Lagos is Nigeria’s economic powerhouse, but it has some of the worst slums in the country. Lagos slums are characterised by high levels of poverty – the state of not having enough resources to meet basic needs for living, such as food, water, shelter, healthcare and education. Poverty is multidimensional. It is not only about...
Governance
Model Reveals Why Debunking Election Misinformation Often Doesn’t Work
The new study also identifies factors that can make these efforts more successful. When an election result is disputed, people who are skeptical about the outcome may be swayed by figures of authority who come down on one side or the other. Those figures can be independent monitors, political figures, or news organizations. However, these “debunking”...
Election Officials Can Boost Voter Trust in Delayed Results with Early Communication
In recent U.S. elections, results often took days to finalize, fueling voter distrust in the electoral process and ballot outcomes. Now, research from the Yankelovich Center for Social Science Research at UC San Diego shows that a simple, proactive message from election officials – ahead of Election Night – can effectively reduce this distrust. The...
How Liberals and Conservatives Can Have Better Conversations, According to a Psychologist
A psychologist has explained the sources of political beliefs in the U.S., why liberalism and conservatism appeal to different individuals and why we continue to disagree about fundamental issues in American life. Bridging Our Political Divide collects the insights of a psychologist who offers antidotes to the unproductive arguments that now dominate our political culture and...
How Autocrats Gained the Upper Hand
A review of Anne Applebaum, “Autocracy, Inc.”(Doubleday, 2024). Observers have sounded the alarm bell for a number of years now that democracy is under threat. Just as many democracies once thought to be resistant to erosion (such as the United States and India) are on the defensive, many autocracies (such as Russia and China) are both hardening...
Food Insufficiency Increased with Expiration of Pandemic-Era SNAP Emergency Allotments
Key points: Among more than 15,000 SNAP participants across 35 states, food insufficiency increased by 8.4% after pandemic-era Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) emergency allotments expired. Emergency allotments provided participants up to $250 additional support per month. Emergency allotment expiration also led to a 2.1% increase in use of food pantries and a 2% increase...
NYC’S ‘Eric Adams Show’ Heads for a Final Curtain, with Echoes of Another New Yorker More Focused on Style Than Policy
As the Democratic primary for mayor in New York approached in the spring of 2021, most of my friends and colleagues were supporting one of three candidates. My lefty friends were all rallying around progressive standard-bearer Maya Wiley. My more middle-of-the-road friends were supporting Kathryn Garcia, who ran on a platform that promised excellent management...
Two Visions of National Security at the Harris-Trump Debate
A roundup of the candidates’ statements across seven national security themes In between former President Trump’s false claim of Haitian migrants eating cats in Springfield, Ohio and another false claim that Vice President Harris was promising to perform transgender operations on illegal aliens in prison, a Trumpian conception of national security did emerge from Tuesday...
Sex and Consent in the Military
“No” means no, but what does “yes” look like? The U.S. military has been rocked by sexual assault and harassment scandals going back to Tailhook in the early 1990s. As a result, Congress has attempted to make the military a safer place for all by reforming military criminal law in piecemeal fashion while mandating a raft of prevention programs. The most significant...
Rural Voters Don’t Necessarily Love Walz, Despite the Camo Hat and Small-Town Upbringing
The selection of Tim Walz as Kamala Harris’ running mate has sparked a wave of commentary suggesting that simply by elevating a former small-town football coach to the candidacy for vice president, Democrats will naturally secure the allegiance of rural voters nationwide. At first glance, such analysis – tinged with wishful thinking – seems self-evident....