Brian Highsmith Graduate Student, American Politics This forthcoming law journal article explores how the development of American antitrust law was shaped by popular concerns about the consequences of unregulated inter-jurisdictional competition for mobile corporate capital—focusing on (1) the lavish local subsidies demanded by private railroad companies during the late 19th century, and (2) tax competition…
Melani Cammett Faculty, Comparative Politics How does intergroup inequality, specifically minority experiences of persecution, affect contributions to local public goods? Based on an original survey experiment and qualitative research in slums in Delhi, we examine how Hindus and Muslims respond to social norms around promoting cooperation on community sanitation. Mainstream theories of development predict greater…
This study by Peter Hall, Georgina Evans, and Sung In Kim documents long-term changes in the political attitudes of occupational groups, shifts in the salience of economic and cultural issues, and the movement of political parties in the electoral space from 1990 to 2018 in eight western democracies. This study by Peter Hall, Georgina Evans,…
Christina Davis’s new book examines the discriminatory logic at the heart of multilateralism. Overview: Member selection is one of the defining elements of social organization, imposing categories on who we are and what we do. Discriminatory Clubs shows how international organizations are like social clubs, ones in which institutional rules and informal practices enable states to favor friends…
Why American democracy reached the breaking point America is undergoing a massive experiment: It is moving, in fits and starts, toward a multiracial democracy, something few societies have ever done. But the prospect of change has sparked an authoritarian backlash that threatens the very foundations of our political system. Why is democracy under assault here,…
Stephen Chaudoin Faculty, International Relations Overview: Can international organizations (IOs) turn the tide of resistance to their authority? We consider a class of IOs bound by the complementarity principle: they only act when domestic institutions fail. IOs like the International Criminal Court (ICC) have placed great faith in complementarity as an argument to rally support…
George Yean Graduate Student, Comparative Politics & International Relations A working paper: What is the role of globalization for the rise of autocracies worldwide? We show that autocracies are better at exploiting the integrated global economic system. Compared to the pre-1990 period, on average, autocracies performed substantially better than democracies on all major economic indicators…
Stephen Chaudoin Faculty, International Relations Overview: Many interactions between countries depend on choices made by democratically selected leaders. We argue that the experience of being elected alters subsequent leader behavior at the international level, a phenomenon we call the election effect. Specifically, democratic election intensifies in-group identification and generates a sense of obligation to voters,…
Uncertain Futures proposes solutions to make more credible promises that build support for the energy transition. OVERVIEW: Political scientists Alexander F. Gazmararian at Princeton and Dustin Tingley at Harvard have a pathbreaking new book on climate politics. Why is the world not moving fast enough to solve the climate crisis? Politics stand in the way, but experts hope that green…
How social networks shaped the imperial Chinese statewritten by Yuhua Wang Yuhua Wang’s new book highlights a fundamental trade-off in China’s state building, which he calls the sovereign’s dilemma: a coherent elite that could take collective actions to strengthen the state was also capable of revolting against the ruler. OVERVIEW: China was the world’s leading superpower…
