I’ve been thinking a lot, recently, about the tension between demanding “individual rights” – in the sense of deciding whether or not to wear a mask – and calling for more action on the part of our government to protect us from the coronavirus pandemic. I’m a political theorist, which means I study how communities...
Oregon became the first state in the United States to decriminalize the possession of all drugs on Nov. 3, 2020. Measure 110, a ballot initiative funded by the Drug Policy Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group backed in part by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, passed with more than 58% of the vote. Possessing heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and...
Pundits are expressing surprise that so many Latinos voted for Donald Trump. But pollsters who specialize in the Latino vote knew for months before the election that Latino support for Biden was soft, with many Latinos – especially in Florida – undecided. In Florida 57% of Latinos ultimately supported Biden, compared to roughly 70% nationwide....
President Donald Trump’s controversial use of social media is widely known and theories abound about its ulterior motives. New research published today in Nature Communications claims to provide the first evidence-based analysis demonstrating the U.S. President’s Twitter account has been routinely deployed to divert attention away from a topic potentially harmful to his reputation, in turn...
Uber, TaskRabbit and other ride-hailing and delivery service companies in California can keep classifying their workers as independent contractors rather than employees after California voters approved a measure known as Proposition 22, according to the state’s still-unofficial tally. The fundamental question of whether Uber drivers and similar workers should be considered employees or contractors has...
Election polling is facing yet another reckoning following its uneven-at-best performance in this year’s voting. Although the outcome in the 2020 presidential race remained uncertain the next day, it was evident that polls collectively faltered, overall, in providing Americans with clear indications as to how the election would turn out. And that misstep promises to...
In ancient Athens, only the very wealthiest people paid direct taxes, and these went to fund the city-state’s most important national expenses – the navy and honors for the gods. While today it might sound astonishing, most of these top taxpayers not only paid happily, but boasted about how much they paid. Money was just...
On the eve of the November 3 election, Bright Line Watch–the political science research project of faculty at the University of Rochester, the University of Chicago, and Dartmouth College–finds that experts are concerned about substantial risks to the legitimacy of the election, including potential problems in the casting and counting of votes, the Electoral College, and in the resolution of...
Political and social engagement is a relevant topic for European business leaders. CEOs are increasingly making public statements on political issues in order to make a positive contribution to socially relevant topics. These are the findings of a recent study conducted by European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) Master’s in Management graduate Christoph Cewe...
It’s no secret that U.S. politics has become highly polarized. Even so, there are probably few living Americans who ever witnessed anything that quite compares with this fall’s first presidential debate. Was it really the case that the nation could do no better than a verbal food fight, with two candidates hurling fourth-grade insults and...
