The warning signs are flashing red: Democracy is under threat. Across Europe and North America, candidates are more authoritarian, party systems are more volatile, and citizens are more hostile to the norms and institutions of liberal democracy. These trends have prompted a major debate between those who view political discontent […] Read more »
The Effects of the Early Trump Presidency on Public Attitudes Toward the Republican Party
Presidents from Truman through Obama have influenced their party’s popularity, reputation for competence, presumed policy commitments, appeal as an object of identification, and electoral performance. Despite Donald Trump’s singularly unorthodox campaign and early presidency, survey data available for his first 15 months in office suggest that opinions of his performance […] Read more »
Whites have fled the Democratic Party. Here’s how the nation got there.
… Whites have slowly but consistently moved away from the Democratic Party. These recent losses are on top of Democrats’ losses among Southern whites during the 1960s and 1970s after Democrats’ support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. … My new research […] Read more »
When and How New Policy Creates New Politics: Examining the Feedback Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion
Following E. E. Schattschneider’s observation that “a new policy creates a new politics,” scholars of “policy feedback” have theorized that policies influence subsequent political behavior and public opinion. Recent studies observe, however, that policy feedback does not always occur and the form it takes varies considerably. To explain such variation, […] Read more »
Gun Control in the Crosshairs: Christian Nationalism and Opposition to Stricter Gun Laws
Despite increasingly frequent mass shootings and a growing dissatisfaction with current gun laws, American opposition to federal gun legislation remains strong. We show that opposition to stricter gun control is closely linked to Christian nationalism, a religious cultural framework that mandates a symbiotic relationship between Christianity and civil society. Using […] Read more »
What political science can tell us about mass shootings
Over the past decades, the United States has faced more and more mass shootings that are neither criminal competition nor family violence: Columbine, Aurora, Virginia Tech, Newtown, the Charleston, S.C., Emanuel AME Church, the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., Mandalay Bay in Las […] Read more »