of crises.

Does the Centre Hold? Public Sphere Configuration, Democracy, and the Quality of Political Talk in Sweden

In the present article, key conceptual and regulative requirements for quality public democratic talk to be maintained are identified and the linguistic economy of civic conversation about common affairs in the Swedish public sphere gauged; the relationship between public talk, power, and identity is charted; and exposure and response horizons for further quality slippage with Swedens's institutional frameworks visited. A distinction between width and amp difference is introduced to separate democratically acceptable from unviable modes of conversational engagement and provide a new platform for analysing this space. Democratic history and theory is also visited, showing how cognitive moral conversation is a precondition for democratic governance. It is ultimately shown that if democratic politics wishes to remain within its remit, key ideals need safeguarding. It is concluded that the well-known challenges brought out by Levitsky & Ziblatt have not yet affected Swedish politics as they have American politics, but that risks for graver deterioration of struggling conversational and normative formats are visible.

“Fake news you can trust”: How The Babylon Bee brings news satire to the Right

ABSTRACT The political Left dominated news satire in the United States in the early part of the 21st century with television shows such as The Daily Show and newspapers and sites like The Onion, leading some commentators and scholars to argue that satire leans inherently left or is even the exclusive domain of progressivism. Since 2016, The Babylon Bee, a conservative, Christian news satire website has defied these expectations. This article offers an examination of how The Babylon Bee, has adapted contemporary practices of news satire in the 21st century United States to the conservative perspective. After providing a theoretical definition of “conservative satire,” the paper provides brief historical overviews of news satire since the turn of the century, conservative satire from Ancient Greece to the British Enlightenment, and the founding and evolution of The Babylon Bee. Finally, the author demonstrates how The Bee has brought news satire to the Right in the 21st century by navigating three challenges of the recent American politics of particular importance to conservatives: the divisive figure of Donald Trump, the rise of misinformation, and the nuances of identity politics.

Ideological Positioning in War Discourse: A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Selected American and Syrian Political Speeches on the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War

Ideological Positioning in War Discourse: A Critical Stylistic Analysis of Selected American and Syrian Political Speeches on the 2022 Russian-Ukrainian War

Curricular Design, American Political Development, and the Future of the Undergraduate Political Science Major

Structural questions about the undergraduate political science major have spurred debates in the field for more than thirty years. Today, resurgent growth of unusually sharp threats to American democracy fuel familiar curricular questions with new urgency. However, the combined effects of inertia, bureaucratic hurdles, and resource constraints often limit the ability of departments to respond with meaningful programmatic changes. In this article, we describe our experience creating a “loosely sequenced” core curriculum within one subfield – implemented without making any changes in official major requirements and with the support of only two faculty members – and provide a model for how interested faculty might design a cohesive curriculum that leverages extant local expertise and disciplinary specializations to offer students rigorous, timely tools for interpreting the contemporary political world. We explore the benefits and limitations of this approach through a case study highlighting our core curriculum in the subfield of American Political Development.

The Most Iniquitous Lobby: The Committee for Constitutional Government and the Shaping of American Politics, 1937–1955

AbstractThis article examines the Committee for Constitutional Government, a conservative organization that spearheaded a novel form of mass-based mobilization and direct-mail propaganda to counter New Deal reforms from 1937 to the late 1950s. I argue that the members of the committee offered a supple and variegated response to New Deal liberalism, one with deep roots in the American past. Organizationally, the committee differed from other conservative groups of the period in the vastly greater reach of its propaganda, the small-donor financial base of its operations, and its extensive cultivation of a grassroots movement committed to right-wing reform. The committee was a critical political actor from 1937 to 1955, systematically shaping legislation and countering the trend toward social democracy in America. The ultimate result of its campaigns was to retard the growth of the administrative state and help formulate a cogent conservative critique of reformist liberalism.

The Rise of Poor Richard: Franklinian Fictionality, Republican Circumspection

This essay reconsiders Benjamin Franklin’s pre-Revolutionary writings and his later Autobiography (1771–90) within the historical frame of the rise of fictionality, as charted by Catherine Gallagher and others. Before the novel took off in America, fictionality developed in shorter, nominally non-fictional forms. In this article, Franklin’s essays, letters, and almanacs are read for their peculiar proto-fictional elements. More than simply being examples of a new brand of American humour or an emergent individualist ethos, Franklin’s wit and its absorption into a metafictional style of writing and publishing depended on readers’ assuming positions of “ironic assent,” or what this essay calls, in the context of eighteenth-century American politics and law, “republican circumspection.” This phrase names an epistemic attunement whereby subjects suspend the ontological security of the self for an empty screen or void onto which they can project character representations that straddle the line between private and public personae.

The Russia-Ukraine Crisis in American Political News: Van ..Dijk Model of Analysis by: Heba Awny Abd El- Hamid Ismail A PhD Researcher The Department of English Language and Literature, The Faculty of Arts, Suez University

The Russia-Ukraine Crisis in American Political News: Van ..Dijk Model of Analysis by: Heba Awny Abd El- Hamid Ismail A PhD Researcher The Department of English Language and Literature, The Faculty of Arts, Suez University