Politics in Question

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and Julia talk with Zack Beauchamp about how we make sense of democratic threats. Beauchamp is a senior correspondent at Vox and author of The Reactionary Spirit: How America's Most Insidious Political Tradition Swept the World (PublicAffairs, 2024).

What are the risks to American democracy? How do social and economic hierarchies influence the functioning of democracy? Who defines democratic values? These are some of the questions Lee and Julia explore in this week’s episode.

Note: This episode was recorded in August 2024. 

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee talks with Kevin Morris about demographics, voting rights, and elections. Morris, a Senior Research Fellow and Voting Policy Scholar at the Brennan Center, is the co-author of the report Growing Racial Disparities in Voter Turnout, 2008–2022.

How have voting rights laws, policies, and practices evolved over time? How has the Shelby County v. Holder decision impacted voting laws within states? Is there a correlation between state laws and voter turnout among communities of color? These are some of the questions Lee explores in this week’s episode.

Note: This episode was recorded in July 2024.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia talks with Scott Mainwaring about multipartism and presidentialism. Mainwaring is the Eugene and Helen Conley Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. He is the co-author, alongside Lee Drutman, of The Case for Multiparty Presidentialism in the U.S. (Protect Democracy, 2023).

How do institutions impact coalition fluidity? What is the role of actors within formal institutions? What can we learn about multipartism from Latin America? These are some of the questions Lee and Julia explore in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia and Lee talk with Sam Rosenfeld and Daniel Schlozman about the evolution of political parties in the United States. Rosenfeld is an is Associate Professor of Political Science at Colgate University and Scholzman is a Joseph and Bertha Bernstein Associate Professor of Political Science at John Hopkins University. They are the authors of The Hollow Parties: The Many Pasts and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (Princeton University Press, 2024).

Why are parties locked in a polarized struggle for power? How did Biden’s nomination illustrate party hollowness? How has the political economy of parties shifted? These are some of the questions Lee and Julia ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and Julia talk with Chloe Nicol Thurston and Emily Zackin about the United State’s relationship to debt and debtors. Thurston is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Zackin is an Associate Professor of Political Science at John Hopkins University. They are the authors of The Political Development of American Debt Relief (Chicago University Press, 2024).

What role has race played in the United States' history of debt relief? How has debtor activism contributed to state-building? How has debt relief been connected to contemporary issues? These are some of the questions Lee and Julia ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question Lee and Julia dive into the latest from their Substack newsletters, Undercurrent Events and Good Politics/Bad Politics. They delve into how negativity bias, nostalgia bias, identity, and messaging all shape the current state of our democracy.

How do we think of the present and the past? How do emotion, identity, and community shape the way we perceive and engage with politics? In what ways does our collective memory influence the course of democracy? These are some of the questions Lee and Julia ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question Lee talks with Jocelyn Kiley to discuss the Pew Report, Changing Partisan Coalitions in a Politically Divided Nation. Kiley is a Senior Associate Director of Research at Pew Research Center.

What are the most important demographic groups within each party? What is the correlation between age and partisanship? How are partisan divisions reinforced by demographic differences? These are some of the questions Lee and Jocelyn ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and James explore the role of the Senate and the dysfunction we see today with Sean Theriault. Theriault is a Professor at the Department of Government at the University of Texas, Austin and the author of Disruption?: The Senate During the Trump Era (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Do we need the Senate? What has caused gridlock in the Senate? What would the Senate look like during a second Trump term? These are some of the questions Sean, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and James explore America’s reliance on direct primaries in federal elections with Nick Troiano. Troiano is the Executive Director of Unite America and the author of The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes (Simon & Schuster, 2024).

What are direct primaries? Why do Americans rely on them? When did they first start using direct primaries in federal elections? And what are the consequences? These are some of the questions Nick, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

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In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee discusses the history of primary elections and options for reform with Robert Boatright. Boatright is professor of political science at Clark University and the world’s leading expert on the American primary system. He is also the director of research for the National Institute of Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona. His most recent book is Reform and Retrenchment: A Century of Efforts to Fix Primary Elections (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Why did the United States become the only democracy in the world that gives its voters a decisive voice in candidate selection? When did Americans begin using primary elections to select a party’s candidates for office? What is the difference between open and closed primaries? How did primary elections change in the 1960s and 1970s? Did the Democratic and Republican parties sideline reformers and take over primary elections during that period? How do different factions within each party view primary reform? These are some of the questions Robert and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

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