Ever since comfortably winning the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in June, former Ambassador to Germany Phil Murphy has seemed like a towering favorite to succeed term-limited Gov. Chris Christie (R) as New Jersey’s next governor. … More interesting than this gubernatorial race, though, is the ongoing trial of Sen. Robert Menendez […] Read more »
U.S. Scores Biggest Fall in World Peace Study, Asia Advances
The U.S. declined the most in an annual study of global peace that cites political turbulence, deteriorating press freedom, a public perception of increasing crime and corruption, and less acceptance of Muslims and other minorities. The U.S. dropped 11 places to the 114th most-peaceful country out of 161 in the index […] Read more »
Bright Line Watch Survey Report: How is U.S. democracy doing?
From May 11-20, 2017, Bright Line Watch conducted its second expert survey of political scientists assessing the state of democracy in the United States. BLW’s first survey (Wave 1) was conducted at the outset of the Trump administration in February 2017. This report presents results from the second survey (Wave […] Read more »
Why populism is a threat to electoral integrity
Since the earthquake of Brexit in June last year, and Trump’s victory four months later, the news has been dominated by stories about populism, including whether European elections suggest that populist support is either rising or stalled. The media has also been fascinated simultaneously by problems of electoral integrity. This […] Read more »
How conspiracy theories helped power Trump’s disruptive politics
We watched over the past year as a wave of conspiracy theories infected our national discourse. … Trump’s use of conspiracy theory politics proved to be a particularly ingenious form of populism. By focusing his populist appeals on conspiracy rhetoric — rather than substantive policy — Trump galvanized the broad […] Read more »
Among Trump Supporters, Conflicts Of Interest Aren’t A Top Concern
… Trump’s unprecedented decision to hold onto his many businesses while in office has generated plenty of criticism from ethics experts in both major parties and led to a lawsuit by watchdog groups accusing him of violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. Critics say his many hotels, golf courses […] Read more »