To put it mildly, government wouldn’t work very well if people didn’t have to obey the laws they oppose. And the problem isn’t only that people would pretend to oppose laws to escape punishment for breaking them. Even if it is clear “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a defendant’s opposition to the law she broke …
Do college football games influence U.S. elections? Healy, Malhotra, and Mo (2010) found that college football outcomes are correlated with election results. Fowler and Montagnes (2015) found that the estimated effects of college football games do not vary in the ways we would theoretically expect if the effect were genuine and that NFL games have …
On the Importance of Independent Evidence: A Reply to Graham et al. Read More »
From today on through September 2023 the Journal of Politics offers a new article type: Registered Reports. A Registered Report (RR) is an empirical research article for which the theory, methods and proposed analysis are pre-registered, reviewed, and in-principle-accepted for publication prior to data access. Your reactions We are energized by the reaction we have …
We introduce Registered Reports as a new article format at the Journal of Politics. A Registered Report is a form of an empirical research article in which the theory, methods and proposed analysis are pre-registered, reviewed, and in-principle-accepted for publication prior to data access. We introduce Registered Reports as a trial and will report on …
Imagine that you live next to a beautiful forest. When you look at it, you feel a deep––almost spiritual––connection to the natural world. And you feel protective of the various animals that live and thrive there. Luckily, your neighbors feel the same way, so you are confident that the forest will be preserved. Some parts …
The massive flow of money into politics has generated widespread concerns about its impact on political equality. Political campaigns’ increased reliance on private contributions has meant that the rich can exert far greater influence than citizens with lesser means. One insufficiently discussed route by which the super-rich can obtain outsized political clout is through ownership …
Concentrating the legitimate use of organized violence, and entrusting its use to a single individual, is generally considered to be a critical ingredient of state formation, and a necessary ingredient of political stability, especially in fractionalized political environments. Historically, this has been accomplished by appointing a ruler: an individual who is endowed with—or takes—political authority. …
The Peaceful Transfer of Power and Social Contract Read More »
Earlier this month, the United States joined more than 40 other countries in announcing the coordination of war crimes investigations in Ukraine. By signing a political declaration in the Hague—the headquarters of the International Criminal Court (ICC)—the Biden administration took its latest step toward recalibrating the US relationship with the ICC. The policy shift was …
Apologize? Attack? How Governments Navigate International Law Violations Read More »
We set out to answer a simple question: Do constituents ask women legislators to work on more issues? To find the answer, we conducted an experiment in collaboration with two pairs of state legislators. In each pair there was one man and one woman. We worked with one Republican pair and one democratic pair. Each …
The opioid epidemic is one of the most pressing public health problems facing the United States. Drug overdose deaths are a leading cause of injury-related death and over 70% involve opioids. More than half a million Americans died of opioid overdoses between 1999 and 2020 and a record of over 100,000 Americans died of opioid-related …
Do media frames of the opiod epidemic shape public support for treatment? Read More »
