Focus on Political Science

Focus on Political Science

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On September 24, UCLA historian Daniel Walker Howe published an article comparing today’s tea party movement to the rise of Andrew Jackson in the 1820s.

On September 22, political scientist Douglas Hibbs released a new forecast of the partisan results of this year’s congressional elections. His model predicts a loss of 45 seats in the House for the Democrats.

On September 17, Gallup released a new poll showing that 58 percent of Americans favor creation of a third major political party. Support is similar across ideological lines, but slightly stronger among liberals and moderates.

Also on September 17, journalist Walter Shapiro commented on an important change to the Republican Party’s rules for selecting delegates to the 2012 national convention that was adopted on August 6. Historically, Republicans have had a winner-take-all policy for those winning a state’s primary. The new rule, however, will require proportional division of delegates selected in primaries before April 1, 2012. Shapiro believes that this rule was adopted to make it harder for Sarah Palin to get the Republican nomination.

In a September 16 column, historian Kevin O’Rourke warned that the Great Recession appears to be strengthening political extremism throughout Europe. He cites recent research by economists Markus Brückner and Hans P Grüner on this subject.

On September 16, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs released a poll with a considerable amount of data on Americans’ opinions about foreign policy and related issues.

An August paper by some political scientists at the London School of Economics demonstrated that lobbyists’ earnings are closely related to their having worked for a member of Congress. When that member retires, the lobbyists’ earnings fall sharply.

In a July 26 working paper, political scientists Sean Theriault and David Rohde concluded that the ideological polarization of the Senate is due almost entirely to the election of Republicans who previously served in the House of Representatives during the period when Newt Gingrich was the principal Republican leader.

Bruce Bartlett is an American historian and columnist who focuses on the intersection between politics and economics. He blogs daily and writes a weekly column at The Fiscal Times. Read his most recent column here. Bartlett has written for Forbes Magazine and Creators Syndicate, and his work is informed by many years in government, including as a senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House. He is the author of seven books including the New York Times best-seller, Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy (Doubleday, 2006).

Bruce Bartlett’s columns focus on the intersection of politics and economics. The author of seven books, he worked in government for many years and was senior policy analyst in the Reagan White House.