Relevance to Psychology of Beliefs About Socialism: Some New Research Questions

This article aims to stimulate discussion about the potential relevance of the concept of socialism for what we study and the questions we ask. The economic systems of capitalism and socialism are seldom considered subjects of interest in psychology. At this particular time, however, especially in the United States, the relevance of these systems for our theories and research on human behavior, health, and human welfare seem particularly relevant and potentially significant. I argue that discussions of socialism should be helpful in expanding the context of our concerns in psychology and the identification of important new variables. The growing crisis of inequality in the United States is the major impetus for this argument

The Politics of Welfare Exclusion: Immigration and Disparity in Medicaid Coverage

The rapid growth of the immigrant population in the U.S., along with changes in the demographics and the political landscape, has often raised questions for understanding trends of inequality. Important issues that have received little scholarly attention thus far are excluding immigrants’ social rights through decisive policy choices and the distributive consequences of such exclusive policies. In this paper, we examine how immigration and state policies on immigrants’ access to safety net programs together influence social inequality in the context of health care. We analyze the combined effect of immigration population density and state immigrant Medicaid eligibility rules on the gap of Medicaid coverage rates between native- and foreign-born populations. When tracking inequality in Medicaid coverage and critical policy changes in the post-PRWORA era, we find that exclusive state policies widen the native-foreign Medicaid coverage gap. Moreover, the effect of state policies is conditional upon the size of the immigrant population in that state. Our findings suggest immigrants’ formal integration into the welfare system is crucial for understanding social inequality in the U.S. states

American Politics and the Power of Money

New research reveals that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests shape government policy in the U.S. while average citizens have little or no influence. What does this mean for American democracy?Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Humphrey School of Public Affairs, UM

Simulating representation: The devil’s in the detail

© The Author(s) 2016. This note is a response to Omar Bashir’s 2015 paper “Testing inferences about American politics: A review of the ‘oligarchy’ result,” Research & Politics 2(4)

Replication Data for: Simulating Representation: The Devil's in the Detail

Contains an explainer document, data documentation, raw data, and R files