Graduate Student Publications

Recent publications and acceptances

Koreman, Sam. 2024. "Publicity's Misinformation Problem." Res Publica.

This paper argues that everyday practices crucial for ensuring politically engaged citizens such as sharing news articles or deliberating about potential laws can also be responsible for undermining the state’s efforts to publicize the law. Theorists view publicity—a requirement that laws should be public and accessible—as having crucial normative and practical importance in liberal democracy and, more broadly, in ensuring the rule of law. Due to egalitarian concerns, laws are often long, complex, and specific to ensure that street-level bureaucrats exercise low levels of discretion in applying the law. This—what I deem the institutional publicity problem—means that the law is so inaccessible that busy, everyday citizens must turn to third-party sources to understand policymaking. These intermediaries often make mistakes promulgating the law. Misinformation is hard to counteract, and pre-existing beliefs affect information acceptance. This all represents a behavioral publicity problem: morally and legally permissible actions can complicate and undermine reasonable efforts of citizens to learn about the law. I argue that the state is caught between a rock and a hard place. While there are benefits to having the state fight against misinformation, it also raises serious concerns about democratic engagement. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11158-024-09661-3

Scholten, Melle and David Leblang. 2023. "Land/Labor Ratios, Citizenship, and Migrants: Exploring the Hidden Links in the Political Economy of Immigration Regimes." World Politics.

Within sovereign states citizenship is arguably the most important political marker of in- and outsiders. As a result, questions about who gets to reap the benefits of citizenship often result in distributional conflict. This conflict becomes inflamed when a country goes through a period of significant inward migration. Given that citizenship is so important and so contentious, from where do the rules governing its acquisition come? Our starting point is the acknowledgment that migrants are mobile labor. From this perspective, countries in which elites benefit from an increased supply of productive labor—that is, those with high land/labor ratios—will be more likely to adopt policies that attract migrants, such as easier naturalization rules, including birthright citizenship. We illustrate the plausibility of our argument with some statistical evidence and suggest some avenues to further explore this crucial question. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/915397/pdf

Bibeau, Alexis, Evelyne Brie, Yannick Dufresne, and Gilles Gagné. 2023. "Religiosity MAtters: Assessing Competing Explanations of Support for Secularism in Quebec and Canada." Politics and Religion.

Secularism—i.e., the separation between the state and religious institutions—is a fundamental characteristic of liberal democracies, yet support for secular arrangements varies significantly across Western countries. In Canada, such attitudinal divergences are observable at the regional level, with citizens from Quebec displaying higher levels of support for secularism than other Canadians. In this paper, we test three hypotheses to account for this regional discrepancy: religiosity, liberal values, and out-group prejudice. Using data from an online panel survey (n = 2,000), our findings suggest that support for secularism in Quebec is mostly explained by the province's lower baseline levels of religiosity, anticlerical feelings, and by its distinctive understanding of liberalism. These factors are likely to result from Quebec's unique religious and sociohistorical history. Results also suggest that while negative feelings toward religious minorities are positively correlated with support for secularism across the entire country, negative feelings toward ethnic minorities are associated with lower support for secularism in Quebec. These findings disprove the commonly held assumption according to which support for secularism is driven by ethnic prejudice in Quebec. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-religion/article/religiosity-matters-assessing-competing-explanations-of-support-for-secularism-in-quebec-and-canada/2230C7A516F31DBC2BBDCA01F0CF13AA?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=RAP_Sep23

Magula, Justin. 2023. "Exploring factors and implications of violence against civilians: a case study of the Soviet-Afghan war." Small Wars & Insurgencies.

The Soviet-Afghan War serves as a significant case study to understand why states resort to violent acts against civilians during war. This study takes a multidimensional approach, examining strategic, operational, and individual factors and applying theories of violence and mass killing. By analyzing the conditions that led the Soviets to target civilians, this investigation identifies a nexus of interconnected factors. At the strategic level, Soviet leaders pursued a swift victory to establish a Communist client regime while minimizing casualties and controlling information flow. Operationally, the ill-preparedness of the Red Army for counterinsurgency warfare, coupled with an entrenched organizational culture, led to the adoption of counterproductive enemy-centric tactics against Afghan noncombatants. Additionally, inadequate training, prolonged deployments, and a lack of disciplinary measures at the individual level contributed to the perpetration of violent acts. Understanding the underlying causes of violence against civilians, particularly in the context of Russian forces, holds practical importance. This knowledge can assist policymakers in devising strategies that mitigate wartime violence and enhance the protection of citizens. Drawing parallels to contemporary conflicts involving Russia, the study concludes by recommending future research directions and emphasizing the relevance of comprehending the targeting of noncombatants in ongoing conflicts, notably the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09592318.2023.2231198

Lollis, Jacob and Mackenzie Dobson. 2023. "I’m Coming Out! How Voter Discrimination Produces Effective LGBTQ Lawmakers." Center for Effective Lawmaking

In this Center for Effective Lawmaking (CEL) working paper, the University of Virginia’s Jacob Lollis and Mackenzie Dobson (CEL Graduate Affiliate) look into the effectiveness of LGBTQ lawmakers. The authors expand on earlier research that connects voter discrimination to effective lawmaking and argue that the prejudice that LGBTQ legislators face from voters enables them to be effective lawmakers. To test this, Lollis and Dobson take data on state legislators’ sexual identity and compare it to data on state legislative effectiveness scores (based on research from the CEL). Their research finds that LGBTQ lawmakers are 28% more effective than non-LGBTQ lawmakers. In addition, they use their original measurement which indicates the year the LGBTQ lawmakers publicly came out; they find that such lawmakers who have shared their identity with voters are 43% more effective than LGBTQ lawmakers that have not come out publicly. https://thelawmakers.org/legislative-research/im-coming-out-how-voter-discrimination-produces-effective-lgbtq-lawmakers

Pruit, Jean-Marc. 2023. "Black Atlantic Republicans and the Limits of the Plantation." Journal of Haitian Studies

This article engages with two bodies of literature—the interdisciplinary studies of the Haitian Revolution and republican political theory—to make two corresponding interventions. First, I show how, despite republican political philosophy’s exclusion of the slave from the practice of freedom, Haitian revolutionaries and radical abolitionists—whom I call Black Atlantic Republicans— challenged this exclusion using republican logic. To make this point, I engage with shared understandings of tyranny and domination in David Walker’s Appeal and Toussaint Louverture’s personal correspondence. Second, using Jean Casimir’s notion of the counterplantation system and Louverture’s proclamations on labor, I argue that despite the Black Atlantic universalization of republican freedom, the ideology fails to properly theorize the domination inherent to plantation labor. This inability to theorize labor freedom, I claim, is endemic to republican political thought itself. We can arrive at this insight by centering the revolutionary Haitian masses rather than their leadership. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhs.2022.0005 

C. Danielle Vinson & Jacob M. Lollis. 2023. "Nothing to See Here: Republican Congressional Members' Twitter Reactions to Donald Trump, Congress & the Presidency." Congress and the Presidency

How do co-partisans respond to the President on Twitter? This article examines whether and how Republican legislators reacted to President Trump in five instances when he broke with Republican Party policy positions or norms. We theorize that legislators’ electoral environment, constituency, and identity shape their response to the president, and we test our hypotheses using nearly 2,500 hand-coded tweets from Republican legislators between 2018-2020. The overwhelming reaction by Republican legislators to Trump’s actions was to ignore him. When members did react to the president, their response was primarily driven by their electoral environment and identity. Those from the most Trump supportive districts supported the president, and retiring members were most likely to oppose him. Male legislators were much more likely to support and oppose the president, while female legislators mostly ignored him. And, if they reacted, the most ideologically extreme Republicans were more likely to support than oppose the president. The implications of these findings are troubling. Even when President Trump violated traditional norms or deviated from long held party positions, his congressional co-partisans remained silent, occasionally offering support but rarely opposition. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/07343469.2023.2174613 

Smilan-Goldstein, Rachel. 2023. “‘What about the Rapists?’ The Political Psychology of Women’s Policing Attitudes.” Journal of Women, Politics & Policy 44(1): 20–39.

Past research on crime and punishment attitudes has considered the effects of racial identity, racial animus, gender identity, and partisanship – or some combination of these factors. I focus on the role of a particular gendered emotional pathway: women’s fear of rape (FOR). Within the context of a racialized rape culture, I argue that FOR affects how women think about policing. Using Cooperative Election Study and FBI data from 2020, I explore the political determinants of FOR and how it shapes American women’s policing attitudes. Women’s fear of sexual violence is both partisan and racialized, with Republican and White women reporting the most fear. I demonstrate that White Democratic women who are more afraid of rape are more likely to feel safe around police officers, while Republican women feel safe around police regardless of their level of fear. Women who are more afraid of rape are less likely to support police reform efforts that aim to reduce police presence and militarization, or provide accountability for pas t wrongdoing. This link between FOR and support for masculinist institutions extends to attitudes on the military when its actions are framed as protectionary. The results reveal a disturbing paradox in which women who are most afraid of sexual violence are less willing to challenge state institutions that enact violence, including sexual violence. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1554477X.2023.2155387

Silva da Costa, Beatriz; Silame, Thiago. 2022. "CGU's Institutional Designs Between 2001 and 2016." Rivista E-Legis

This  article  is  part  of  the  field  of  political  control  studies  in  the  context  of  coalition presidentialism  and  the  delegation  of  powers  within  the  Federal  intra executive  scope  in  Brazil.  Guided by  the  question:“What  were  the  CGU’s  administrative  designs between  2001  and  2016?”, the  article intends  to  explore  the  changes  in  the  administrative  designs  of  the  agency  in  order  to  verify  possible interferences  in  the  degree  of  discretion  and  autonomy.  Using  the  analytical  model  of  agency  design proposed by Lewis (2013), the  main findings of the  article  point to the  strengthening of the  CGU  in the two  mandates  of  FHC  (PSDB)  and  in  the  mandates  of  PT  and  Lula  Dilma,  both  PT  and  a  possible weakening of the organ during the government of Michel Temer (PMDB). However, the findings do not allow definitive conclusions in this regard. https://e-legis.camara.leg.br/cefor/index.php/e-legis/article/view/727 

Leach, Brittany R. 2021. "At the Borders of the Body Politic: Fetal Citizens, Pregnant Migrants, and Reproductive Injustices in Immigration Detention." American Political Science Review (firstview).

To analyze intersecting power relations in reproductive and immigration politics, I examine Garza v. Hargan (an appellate case regarding unaccompanied immigrant minors’ abortion rights) alongside systemic injustices in immigration detention (e.g., exposure to miscarriage risks, coerced sterilization, shackling). These injustices, I argue, emerge from conflicts and compromises over fetal citizenship within the American radical right. Although pro-life and anti-immigrant discourses assume opposing logics of citizenship, respectively interpreting immigrants’ fetuses as “fetal citizens” or “anchor babies,” these contradictions are neutralized by two techniques. Debilitation (systematic degradation of a disposable population) enables the appearance of fetal protection to coexist with de facto exposure to death, injury, and risk. Paralegality (quasi-legal policy making by enforcement agents) allows situational shifts in the meaning of fetal citizenship and adjustments to the pro-life/anti-immigrant compromise. Both obscure culpability for reproductive injustice, reinforce interlocking oppressions, and control women’s bodies in order to control the body politic’s demographic future.
https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055421000812

Leach, Brittany R. 2021. "Abjection and mourning in the struggle over fetal remains." Contemporary Political Theory 20(1): 141–164.

Should the remains of aborted fetuses be treated as human corpses or medical waste? How can feminists defend abortion rights without erasing the experiences of women who mourn fetal death or lending support to pro-life constructions of fetal personhood? To answer these questions, I trace the role of abjection and mourning in debates over fetal remains disposal regulations. Critiquing pro-life views of fetal personhood while challenging feminists to develop richer and more compelling accounts of fetal remains, I argue that embracing the ambiguity and diversity of pregnant bodies can strengthen rather than undermine reproductive autonomy. I conceptualize reproductive autonomy relationally, contending that it entails the pregnant subject’s authority to construct as well as to interpret her lived body, including the fetus. Additionally, because the embodied self is inextricable from social context, reproductive autonomy also requires community support. To support these claims, I develop an account of pregnant bodies as ontologically multiple and advocate embracing abjection rather than suppressing it. Finally, I object to fetal remains regulations because they inscribe fetal grievability into the law.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41296-020-00400-w

Lin, Hsuan-Yu. 2021. “COVID-19 and American Attitudes toward U.S.-China Disputes.” Journal of Chinese Political Science

Noting that International Relations scholars have given little attention to the impact of pandemics on interstate relations, Lin's article examines “the extent to which the American public may be prone to favor policies that “punish” China via existing U.S.-China disputes, such as the South China Sea dispute and the U.S.-China trade war.” Using findings from an online survey, Lin finds that Americans who blame China for the outbreak of the novel coronavirus are more likely than those who do not blame China to support aggressive or punitive policies toward the Chinese state. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11366-020-09718-z
 

Kubinec, Robert, and John Owen. 2021. “When Groups Fall Apart: Identifying Transnational Polarization During the Arab Uprisings.” Political Analysis, 1-19. 

It is very difficult to know how international social linkages affect domestic ideological polarization because we can never observe polarization occurring both with and without international connections. To estimate this missing counterfactual, we employ a new statistical method based on Bayesian item-response theory that permits us to disaggregate polarization after the Arab Uprisings into domestic and transnational components. We collected a dataset of Twitter accounts in Egypt and Tunisia during the critical year of 2013, when the Egyptian military overthrew the Islamist President Mohamed Morsi. We find that the coup increased retweets among Egyptian ideological allies by 50% each day following the coup and decreased cross-ideological retweets by 25%. Tunisian Twitter communities also showed stronger intragroup retweeting although at lower levels than in Egypt. Counter-intuitively, our model shows that the additional polarization in Tunisia after the coup appears to have dampened further polarization among Islamists in Egypt. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2020.46
 

Richard Burke. 2021. “Nationalization and Its Consequences for State Legislatures.” Social Science Quarterly 102(1)

Objective. I theorize that as nationalization increases, state legislatures will take less legislative ac-tions related to local topics and take more legislative actions on divisive, national issues. Method. Tomeasure nationalization I use election data as well as data on mass partisanship in a state. To mea-sure a state’s legislative agenda, I use data on legislative actions collected from LexisNexis. For mystatistical analysis, I use two-way linear fixed effects regression. Results. I find that as nationalization increases, legislatures take less legislative actions pertaining to education, transportation,and localities. I also find that as nationalization increases, Republican-controlled states increase thenumber of legislative actions related to abortion. Conclusion. Taken together, the article providesevidence that nationalization delocalizes the agenda and places on the agenda issues associated withthe national partisan conflict. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ssqu.12926

 

Potter, Philip B.K. and Chen Wang. 2021. “Governmental Responses to Terrorism in Autocracies: Evidence from China.” British Journal of Political Science.

Autocracies are widely assumed to have a counterterrorism advantage because they can censor media and are insulated from public opinion, thereby depriving terrorists of both their audience and political leverage. However, institutionalized autocracies such as China draw legitimacy from public approval and feature partially free media environments, meaning that their information strategies must be much more sophisticated than simple censorship. To better understand the strategic considerations that govern decisions about transparency in this context, this article explores the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) treatment of domestic terrorist incidents in the official party mouthpiece – the People's Daily. Drawing on original, comprehensive datasets of all known Uyghur terrorist violence in China and the official coverage of that violence, the findings demonstrate that the CCP promptly acknowledges terrorist violence only when both domestic and international conditions are favorable. The authors attribute this pattern to the entrenched prioritization of short-term social stability over longer-term legitimacy. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123420000514

Burke, RichardJustin H. Kirkland, and Jonathan B. Slapin. 2020. “Party Competition, Personal Votes, and Strategic Disloyalty in the US States.” Political Research Quarterly. 

Legislators will sometimes vote against their party’s position on roll-call votes to differentiate themselves from the party mainstream and to accrue a “personal vote.” Research suggests that the use of rebellion to generate a personal vote is more common (1) among majority party members and (2) among ideological extremists. But these majority party extremists only have a strong incentive to rebel in situations where the accrual of a personal vote is electorally useful. In this manuscript, we evaluate variation in rebellion rates of state legislators in the United States conditional on ideological extremism and majority control. Using donation-based measures of ideology and roll call–based measures of party loyalty over a twenty-year period across more than 30,000 legislators, we find that when legislators have little incentive to differentiate themselves from their parties, this “strategic” party disloyalty among majority party ideological extremists is limited. However, when legislators have strong incentives to craft a personal vote, ideological extremists defect from their party more often than their moderate counterparts. In particular, we find greater evidence for this type of strategic party disloyalty in states with high intra-party competition and low inter-party competition and less evidence in states with high inter-party competition. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1065912920953210
 

Leach, Brittany R. (2020). Whose Backlash, against Whom? Feminism and the American Pro-Life Movement’s “Mother-Child Strategy”. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 45(2), 319-328.

The American pro-life movement’s “mother-child strategy,” which emphasizes the alignment of fetal and maternal interests, complicates conceptions of backlash. Pro-life activists claim that it is now feminists who are engaging in backlash against the movement for “fetal human rights.” Although this claim does reflect the troublingly defensive position in which advocates of reproductive freedom currently find themselves, I contend that neither pro-life nor pro-choice activism can be adequately captured by the notion of backlash. I also argue that pro-life discourse has evolved from a backlash into a neopatriarchal campaign for a future that superficially reconfigures but ultimately deepens reproductive oppression. Because the pro-life movement has a complicated relationship with neoliberal feminism, I conclude that feminists should respond by developing new discourses about pregnant bodies and visions of a feminist future that offer an alternative to neoliberalism. https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/705004

Yannick Dufresne, Anja Kilibarda, André Blais, and Alexis Bibeau. 2019. “Religiosity or Racism? The Bases of Opposition to Religious Accommodation in Quebec.” Nations and Nationalism, 25(2): 673-696.

Though Canada is internationally lauded for the success of its multiculturalism policies, debates about immigrant integration have arisen in recent years. These debates have turned on the extent to which religion should be accommodated in the public sphere. They have also been disproportionately concentrated in the French‐speaking province of Quebec. This paper asks whether this disproportionality is due to the Quebec population being particularly unfavourable to religious accommodation and, if so, whether this disfavour is grounded in racial antipathy toward newcomers or in the province's unique religious history. The findings show that while opposition to religious accommodation is higher in Quebec, and higher among francophones, it is rooted more in the low level of religiosity of the francophone population than in racial animus. These results emphasise the importance of correctly conceptualising distinctions between ethnocentric and culturally based sources of group conflict in multicultural settings such as Canada. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/nana.12429

 

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