There’s a growing body of research in political science and political psychology suggesting that even very mild messages or cues that touch on race can alter political opinions. The landmark book on the subject is Princeton professor Tali Mendelberg’s 2001 book The Race Card, which marshaled a wide array of […] Read more »
How Stable Are Democracies? ‘Warning Signs Are Flashing Red’
Yascha Mounk is used to being the most pessimistic person in the room. Mr. Mounk, a lecturer in government at Harvard, has spent the past few years challenging one of the bedrock assumptions of Western politics: that once a country becomes a liberal democracy, it will stay that way. His […] Read more »
Politics & Polls podcast: Asymmetric Politics
Political polarization is the worst it’s been since the Civil War, some experts argue. How did we get here? How have America’s ideologies shifted so much in the past four decades? What forces underlie the growing divide between Republicans and Democrats? And how has social media and varying sources of […] Read more »
Is the Slide Into Tribal Politics Inevitable?
Donald J. Trump’s victory could well push the American party system toward a clash between an overwhelmingly white ethnic party and a cosmopolitan coalition of minority groups and college-educated whites. … Mr. Trump’s campaign may set in motion a process that reorients American politics toward the cosmopolitanism versus nationalism divide […] Read more »
How Accurate Were the Political Science Forecasts of the 2016 Presidential Election?
With the dust settling from one of the most brutal and nasty presidential campaigns in modern American history and with the late vote returns creeping up to a final count, it is time to take stock of the presidential election forecasts offered initially to readers of the Crystal Ball website […] Read more »
What Happened? How Pollsters, Pundits, And Politics Got It Wrong
The election of Donald Trump came as a shock to many Americans, but perhaps most of all to those in the business of calling elections. The pollsters on both left and right had confidently predicted Hillary Clinton would walk away with the race. They got it wrong. But one man […] Read more »