Increased polarization in politics reduces voter turnout

As the government shutdown in October showed, the U.S. is currently in a period of deep political division. Using data collected from in dozens of U.S. Senate races between 1996 and 2006, and 50 U.S. House races in 2006, Jon Rogowski examines the effect of this partisan polarization on electoral behaviors. His results suggest that increasing policy differences between candidates significantly reduces voter turnout, particularly among citizens with lower levels of education and political knowledge

Far from being mere ‘servants of Congress’, pre-20th century presidents were able to use federal resources to their partisan advantage

Often characterized as impotent and servile to their parties, early American presidents have been thought to have been insignificant to policy outcomes. As Jon C. Rogowski’s work on presidential influence over the Post Office Department uncovers, however, 19th-century presidents were able to make a noticeable difference to the national distribution of federal resources, to the advantage of their fellow party politicians. His findings require a reassessment of the relative power of early presidents, and suggest their impotence has been significantly overstated

Gun Violence, Policing, and Young Communities of Color

Young people of color are leading the response to recent instances of gun violence. Young people do not all experience gun violence at the same rate nor do they feel its consequences evenly. Our research on young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years old highlights the very different experiences young people have with guns, gun violence, and policing across racial and ethnic groups

New Media and Youth Political Action

To rigorously consider the impact of new media on the political and civic behavior of young people, The MacArthur Research Network on Youth and Participatory Politics (YPP) developed and fielded one of the first large-scale, nationally representative studies of new media and politics among young people. The two principal researchers for the survey component of the YPP, Cathy J. Cohen of the University of Chicago and Joseph Kahne of Mills College, oversaw a research team that surveyed nearly 3,000 respondents between the ages of 15 and 25 years of age. Unlike any prior study of youth and new media, this study included large numbers of black, Latino, and Asian American respondents, which allows for unique and powerful statistical comparisons across race with a focus on young people.Until now there has been limited opportunity and data available to comprehensively explore the relationship between new media and the politics of young people. One of the few entities to engage in this type of rigorous analysis has been the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The YPP study expands on this field-leading work by including an extensive battery of items addressing participatory politics and adequate numbers of participants from different racial and ethnic groups, thus allowing for analysis of how different groups of young people were engaged with new media in the political realm.The YPP study findings suggest that fundamental changes in political expectations and practices may be occurring -- especially for youth. The analysis of the data collected reveals that youth are taking advantage of an expanded set of participatory practices in the political realm in ways that amplify their voice and sometimes their influence, thus increasing the ways young people participate in political life. The YPP researchers label this expanded set of opportunities and actions participatory politics

Millennial Evaluations of Donald Trump and the Future of American Politics

The GenForward Survey is the first of its kind -- a nationally representative survey of over 1,750 young adults ages 18-34 conducted bimonthly that pays special attention to how race and ethnicity influence how young adults or Millennials experience and think about the world. Given the importance of race and ethnicity for shaping the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of young people, we believe researchers make a mistake when they present data on young adults in a manner that assumes a monolithic Millennial generation and young adult vote. Millennials now represent the largest generation of Americans, and they are by far the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in the country. About 19 percent of Millennials identify as Latino or Hispanic, 13 percent as Black or African American, and 6 percent as Asian American. Thus, to fully understand how young adults think about elections and politicians, issues such as terrorism or gun violence, as well as their economic futures and race relations, we apply an intersectional lens and pay attention to characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender and sexuality. In this report, we present GenForward survey data collected between June 23 and July 10, 2017. We provide an extensive look at how Millennials think about politics and political officials in both the Republican and Democratic parties

Education in America: The Views of Millennials

This GenForward report presents the views of young adults between the ages of 18 and 34 on education in the United States. We asked our nationally representative and diverse sample of young adults to provide their evaluations of their own school system, their thoughts about what makes a good school, their preferences regarding proposals for reforming education, their perceptions about issues of equity in schools, and their beliefs about the promise and challenges of higher education in America today. Who better to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our educational systems than those most proximate to the American educational experience? Many Millennials recently graduated from high school, while some are currently pursuing higher educational opportunities and/or navigating educational systems for their children

Arrangement of Kv1 α subunits dictates sensitivity to tetraethylammonium

Shaker-related Kv1 channels contain four channel-forming α subunits. Subfamily member Kv1.1 often occurs oligomerized with Kv1.2 α subunits in synaptic membranes, and so information was sought on the influence of their positions within tetramers on the channels’ properties. Kv1.1 and 1.2 α genes were tandem linked in various arrangements, followed by expression as single-chain proteins in mammalian cells. As some concatenations reported previously seemed not to reliably position Kv1 subunits in their assemblies, the identity of expressed channels was methodically evaluated. Surface protein, isolated by biotinylation of intact transiently transfected HEK-293 cells, gave Kv1.1/1.2 reactivity on immunoblots with electrophoretic mobilities corresponding to full-length concatenated tetramers. There was no evidence of protein degradation, indicating that concatemers were delivered intact to the plasmalemma. Constructs with like genes adjacent (Kv1.1-1.1-1.2-1.2 or Kv1.2-1.2-1.1-1.1) yielded delayed-rectifying, voltage-dependent K+ currents with activation parameters and inactivation kinetics slightly different from the diagonally positioned genes (Kv1.1-1.2-1.1-1.2 or 1.2–1.1-1.2-1.1). Pore-blocking petidergic toxins, α dendrotoxin, agitoxin-1, tityustoxin-Kα, and kaliotoxin, were unable to distinguish between the adjacent and diagonal concatamers. Unprecedentedly, external application of the pore-blocker tetraethylammonium (TEA) differentially inhibited the adjacent versus diagonal subunit arrangements, with diagonal constructs having enhanced susceptibility. Concatenation did not directly alter the sensitivities of homomeric Kv1.1 or 1.2 channels to TEA or the toxins. TEA inhibition of currents generated by channels made up from dimers (Kv1.1-1.2 and/or Kv1.2-1.1) was similar to the adjacently arranged constructs. These collective findings indicate that assembly of α subunits can be directed by this optimized concatenation, and that subunit arrangement in heteromeric Kv channels affects TEA affinity

During wartime, Congress is more willing to defer to the president on matters both foreign and domestic

It is widely acknowledged that the president is more able to pursue their policy agenda during wartime, but how extensive is this advantage? Based on their research, William Howell and Jon Rogowski argue that not only is Congress’s cooperation with the president’s agenda during wartime much broader than has been previously thought, but this also extends to domestic policy issues as well as foreign ones. They also find that this cooperation dries up as wars conclude, something that President Obama should now expect with an end to conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the scaling back of the ‘war on terror’

Replication Data for: Primary Systems and Candidate Ideology: Evidence from Federal and State Legislative Elections

Replication materials for Rogowski, Jon C., and Stephanie Langella. "Primary Systems and Candidate Ideology: Evidence from Federal and State Legislative Elections." American Politics Research

Replication Data for: Critical Events and Attitude Change: Support for Gun Control After Mass Shootings

When and to what extent do crises and significant events induce changes in political attitudes? Theories of public opinion and policymaking predict that major events restructure public opinion and pry open new political opportunities. We examine the effect of major events on support for public policies in the context of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in December 2012 using a nationally representative panel survey of U.S.\ adults. Across both cross-sectional and within-subject analyses, we find no evidence that Americans granted greater support for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting. Our null findings persist across a range of political and demographic groups. We also find no evidence of attitude polarization as a result of Sandy Hook. Our results suggest that elite polarization in a particular issue area leads citizens to employ motivated reasoning when interpreting critical events, thereby reducing the capacity for attitude change. Our findings have important implications for identifying the conditions under which major events affect support for public policies and create political opportunities for policy change