Political turnover is central the theory and practice of democracy. Yet, previous research on how turnover impacts governance and development…
In late 2022, the German government arrested two dozen people who were alledgedly involved in the planning of a far-right…
Political scientists have long debated whether the experience of voting for the first time at a young age has long-lasting…
The struggle against racism is, in part, a struggle against ignorance. For centuries, African American political thinkers have condemned specious…
Local politicians often make decisions about building new housing projects. Even though towns need more housing to solve shortages and…
The past twenty years suggest that China wants to increase its economic and political reach at the expense of the…
Party affiliation and personal social background are powerful explanatory variables of politicians’ policy preferences. But do voting rights affect the…
Two upcoming decisions by the Supreme Court, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, may…
In the realm of climate policy, carbon taxation stands out as an economically important yet politically contentious instrument. Despite widespread…
Many countries have recently seen an increase in the public debate around the optimal size of their legislatures. Advocates for…
Has it all been in vain? Ten years after the Arab Spring uprising in Egypt, little seems to be left…
Contemporary research on political leaders explains their decisions as driven by their desire to remain in power or their personal…
Political Scientists often test their hypotheses using quantitative methods. When new methods are proposed, researchers are interested in how they…
Across much of the Global South, in-person surveys remain a primary means by which researchers collect data on political opinions.…
American politics offers citizens many opportunities to deliberate together on matters of common concern. Public meetings, local boards, and juries…
The Covid-19 pandemic crash-tested governments’ ability to protect their citizens in an emergency—a test many spectacularly failed. After fumbling every…
The importance of representation in politics Ethnic minorities are underrepresented in parliaments worldwide. A lack of representation can lead to…
Few social science relationships have generated as much interest as that between socioeconomic inequality and democracy. For example, recent discussions…
How the media shapes people’s views on political and social issues is a vital question for scholars and the public…
Various empirical studies have investigated the causes and consequences of political distrust. They found that politicians’ actions, such as corruption,…
Does exposure to extreme weather events increase public demands for climate action and support for climate-focused parties like the Green…
Introduction Citizens in low- and middle-income countries often grapple with inadequate access to basic public goods and services such as…
How public opinion responds to wars and other crises has intrigued scholars for years. Previous studies have made it clear…
A long-standing academic debate relates to whether or not public employees differ fundamentally from private-sector workers in terms of their…
Image: Jessica Rodriguez Rivas // wikimedia.org What are the consequences of highly partisan behavior in Congress? While scholars have explored…
A well-informed, knowledgeable bureaucracy is a necessary precondition for effective policy design and implementation. Unfortunately, real-word bureaucracies fall well-short of…
While not universal, it remains a common refrain that one can’t or shouldn’t evaluate claims of intersectionality with an interaction…
All around the world, police departments rely on information from citizens to do their jobs efficiently and effectively. While officers…
Leaks of confidential information are pervasive in politics and a recurring topic in public debate. Roughly speaking, they come in…
There is a growing body of evidence showing the importance of neighborhood context in shaping the long-run life outcomes of…
Classic theories of international relations suggest that conflict results from states’ inability to consider security issues from one another’s perspectives.…
Newspaper headlines at Waterloo station on July 7 2005. Image: Ellywa // wikimedia.org It is well established that terrorist attacks…
In March 2022, the Senate Judiciary Committee held confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. As the first Black woman…
Making research findings accessible “[S]tudents, public officials, and scholars should not need to understand phrases like “coefficient,” “statistically significant,” and…
Women wait in queues to cast their votes outside a polling station during the 2019 Indian general election. Image: Anuwar…
We study whether political preferences affect the uptake of social programs, and find that supporters of the party or the…
Democracies are littered with imprints from their authoritarian pasts. Authoritarian-era successor parties and politicians often remain on the scene and…
Electoral incentives shape candidates’ decisions to cultivate certain group identities. Dan Posner, for example, famously showed how Zambian candidates respond…
The phrase “defund the police” entered the public imagination in summer 2020, as the nation became engulfed in social unrest…
Presidents from all around the world are reforming the constitutions of their countries to extend their terms in office. This…
Noormuhammad Noori, a resident of the Kyyjärvi asylum seeker reception centre, stands with social services director Päivi Peltokangas and the…
The above illustration is a work by Hanifa Abdul Hameed,created for a Vox article. America’s changing racial demographics raise new…
Feelings play a crucial role in motivating people to act, and this includes political action. Emotions like anger and enthusiasm…
Compulsory voting is used in over two dozen countries and regions. Chile recently reinstated mandatory voting after just over a…
To put it mildly, government wouldn’t work very well if people didn’t have to obey the laws they oppose. And…
Do college football games influence U.S. elections? Healy, Malhotra, and Mo (2010) found that college football outcomes are correlated with…
From today on through September 2023 the Journal of Politics offers a new article type: Registered Reports. A Registered Report…
The massive flow of money into politics has generated widespread concerns about its impact on political equality. Political campaigns’ increased…
Concentrating the legitimate use of organized violence, and entrusting its use to a single individual, is generally considered to be…
A defining feature of democracy is that voters reward or punish incumbents at the ballot box in response to the…
Effective lawmakers are the workhorses of the U.S. Congress, but does this legislative effort translate into electoral success? That is,…
Political theorists have a number of different tools in their methodological toolkits. A great deal of political theorising is done…
On the front cover of one of its 2016 issues, The Economist depicted Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg in the guise…
In most democracies, including the USA and UK, voting is voluntary. This usually results in low and unequal electoral turnout,…
It is an open secret in international politics that governments sometimes use money to buy political support from other governments.…
We propose a method to estimate sub-national public opinion from national survey data. Our approach extends the current gold-standard, multilevel…
What is often referred to as ‘ideal theory’ in political philosophy, represented by theorists like John Rawls, is under attack…
Social unrest often begins suddenly and spreads quickly. How does social unrest diffuse? This is the question we address in…
In November 2015, the Syria-based Islamic State terrorist organization perpetrated a large series of attacks in Paris, France, at a…
In a new paper titled “Can the Party in Power Systematically Win a Majority in Close Legislative Elections? Evidence from…
How important is political ideology to the way judges decide cases? Are judges merely “politicians in robes,” or are they…
When the media reports on federal judges, it often refers to the presidents who appointed them. This tendency reflects that…
Though formal and empirical research has established the importance of large protests, their dynamics remain less understood. Empirical investigations have…
Today, the US media market is both “high choice” and fragmented. This situation stands in stark contrast to the information…
Does information about government performance and corruption shape voter behaviour? Canonical theories of retrospective accountability suggest that it should, as…
In fiscal year 2020, the U.S. federal executive branch employed approximately 97.07% of civilian employees (excluding those employed in The…
A known critical element of executive authority involves how power is allocated among the president and administrative agencies. Less appreciated…
Coup attempts are frequent events: Since 1945, there have on average been around 7 coup attempts each year. This is…
One of the most robust empirical facts in the political science literature is that children resemble their parents along with…
International relations theories often assume that actors make military conflict decisions unemotionally, weighing the costs and benefits as a computer…
Major-power interventions in civil wars are extremely common: since the 1950s, close to half of the civil conflicts involve a…
Standing committees play a crucial role in the work of modern legislatures. A casual glance at recent news headlines makes…
In this year’s German federal election campaign, voters with an immigrant background, who constitute ten percent of the electorate, played…
In a new paper at the Journal of Politics, “Agricultural Comparative Advantage and Legislators’ Support for Trade Agreements”, Francesco Amodio, Leonardo…
What happens when a government attempts to shut down one of the most popular social media platforms to combat foreign…
In August 2023, the ruling party of Zimbabwe—the Zimbabwe African National Union–Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF)—won the national elections once again. This…
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is on the rise in many countries. Often, we assume that this rhetoric is based on racism or…
Political scientists have often debated the role of propaganda in autocracies. For some, propaganda is primarily a tool of persuasion,…
The fall of a totalitarian or authoritarian regime and its replacement by democracy represents a momentous political shift. Yet, while…
On June 17, 2015, an avowed white supremacist opened fire on an evening prayer service being held at the Emanuel…
To fight climate change, the world will need to quintuple production of certain minerals. We need cobalt and lithium for…
International development actors–such as donor and lender governments, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), firms, and local governments–have strong incentives to cultivate…
When deaths rise or the economy collapses in a crisis, governments in democracies fear for their survival. Everybody knows that…
Over the past several years, U.S. elected officials and candidates have grown increasingly diverse. The most recent midterm elections were…
Hot topics and Emotional Politics Some issues, like migration, war, or climate change, ignite strong emotions. They are not just…
