In the Current Issue

Volume 139 - Number 2 - Summer 2024

Articles

The New Racial Spillover: Donald Trump, Racial Attitudes, and Public Opinion Toward Accountability for Perpetrators and Planners of the January 6 Capitol Attack
JESSE RHODES AND Tatishe M. Nteta explore how racism affects the public’s attitudes towards accountability for those responsible for the January 6 attack on the Capitol. They argue that racial hostility is undermining norms of respect for elections, belief in the peaceful transfer of power, and belief in the rule of law.

Anti-Asian Racism and the Rise of Hawkish Mass Opinion in China
D.G. KIM analyzes the Chinese state media coverage of anti-Asian racial violence. Kim argues that this political narrative boosts racial and nationalistic sentiments which in turn garner greater support for hawkish foreign policy.

Good Governance and the Partisan Wars: The Effects of Divided Government on Administrative Problem Solving and Oversight Agenda Setting in Congress
Claire Leavitt assesses the effects of partisanship on Congressional oversight by constructing a new, independent, and non-partisan oversight agenda for Congress based on the Government Accountability Office’s biennial “high risk list” of federal agencies and programs most vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. Leavitt finds a lack of partisan effects on Congress’ ability to investigate these high-risk issues specifically, while confirming the effect of polarization on other types of oversight.

Reforming the Bench: Public Support for Supreme Court Institutional Change
ANNA MCCAGHREN FLEMING, MATTHEW D. MONTGOMERY, AND Natalie C. Rogol use a survey experiment to assess how media framing can influence public support for reforms pertaining to packing and term limits of the U.S. Supreme Court. They find that media messages can decrease support for reform, but not increase it.

Deterrence Without Mutual Destruction
Samuel Issacharoff reviews David Sloss’s Tyrants on Twitter and reflects upon the book’s argument that the correlation between democratic decline and foreign interference establishes the causal role of the latter. The review article ends with a note of caution on the costs associated with democratic societies closing up in the face of foreign challenge.

Coronavirus and Culture War: Blunders, Defiance, and Glimmers of Solidarity
James A. Morone reviews Danielle Allen’s Democracy in a Time of Coronavirus and traces how and why public health fell into the American culture wars. He notes the evolution of a social welfare safety net that emerged during the crisis and concludes by summarizing the epidemic’s toll on Americans.

An Anatomy Lesson for Democrats
AZIZ HUQ reviews Stein Ringen’s new book How Democracies Live: Power, Statecraft, and Freedom in Modern Societies. Huq argues that the book inverts the ordinary ‘order of battle’ found in this body of scholarship and, in doing so, generates the question: do we gain more or less insight into the mechanisms and cure for democratic backsliding by starting big (and general), or are we better off reasoning from specific facts?

Youth, Generations, and Generational Research
MOLLY ANDOLINA reviews Generation Gap: Why the Baby Boomers Still Dominate American Politics and Culture by Kevin Munger. She discusses the history of generational research as well as recent work about younger cohorts to provide context for understand both the strengths and weaknesses of the book and argues that the field is richer with Munger’s contribution, but that many critical questions remain.

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