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Think Congressional redistricting is hard? Wait until we get to state and local offices.

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University Congressional redistricting is in the news–and in my inbox.  Every day, I get a dose of emails from both sides reminding me of the critical importance of redistricting.  Most of these focus on Congressional districts,…


Remembering Burdett Loomis 

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University Dr. Burdett “Bird” Loomis…


Do-It-Yourself Redistricting and What I Learned

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University I redistricted.  Here is what I learned. First, the basics.  Redistricting no longer requires sophisticated computer software that only legislative research departments can afford. For more than 10 years now, computer…


Promising Signs for Humanities Funding in the New Administration

By Alexandra Klein, NHA Communications and Government Relations Manager The Biden administration’s request for a funding increase for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and other humanities programs earlier this year was a welcome change from the Trump administration’s yearly calls to…


A Redistricting Primer

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University It’s time for redistricting.  What does that mean, and what insights does political science offer? Every ten years, the country experiences reapportionment and redistricting as a result of the decennial Census mandated by…


Land Reform and Civil Conflict: Theory and Evidence from Peru

By Michael Albertus, University of Chicago 2021 AJPS Best Article Award Honorable Mention for the research entitled “Land Reform and Civil Conflict: Theory and Evidence from Peru” The distribution of land to the landless has directly affected well over one billion people since World War II in…


Georgia’s New Voting Laws Meet Political Science

by Michael A. Smith, Professor of Political Science, Emporia State University Controversy swirls around Georgia’s new voting laws, along with similar ones in Florida, Texas, and several other states.  Passed ostensibly to control voting fraud in the wake of the huge vote-by-mail turnout last year,…


Their economic pain, our emotional gain: Can schadenfreude motivate responses to redistributive policies?

By Hannah Nam, Samuel Jens, and Yanna Krupnikov New Jersey is one of the first states expected to adopt a “millionaires tax” that raises taxes on those who make over a million dollars a year. In announcing the new policy, the state’s governor, Phil Murphy, stated, “We do not hold any grudge at all…