Partisanship Creep

It was once well settled and uncontroversial—reflected in legislative enactments, Executive Branch practice, judicial doctrine, and the broader constitutional culture—that the Constitution imposed limits on government partisanship. This principle was one instantiation of a broader set of rule of law principles: that law is not merely an instrument of political power; that government resources should not be used to further partisan interests, or to damage partisan adversaries. For at least a century, each branch of the federal government has participated in the development and articulation of this nonpartisanship principle. In the legislative realm, federal statutes beginning with the 1883 Pendleton Act have dramatically limited the role of partisanship in federal employment decisions. Since 1939, the Hatch Act has reflected a related constitutional principle: just as most federal workers should not be selected or terminated on the basis of partisanship, neither should they be permitted to use their positions, once attained, for partisan pursuits. Executive Branch law and practice have long reflected a similar set of principles in the employment realm and beyond. The Supreme Court has also enforced a nonpartisanship principle across a range of cases, including the political patronage cases, in which the Court has announced and elaborated a constitutional requirement that most local government hiring, firing, and other employment decisions be made independent of partisanship. But these settled understandings, across institutions and bodies of law and practice, have come under attack in recent years. Over the course of his term in office, President Donald Trump grew increasingly willing to challenge nonpartisanship principles directly, culminating in his issuance of an executive order that would have given him the authority to reclassify large swaths of the federal workforce as outside of the civil service—an effort he has pledged to revive if given the chance. In perhaps less obvious ways, the nonpartisanship principle has been undermined by recent decisions of the Roberts Court. Across a range of cases—involving gerrymandering, public corruption, campaign finance, and manipulation or abuse of the political process—the Court has begun to evince a degree of sympathy for partisan political motives, either holding or at least suggesting that the Court is limited in its ability to prevent government officials from pursuing partisan ends. At the same time, the Court has increasingly emphasized the importance of presidential control over Executive Branch actors, a growing body of law that may represent yet another threat to long-standing principles of government nonpartisanship. Upending the long-standing constitutional settlement in favor of nonpartisanship could have dramatic consequences for both constitutional theory and constitutional practice—and could radically change the face of American governance

Sharing news, making sense, saying thanks: patterns of talk on Twitter during the Queensland floods

Abstract: This paper examines the discursive aspects of Twitter communication during the floods in the summer of 2010–2011 in Queensland, Australia. Using a representative sample of communication associated with the #qldfloods hashtag on Twitter, we coded and analysed the patterns of communication. We focus on key phenomena in the use of social media in crisis communication: communal sense-making practices, the negotiation of participant roles, and digital convergence around shared events. Social media is used both as a crisis communication and emergency management tool, as well as a space for participants to engage in emotional exchanges and communication of distress.Authored by Frances Shaw, Jean Burgess, Kate Crawford and Axel Bruns

Brexit budget or business as usual? Unpicking the 2016 Autumn statement

The 2016 Autumn Statement has provided the first substantive indication of the fiscal direction of Theresa May’s new government as Brexit negotiations loom on the horizon. Kate Alexander Shaw analyzes the key announcements and checks the political small print

Will Labour’s ‘six tests’ hold the government to account on the UK’s Brexit deal?

With Article 50 triggered, Kate Alexander Shaw analyses the Labour Party’s ‘six tests for Brexit’, arguing that they may let the government off the hook rather than holding them to account over the UK’s final EU deal

Why austerity may be making a post-COVID comeback – in Britain, at least

Is austerity coming back? Or has our thinking changed since the aftermath of the global financial crisis? Kate Alexander Shaw (LSE) identifies key narratives which suggest that austerity still exerts a powerful pull on policy discourse in the UK

Chronic disease and county economic status: Does it matter where you live?

Chronic disease is a major health burden in the United States, affecting about half of adults, and leading to poor health, disability, and death. However, the burden of chronic disease is not shared equally among Americans, with some groups (created by determinants such as race/ethnicity and socioeconomic resources) experiencing higher rates of morbidity and mortality. When measures of health and socioeconomic resources are examined together, a stepwise gradient pattern emerges. This social gradient has been established for individual measures, such as household income and social class, and several measures of morbidity and mortality. However, nationally, little research has been conducted using area-level measures, such as county economics, to examine its relationship with chronic disease. Three studies were completed using data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). County economic status was determined using unemployment, per capita market income, and poverty. The first study examined the relationship between county economic status and chronic disease and risk factors, both nationally and by metropolitan classification, using data from BRFSS 2013. Further, the social gradient was explored. The second study also used data from BRFSS 2013 to examine county economic status and prevalence of hypertension, arthritis, and poor health, after controlling for known risk factors. This study also examined results by US region. Finally, the third study assessed changes in disparities between persistently poor and persistently affluent counties for heart disease, hypertension, arthritis, and diabetes using data from BRFSS 2001-2010

Why austerity may be making a post-COVID-19 comeback in Britain

Is austerity coming back? Or has our thinking changed since the aftermath of the global financial crisis? Kate Alexander Shaw identifies key narratives which suggest that austerity still exerts a powerful pull on policy discourse in the UK

The Retomada and beyond: female narrative agency in contemporary Brazilian cinema (1997-2006)

PhDSince the inception of film production in Brazil, women have been involved in all capacities including directing, acting and a variety of other roles behind the camera. During the 1990s and into the new millennium (a period sometimes termed the Retomada or re-birth of Brazilian cinema), there has been a large increase in films which feature notable female characters in prominent narrative positions and in the number of women directors successfully making their feature-length debut. Despite this, critical attention to such characters and directors, beyond a merely descriptive or numerical focus, is lacking and the established class-oriented social tradition remains the dominant language in criticism. With a view to addressing this relative critical neglect, as well as inadequacies in still embryonic studies, this study suggests new critical approaches relevant to the specificity of women’s experience in Brazil and analyses the representation of female characters in five representative films of the Retomada period. The study further aligns its predominant focus on female characters with the socio-political critical orientation that has established certain films as important cultural markers in Brazil, for example Deus e o Diabo na terra do sol /Black God, White Devil and Cidade de Deus/City of God. For this purpose, it again departs from the traditional emphasis on class and brings, rather, the specificity of the women’s movement in Brazil to bear. In order to critically assess how these specific contextual developments are reflected in the films analysed, it further distances itself from mainstream gender criticism in film and advances the use of the construct of agency, bridging Paul Smith’s notion of subject dis-cerning and Anthony Giddens’ theory of structuration. It also opens perspectives for future work by briefly engaging with the subject of female directors

God bring you safely to our arms again : Song

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