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Begin New Search Political Geography America Content Type Journal Article

41. Our America: A Hispanic History of the United States, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto

Author:
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Our America is about turning perspectives upside down. It is about reading self-satisfying narratives of the past irreverently, mockingly, unsparingly. It is about elucidating the political work that History, with a capital H, does. History creates myths that move and inspire, but it also creates myths that silence. Our America is a book about myths: the fountain of youth, the cities of Cibola, the pursuit of King Arthur, the realm of Queen Calafia, the curse of Zorro, the revenge of Moroni, the republic of Hesperus. Our America narrates the history of the United States from the perspective of the South, rather than the East. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19331#sthash.vdZhAyqB.dpuf
Political Geography:
United States and America

42. The Woman Suffrage Movement in America: A Reassessment, Corrine M. McConnaughy

Author:
Shannon M. Risk
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Previously, women's historians have endeavored to keep women central in the story of personal politics. Corrine M. McConnaughy, however, focuses on the inner workings of state legislatures that have had the most power to define the electorate, and shows that analysis of partisan politics in state legislatures fills the gaps in previous histories without pushing women out of women's history. Women's ability to build coalitions with groups outside of their initial identity group, which took considerable effort, began to bear fruit by the early 1900s. She describes two scenarios under which male state legislators considered expanding the voter base to include women: strategic enfranchisement and programmatic enfranchisement. The former implied that a major political party would find it advantageous to add women voters to the rolls. McConnaughy debunks this approach because female voters could not guarantee any political party their vote as a bloc. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19332#sthash.qN51OK2C.dpuf
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
America

43. A Storm over This Court: Law, Politics, and Supreme Court Decision Making in Brown v. Board of Education, Jeffrey D. Hockett

Author:
Sabrina Zirkel
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
At this 60th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Jeffrey D. Hockett offers us a new interpretation of the dilemmas, debates, and deliberations that members of the Court engaged in on their way to this decision. Hockett challenges conceptualizations of the decision in Brown as emerging purely from any one set of motives and that it can be analyzed through only one theoretical or methodological lens. Instead, he argues through painstaking review of the discussions between the justices about the case and early drafts of opinions that different justices were swayed by different arguments, took into account different considerations, and made different compromises. In short: There was no “one” road to Brown v. Board—there were potentially as many paths as there were justices. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19333#sthash.mXg1UKS3.dpuf
Topic:
International Relations, Education, Politics, and Law
Political Geography:
America

44. Subsidizing Democracy: How Public Funding Changes Elections and How It Can Work in the Future, Michael G. Miller

Author:
Brian E. Adams
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Most empirical research on campaign finance reform attempts to identify the effects of reform using large quantities of data. These studies are useful, but do not present a complete picture of how reform influences electoral dynamics, because they lack information on underlying causal mechanisms. Michael Miller's research, based on surveys and interviews of state legislative candidates, is a welcome addition to the literature and nicely complements existing research by examining how public financing, and in particular the “clean elections” regimes in Arizona, Maine, and Connecticut, affect the behavior of candidates and voters. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19334#sthash.KJh7ywlR.dpuf
Topic:
Reform
Political Geography:
America and Arizona

45. Coming of Political Age: American Schools and the Civic Development of Immigrant Youth, Rebecca M. Callahan and Chandra Muller

Author:
Sara Z. Poggio
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
In this insightful study, Rebecca M. Callahan and Chandra Muller show the importance of the national educational system of the United States in the social and civic integration of children of immigrants—one of the fastest­ growing segments of the U.S. population. The relevance of education, and public education in particular, has been highlighted, as mentioned by the authors, in the education program “No Child Left Behind,” initiated by President George W. Bush in 2001 and in “Race to the Top.” one of several programs initiated by the administration of Barack Obama. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19338#sthash.ik0TWfYQ.dpuf
Topic:
Development, Education, Politics, and Immigration
Political Geography:
United States and America

46. The American Political Landscape, Byron E. Shafer and Richard H. Spady

Author:
Robert A. Jackson
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Byron Shafer and Richard Spady rely on cutting-edge data analyses and graph¬ical presentations to provide a detailed accounting of how social characteristics have shaped core political values, which, in turn, has structured the presidential vote across the 1984–2008 elections. The study stands apart for the sheer richness and depth of its analyses of a specific data source—namely, the 1987 through 2009 Pew Values Surveys—to gain insight into the shifting contours of the American electorate. An application of item response theory to consistent sets of questions enables Shafer and Spady to produce indicators of two unobservable attitudinal dimensions: economics and culture. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19340#sthash.C8UA9e6m.dpuf
Topic:
Economics, Politics, and Culture
Political Geography:
America

47. Making Constitutions: Presidents, Parties and Institutional Choice in Latin America, Gabriel L. Negretto

Author:
Tom Ginsburg
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
Latin America is something of a constitutional graveyard, in which formal texts have been replaced frequently over the past two centuries. Focusing especially on the period of relative political stability after 1978, Gabriel Negretto has produced a masterful book that helps us to understand constitutional politics in the region and beyond. Integrating quantitative analysis with a series of case studies, Negretto's innovative analysis makes this book required reading for students of constitutional design. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19344#sthash.T6DRR8OT.dpuf
Topic:
Politics
Political Geography:
America and Latin America

48. America Inc? Innovation and Enterprise in the National Security State, Linda Weiss

Author:
Mark Zachary Taylor
Publication Date:
01-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Political Science Quarterly
Institution:
Academy of Political Science
Abstract:
This dense, powerful volume offers profound insights into the U.S. innovation system and its driving forces. The driving forces are Americans' twin desires for technology-based military supremacy (which demands government action) and small government (which militates against it). These twin forces have produced a highly successful, ever-evolving, and unique set of federal institutions and policies, which Linda Weiss calls the “national security state” (NSS). The NSS is the secret to American innovation. Since World War II, it has dominated high-risk innovation, revolutionary technological change, and the formation of new S industries. Weiss's book also reveals that the NSS is not static, but changes in response to changes in perceived geopolitical threats and to shifts in popular anti-statist sentiments. The book explains why the NSS came about, how it works, and glimpses its future. - See more at: http://www.psqonline.org/article.cfm?IDArticle=19346#sthash.kIPIPtW6.dpuf
Topic:
Security and Government
Political Geography:
United States and America

49. David Martin Jones, Nicholas Khoo and MLR Smith, Asian Security and the Rise of China: International Relations in an Age of Volatility

Author:
Dylan Kissane
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
If there is one issue in contemporary international relations that continues to provoke interest in academic and policy making circles alike it is how states, regions and the world should react to a rising China. While the influence of the People's Republic is being felt from Africa and the Global South through to the developed economies of North America and Europe, it is in East Asia where a re-emerging China has most focused the minds of diplomats and strategists, leaders and scholars and, indeed, the military men and women who must navigate this increasingly precarious great power polity. Within this East Asian context this new volume by David Martin Jones, Nicholas Khoo and MLR Smith delivers thoughtful and attentive analysis to the problem of responding to China's rise. The book is neither a historical account of the rise of China, though it does offer sufficient historical contextualisation for the reader, or another collection of prescriptive policy suggestions, though there are clear conclusions made about which regional and state strategies have best dealt with the rise of the Sinic superpower. Instead, this book is a theoretically informed, consistently argued and well written account of how states in a broadly defined East Asia have and continue to react to the changing security environment that confronts them in the first decades of the twenty-first century.
Topic:
International Relations, Security, Economics, and Environment
Political Geography:
Africa, China, America, and Asia

50. Leslie McCall, The Undeserving Rich: American Beliefs about Inequality, Opportunity, and Redistribution

Author:
Gaelike Conring
Publication Date:
02-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Central European University Political Science Journal
Institution:
Central European University
Abstract:
The ideal of equality of opportunity looms large in American history. It is the core tenet of the American dream, promising advancement for everybody willing to work hard and abide by the rules. More generally, it is the benchmark against which the success or failure of the economy's role in promoting the public good is evaluated. As long as a priori equality of opportunity for those participating or looking to participate in economic life is a given, unequal outcomes are justified and even necessary in keeping this virtuous cycle alive. Thus explains Americans' skepticism towards overtly redistributive policies to rectify unequal economic outcomes. A fitting example is the Joe Wurzelbacher aka 'Joe the Plumber', incident involving then presidential hopeful Barack Obama. When prompted about his tax policy proposals, Barack Obama's stated intention of 'spreading the wealth around' did not sit well with most Americans; not even with members of his own party. If public opinion indicates a rejection of government redistributive policies, does that amount to a public unfazed by rising levels of income inequality?
Topic:
Economics
Political Geography:
America