Women and minorities have made major gains in the ranks of elected U.S. public office-holders—but at all levels of government the progress has been incomplete and uneven. Consider, for example, America’s fifty state legislatures. Forty years ago, one would have been hard-pressed to find anyone other than a white man serving in any of these legislatures, yet women and various minorities now claim about one-third of the seats. But there are big variations across the states.

By now, women are about 24% of all state legislators, yet their contingents range from ten percent in South Carolina to forty percent in Colorado. African American legislators average 8.1% overall, but the largest contingents (ranging from 20% to 23%) appear in Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. Latinos are only 2.9% of all state legislators, and they are concentrated in New Mexico, Texas, California, New York, Nevada, and Arizona.

Apart from population ratios, why do state legislatures vary in diversity—and what difference does it make? Political scientists have made progress in answering these important questions. more...

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast of the United States in August 2005. Thousands of residents were displaced, enduring threats to personal wellbeing, lost homes and property—and in many cases enduring the death of friends or family members. What happens to the long-term psychological health of residents who experience such traumas? What lessons can be learned to inform future efforts to support and help people who suffer in major disasters? more...

Incomes are rising for the wealthiest ten percent of Americans—indeed, skyrocketing for the top one percent and one percent of the one percent—while wages and salaries have stayed largely flat for everyone else over the past several decades. As such disparities become undeniable, political scientists are paying renewed attention to inequality in politics. How have such glaring gaps grown, many ask, in a country we suppose to be a vibrant pluralistic democracy?

Not long ago, most students of American politics believed there were no permanent class divisions and posited that U.S. politics involves multiple, overlapping interest groups, any of which can exercise leverage by organizing and competing. Recently, however, this view has given way to debates about the United States as a “democratic oligarchy” where corporations and fat cats get their way on the things that matter most to them, especially taxes, public budgets, and business regulation. more...

Enterprises generating wind and solar power are growing fast in Europe, Asia, and the United States. As countries seek to limit fossil fuel emissions that spur global warming, the search for cleaner energy sources is on. Thirty years ago, the wind and solar industries did not exist, but now they are coming into their own, actively nurtured by governments across the globe.

On a good site with convenient access to transmission lines, wind power is highly competitive with power generated from fossil fuels like coal and oil. Texas and Iowa alone have installed over 15,000 megawatts of wind-power generation, equal to the energy that can be generated by fifteen nuclear power plants. In the last couple of years, solar prices have dropped as much as fifty percent, reaching parity with other sources in parts of Europe and the United States. California will soon have solar power capacity equal to several large nuclear power plants. more...

The outcomes of the elections held on November 6, 2012 will have a big impact on students and other young Americans. The presidential candidates and their parties have taken sharply different stands on college costs, job opportunities, health care, social issues, voting rights, and investments in the nation’s future – all issues of special relevance to young people.

Paying for College – and Debt after Graduation

Since 1985, the price of a college degree has risen at more than twice the rate of inflation. Americans now owe more for student loans than for credit card debt. In response, President Obama increased Pell grants, simplified student aid applications, made it easier for ex-students to repay loans, and ended unnecessary subsidies to banks. The Obama administration has also moved to help students get accurate information on the costs and benefits of various colleges and universities. more...

How is 2012 shaping up in the long march of women, the U.S. majority, toward claiming their share of national public offices? We know that the Democrats and Republicans are running all-male slates for president and vice president, but what about Congress?  This should be an especially promising year—the chance for another “Year of the Woman” comparable to 1992, when record numbers of women ran and unusually large numbers won. That year actually turned out to be more a “year of the Democratic woman” than an across-the-board change in both parties, and the same pattern in shaping up for 2012.

Why 2012 Should Be Promising for Women

The 2012 election is the first following the 2010 Census. Many states have redrawn districts, so new openings have emerged for which would-be candidates often wait for up to a decade. Newcomers have the best chance to succeed in freshly drawn districts and in redrawn districts where re-situated incumbents must appeal to new voters. These are ideal situations for women candidates to run without having to face off against already ensconced male opponents. more...

A “grand strategy” can help America meet the challenges of a changing world – such as international terrorism, global environmental and economic instability, and the rise of new national powers. To approach foreign policy strategically requires defining America’s most important goals and then lining up available resources – money, military forces, diplomats, and expertise – to work consistently toward achieving those goals, through the twists and turns of daily events and unpredictable crises. Grand strategy is a conceptual framework that helps us use our power wisely by connecting day-to-day initiatives to our highest and most enduring national ends.

The idea of grand strategy is very much in vogue. Since the end of the Cold War, politicians and pundits alike have proclaimed the need for a fresh, comprehensive approach to America’s relationships with other nations. But important as grand strategy may be, it is also difficult. My research studies the past to illuminate challenges and possibilities for today. more...

On March 14, 2012, Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor Tom Corbett signed into law his state’s version of strict voter ID rules that require voters to present a dated, government-issued form of photo identification before they enter the voting booth. Tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians who believe they have the right to vote—many of whom have voted regularly—found themselves checking to see if they have correct documentation. If not, they would need to make time to get to government offices, often inconveniently located and open at limited hours.

Every American citizen has the right to vote—or so most of us assume, thinking the issue was finally settled by the Civil Rights struggles of the 1960s. But a fresh struggle has erupted, as states impose new rules in the name of fighting “voter fraud” and civil rights advocates point to “voter suppression” threatening hard-won democratic rights. What are the new rules at issue—and are critics correct to suggest that they have a discriminatory impact? more...

“We have a unique opportunity to sweep and remake the political landscape,” declared Congressman Paul Ryan, chair of the House Budget Committee, to a gathering of Republican faithful and Tea Party activists. The audience laughed and cheered as Ryan promised to lead a crusade to revamp U.S. taxes and domestic programs. Backed by almost all of his Republican Congressional colleagues, Ryan’s radical budget plan would:

• Make immediate drastic cuts in social benefits—leading to slower economic growth, more unemployment, and additional hardships for the jobless, poor, and disabled.
• Bite with increasing force over time—steadily squeezing the resources the federal government needs to help most citizens, while pushing costs for health care and other social needs onto state and local governments already under severe fiscal strain.
• Slash taxes for the wealthy. As a joke circulating in Washington puts it, the Ryan plan means cuts for everyone. The rich get huge new tax cuts and most Americans get draconian cuts in education, job training, college loans, health care, and other necessities.
• Leave the U.S. Treasury coping with big deficits. Despite massive spending cuts, nonpartisan analysts calculate that the Ryan budget would actually increase the deficit. more...
  

Republicans in the House of Representatives are pushing a radical overhaul of the federal budget designed by Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin—a plan to make huge cuts in vital U.S. safety net programs to pay for big new tax cuts for the very wealthy. Intense controversy already surrounds Ryan’s proposal to replace Medicare with a system of vouchers of steadily reduced value, forcing all senior citizens to pay more for their health care. But another part of the Ryan budget is equally extreme, because sixty percent of is cuts over the next decade would come from safety-net programs for highly vulnerable low-income Americans.

A whopping $3.3 trillion would be slashed from programs aiding people with incomes below or just above the poverty line (set at $22,113 a year for a family of four in 2010). Each year, more than $300 billion would be slashed, leaving the safety net torn asunder. more...