by Chana M. Solomon-Schwartz
In less than a month, scholars from more than 50 countries will congregate at the 2018 MPSA conference to present research, connect with one another, and eat deep-dish pizza. With more than 80 sections represented, there are panels, roundtables, talks, posters, and working groups for whatever topics catch your fancy.
One question being asked in different formats is whether—and if so how—Donald Trump’s campaign, election, and presidency have impacted politics. Has Donald Trump as candidate or president been impactful for groups in the United States or policies at home or abroad? Have institutions constrained President Trump and is the sense of his power overblown? At MPSA 2018, scholars approach this basket of questions from different angles.
If you’re interested in learning more about lessons from political science research about politics during a Trump administration, here’s a curated guide to some relevant sessions.
On Friday, April 6, presenters on the “How Race and Ethnicity was Experienced in the 2016 Election” panel will examine how different groups experienced and responded to the 2016 election. Danvy Le, Maneesh Arora, and Christopher Stout argue that discrimination against Asian Americans in the wake of the election has triggered feelings of linked fate and alienated Asian Americans from the Republican party. Brian Patrick Tilley’s paper demonstrates that during his campaign, Donald Trump used racially-charged language at a greater rate than comparable US Republican candidates. Two other papers on this panel example the impact of the 2016 election on mobilization within minority communities: within Native American communities and within Latinx and Muslim community organizations.
On Thursday, April 5, the Caucus for LGBT Political Science is hosting a roundtable entitled “LGBTQ Politics in the Trump Era.” Join participants from a diverse set of subfields including public law, public opinion, and political theory for the eponymous roundtable.
Other scholars address whether the 2016 presidential election weakened democracy. Simon Stacey and Carolyn B Forestiere ask whether the election reduced general support for democracy within the United States or just specific support for the Trump administration. They present a survey which suggests only the latter, and that contemporary concern about American democracy is unfounded. Damon M. Cann and David Magleby use exit poll data to show that Trump voters from a state with a strong third-party candidate were less confident their ballot would be counted correctly than Clinton or third-party voters. Join these authors and their co-panelists for the session “Trust in Democratic Institutions” on Friday, April 6.
Other papers examine specific issue areas during the Trump era. Michelle Allendoerfer’s paper on the “Human Rights, Political Leadership, and Domestic Politics” panel asks whether U.S. public opinion favors human rights-based lenses or security-based lenses. In “Christian Nationalism and Anti-immigration Attitudes in the Trump Era,” Allyson Shortle, Eric L. McDaniel, and Irfan Nooruddin use original national survey to show that religious nationalism explains restrictive immigration attitudes above and beyond other religious factors. Shortle et al.’s research will be presented on Friday afternoon at “Civil Religion and the Convergence of God and Nation”, a session sponsored by MPSA 2018 program chairs.
Questions about the so-called “Trump effect” are also addressed from political theory perspectives. Naomi Scheinerman presents “Anti-Vaccination in the Trump Era: Mistrust of Experts and the Promise of Democracy” at the “Sympathy, Respect, Trust, and Liberal Citizenship” panel on the afternoon of Saturday, April 7. In this paper, she argues that democratic participation can restore trust in experts by allowing disillusioned and abandoned voters to be heard and to hear.
On Saturday morning, lightning talks will be presented at the “Media, Fake News, and the Information Environment” panel. Jerry L. Miller and Ryan Severance categorize the types of tweets posted by candidate and President Donald J. Trump as acclaim, attack or defense. Other presenters on this panel address broader patterns of fake news consumption outside the United States. Mathias Osmundsen, Dimiter D. Toshkov, and Michael Bang Petersen use surveys administered to citizens in three Eastern European countries to demonstrate that individuals selectively accept and reject “fake news” in patterns that reflect perceptions of zero-sum conflict between Russia and their own country. Mariana Sanchez Santos’ paper examines the sources of trust and distrust in news and social media using the 2017 general election in the UK as case study.
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About the Author: Chana M. Solomon-Schwartz received her Ph.D. in political science from the George Washington University in January 2018. Her dissertation, “The Strong Power of Weak Commitment: Treaty Ratification and Reservation Removal in the Service of Human Rights,” examines why (some) countries increase their level of commitment to multilateral conventions protecting the rights of women and racial minorities. She will be blogging for MPSA 2018 covering Teaching Panels and Roundtables and can be reached at cmss@gwu.edu.