Perspectives on Politics

How and Why Armed Groups Participate in Elections by Aila M. Matanock, University of California-Berkeley and Paul Staniland, University of Chicago Armed actors are often involved in electoral politics, from the fusing of ballots and bullets in armed […]

Keeping Vigil: The Emergence of Vigilance Committees in Pre-Civil War America by Jonathan Obert, Amherst College and Eleonora Mattiacci, Amherst College What explains the emergence of organized private enforcement in the United States? We study the […]

Domination and Disobedience: Protest, Coercion and the Limits of an Appeal to Justice by Guy Aitchison, University College Dublin I offer a conceptual framework for assessing the normative legitimacy of coercive disobedience—involving threats, disruption, force, and […]

America’s Two Worlds of Welfare: Subnational Institutions and Social Assistance in Metropolitan America by Margaret Weir, Brown University, and Jessica Schirmer, University of California, Berkeley Studies of the “delegated state” highlight the growing role of nongovernmental organizations to fulfill public […]

Representation in an Era of Political and Economic Inequality: How and When Citizen Engagement Matters by Jan E. Leighley, American University, and Jennifer Oser, University of the Negev Does political participation make a difference for policy responsiveness, or is affluence […]

Policy Feedback as Political Weapon: Conservative Advocacy and the Demobilization of the Public Sector Labor Movement by Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Columbia University Scholars have shown that once in place policies can foster greater political participation. Indeed, politicians often […]

From Backwaters to Major Policymakers: Policy Polarization in the States, 1970–2014 by Jacob M. Grumbach, University of California, Berkeley Political scientists often characterize state and local governments as marginal and highly constrained in policymaking. However, I […]

When and How New Policy Creates New Politics: Examining the Feedback Effects of the Affordable Care Act on Public Opinion by Lawrence R. Jacobs, University of Minnesota, and Suzanne Mettler, Cornell University Following E. E. Schattschneider’s observation that “a […]