MPSA Blog

Blue is Black and Red is White? Affective Polarization and the Racialized Schemas of U.S. Party Coalitions

By Nicholas A. Valentino and Kirill Zhirkov  [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFMTdNxp57k] Affective polarization - the mutual partisan antipathy expressed by both Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. - has increased dramatically over the last 30 years. Both real-life political processes…


Mentors play Critical Role in Quality of College Experience, New Poll Suggests

By Leo M. Lambert, Elon University; Jason Husser, Elon University, and Peter Felten, Elon University This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. In order to have a rewarding college experience, students should build a constellation of mentors.


Primary Elections: The Value of an Endorsement

Primary election By Chapman Rackaway of the University of West Georgia How involved should political party leaders get in…


Blue Wave, Red Wave; What Wave? No Wave

RedWaveBlueWave By Chapman Rackaway of the University of West Georgia Political scientists and pundits alike face a…


Spain's majority-female cabinet embodies women's global rise to power

By Susan Franceschet, University of Calgary and Karen Beckwith, Case Western Reserve University Gender-equal governments, which include the same number of men and women as ministry heads and in other cabinet posts, used to be the purview of woman-friendly Nordic countries and highly progressive…


Save the Swamp

By Michael A. Smith of Emporia State University The Trump Administration’s recent reversal on immigration policy regarding children has gotten me to thinking. What exactly does it mean to “drain the swamp?” First, let me share a bit of background about the current situation. In 1997, a court ruling…


Ethnic Networks

The following is part of a series of posts written by MPSA award recipients highlighting outstanding research presented at previous MPSA annual conferences and in the American Journal of Political Science. The following AJPS Author Summary was first published on the AJPS website and is shared here…


How Governments Influence Competition between Militant Groups

By Justin Conrad and William Spaniel When Algeria descended into violence in the 1990s, two militant groups – the Islamic Salvation Army (AIS) and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA) – competed for supremacy of the rebel movement. The competition between the two groups, in fact, became a major source of…


All Male Panels Erode Citizens' Perceptions of Democratic Legitimacy

By Amanda Clayton, Diana Z. O'Brien, and Jennifer M. Piscopo All-male panels increasingly face public pushback. Though once ubiquitous, male-only groups are encountering greater scrutiny at conferences, in workplaces, and especially in politics. In the United States, for example, a photo showing a…