A new paper in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, indicates that the extension of voting rights can reduce political violence. The researcher finds this by looking at the impact of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Political scientists have long debated the effect of enfranchisement on violence and political outcomes. In...
Police in the U.S. deal with more diverse, distressed and aggrieved populations and are involved in more incidents involving firearms, but they average only five months of classroom training—the briefest among 18 countries examined in a Rutgers study. According to the data, the rate of fatal police shootings in the United States in 2019 (3.1 per...
Whether Black people’s political knowledge is accurately reported in survey research depends on the race and skin tone of the interviewer conducting the assessment, according to a new study co-authored by a Georgia State University researcher. The findings raise questions about how to ensure that political science research accurately captures the knowledge and attitudes of diverse...
After two years of considerable improvement, Americans’ knowledge of some basic facts about their government has fallen to earlier levels, with less than half of those surveyed able to name the three branches of government for the 2022 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey. The Annenberg Public Policy Center’s annual, nationally representative survey showed notable increases in...
In Orange County, California, where the typical house sells for $1 million, Rep. Katie Porter’s four-bedroom, three-bath residence in a leafy subdivision on the University of California Irvine campus is a bargain. The progressive Democrat and law professor, who has lamented the cost of housing in her district, purchased it in 2011 for $523,000, a below-market price...
People can become involved in politics in a number of ways. They can vote, volunteer in campaigns, or even run for office themselves. But when it comes to improving the state of the U.S. democracy, what can the average citizen do? Christopher Beem, managing director of the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State, attempted...
Through the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Congress attempted to curb CEO pay by repealing a long-standing exemption that allowed companies to deduct large amounts of qualified performance-based pay. New research finds the change has had little effect, with CEO pay either staying the same or growing after the law made it more...
By working together, economic and racial justice organizers in the last decade have brought about policy changes to address economic inequality, researchers report in a new book. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign urban planning professor Marc Doussard and his co-author, Portland State University urban studies and planning professor Greg Schrock, examine grassroots organizing efforts in six cities, including Chicago, in “Justice at Work:...
The ‘anomie’ concept – that the society is disintegrating and losing moral standards – explains why people with low socio-economic status trust politics less than those with a higher one, concludes a new study published in the scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin. The study was conducted by two Belgian researchers, Thierry Bornand (ULB and IWEPS) and Olivier Klein (ULB) in...
Mass shootings in the US account for 73% of all 139 incidents occurring in developed countries between 1998 to 2019. During this time, 62% of all 1,318 fatalities from the attacks also happened in the states. These are the findings of a shocking new study, published in the peer-reviewed International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal...
