Do mayors run for higher office? New evidence on progressive ambition

The mayor’s office potentially offers a launchpad for statewide and national political ambitions. We know relatively little, however, about how frequently mayors actually run for higher office, and which mayors choose to do so. This article combines longitudinal data on the career paths of the mayors of 200 big cities with new survey and interview data to investigate these questions. While we find that individual and city traits—especially gender—have some predictive power, the overwhelming story is that relatively few mayors—just under one-fifth—ever seek higher office. We suggest that ideological, institutional, and electoral factors all help to explain why so few mayors exhibit progressive ambition

The Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Policy Innovations and Impacts. Bertelsmann GED Focus Paper

Why did the member states in what eventually became the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) agree to create the most transformational free trade agreement (FTA) in decades? Equally puzzling, why did all the member states—from the most to the least developed economies in the group—agree to the same, high level of ambition? The answer is simple: CPTPP members wanted to craft an agreement better suited to the global economy of today and tomorrow and were willing to take on board high quality, high ambition commitments to get there

Aspirant Candidate Behaviour and Progressive Political Ambition

In this paper we take account of the role of aspirant candidate behaviour in progressive political ambition, specifically how some individuals signal their political ambition to political actors by approaching them to discuss running for office. We examine how the effect of this behaviour compares to the more prominently studied effect of elite recruitment. We conclude that signalling behaviour by an aspirant candidate has a substantial effect, particularly with regard to actually acting on initial considerations of whether to stand, and that elite recruitment makes a difference but only in conjunction with the aspirant candidate themselves signalling their ambition to political actors

The enemy within:designing a cell-based gameplay system for cancer education

This paper outlines the design and preliminary evaluation of The Enemy Within, a browser-based game produced to raise awareness of the nature of cancer as a progressive disease. Aimed at high school and young adult audiences, the ambition with the game is to make visible to players the myriad ways in which healthy cells can mutate and ultimately inherit hallmarks of cancer, whilst also demonstrating how both real-world behaviours and underlying genetics impact both positively and negatively on cell health

Political Ambition and Legislative Behavior in the European Parliament

Members of the European Parliament (MEP) typically follow one of two career paths, either advancing within the European Parliament itself or returning to higher office in their home states. We argue that these different ambitions condition legislative behavior. Specifically, MEPs seeking domestic careers defect from group-leadership votes more frequently and oppose legislation that expands the purview of supranational institutions. We show how individual, domestic-party, and national level variables shape the careers available to MEPs and, in turn, their voting choices. To test the argument, we analyze MEPs' roll-call voting behavior in the 5th session of the EP (1999-2004) using a random effects model that captures idiosyncrasies in voting behavior across both individual MEPs and specific roll-call votes.published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe

Historical reflections on progress and tradition

Reflecting on the tension between progressives and traditionalists in present-day Egypt, the author surveys comparable conflicts in the European past. In nineteenth-century Britain and Belgium the struggle between liberals and conservatives dominated public life. In eighteenth-century France the progressive forces of the Enlightenment were for a long time in bitter conflict with the traditional defenders of King and Church, until the latter were defeated in the French Revolution. In seventeenth-century England the Puritan Revolution overthrew Stuart absolutism, which was a democratic move, but Cromwell then established his own fundamentalist Republic, which was illiberal. In the sixteenth century Humanists and Protestants were progressive and broke with medieval modes of thought and papal domination, but were opposed by traditional forces around the House of Habsburg and the Counter-reformation, neither party claiming total victory. By the fifteenth century the progressive conciliar movement attempted to democratize the Catholic Church by putting the papal curia under the supreme authority of the general council, an assembly representing Christian people of all nations. This short-lived attempt was foiled by defenders of the traditional papal supremacy

Remembering the Falklands War: subjectivity and identification

This paper explores the ways in which remembering is enacted, performed and contested with media and how this becomes intrinsically linked to issues of power, agency and identity. Drawing on ethnographic data collected with Falkland Islanders during the 30th Anniversary of the 1982 Falklands War I critically consider the context, motivation and agency involved in how and why Islanders remember through and with the media, and the potentially profound implications this may be having on their understanding, negotiation and performance of identity, that is (at times) at odds with their everyday existence. The result of the analysis raises critical questions about what societies remember, and want to be remembered for, the implications of which extend far beyond the Falklands

Good Person, Good Prosecutor in 2018

Nearly twenty years ago, I wrote an essay on the ethics of prosecution in a time of mass incarceration called “Can You Be a Good Person and a Good Prosecutor?” I am both pleased and perplexed that the essay, which caused some controversy at the time, continues to strike a chord—at least with the organizers of this online conversation. I appreciate the invitation to weigh in on whether you can be a good person and a good prosecutor in 2018