The Project of Democracy

This article is an address given at the May 2002 Maine Town Meeting sponsored by the Margaret Chase Smith Library in Skowhegan. Alexander Keyssar chronicles the advances and contractions of democratic political rights in American history. While on balance, this is a story of progress, it is not, Keyssar argues, unilinear, nor one that is completed. Although arguably late for the world’s “greatest democracy,” by the 1970s the United States had achieved universal suffrage. Today, however, the tug between democratic and anti-democratic forces continues. The contest is no longer over voting rights but over the procedures and rules governing elections (i.e., election reform and redistricting). Keyssar argues we must continue to fight for the expansion of democratic rights; it is an ongoing project, one in which we will never be finished

Why Do We Still Have the Electoral College?

The Ohio State University Mershon Center for International Security StudiesAlexander Keyssar is Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy in the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. An historian by training, he has specialized in the explanation of issues that have contemporary policy implications. His current research interests include election reform, the history of democracies, and the history of poverty.Mershon Center for International Security StudiesOhio State University. Moritz College of LawEvent Web Page, Streaming Vide

Le chômage et son histoire aux États-Unis

Quoiqu'en pensent les économistes américains, dont les théories sont antihistoriques et ignorent l'histoire, le phénomène du chômage a une longue histoire aux États-Unis. Cette dernière se divise en trois périodes. La première (vers 1820-1870) a vu l'émergence du phénomène moderne du chômage. La deuxième (vers 1870-1935) pourrait s'appeler « l'ère de l'incertitude ». La troisième enfin, qui va de 1935 à nos jours, est une période de gestion du chômage ; elle se subdivise en deux sous-périodes..

Amorphization and evolution of magnetic properties during mechanical alloying of Co62Nb6Zr2B30: Dependence on starting boron microstructure

Co62Nb6Zr2B30 composition was mechanically alloyed using three different types of boron powders in the starting mixture: crystalline β-B, commercial amorphous B and optimized amorphous B via ball milling. Using optimized amorphous B, amorphization process of the alloy is more efficient but milling to optimize amorphous B introduces some iron contamination. Boron inclusions (100-150 nm in size) remain even after long milling times. However, using amorphous boron reduces the fraction of boron distributed as inclusions to ∼40% of the total B. Thermal stability at the end of the milling process is affected by the initial boron microstructure. Coercivity is reduced a half using amorphous B instead of crystalline B in the starting mixture. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Jim Crow 2.0?: Why States Consider and Adopt Restrictive Voter Access Policies

In recent years there has been a dramatic increase in state legislation likely to reduce access for some voters, including photo identification and proof of citizenship requirements, registration restrictions, absentee ballot voting restrictions, and reductions in early voting. Political operatives often ascribe malicious motives when their opponents either endorse or oppose such legislation. In an effort to bring empirical clarity and epistemological standards to what has been a deeply charged, partisan and frequently anecdotal debate, this paper uses multiple specialized regression approaches to examine factors associated with both the proposal and adoption of restrictive voter access legislation from 2006-11. Our results indicate that proposal and passage are highly partisan, strategic, and racialized affairs. These findings are consistent with a scenario in which the targeted demobilization of minority voters and African Americans is a central driver of recent legislative developments. We discuss the implications of these results for current partisan and legal debates regarding voter restrictions and our understanding of the conditions incentivizing modern suppression efforts. Further, we situate these policies within developments in social welfare and criminal justice policy that collectively reduce electoral access among the socially marginalized

Can incarcerated felons be (re)integrated into the political system? Results from a field experiment

How does America’s high rate of incarceration shape political participation? Few studies have examined the direct effects of incarceration on patterns of political engagement. Answering this question is particularly relevant for the 93% of formerly incarcerated individuals who are eligible to vote. Drawing on new administrative data from Connecticut, we present evidence from a field experiment showing that a simple informational outreach campaign to released felons can recover a large proportion of the reduction in participation observed following incarceration. The treatment effect estimates imply that efforts to reintegrate released felons into the political process can substantially reduce the participatory consequences of incarceration

New development: Running elections during a pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic posed a profound challenge for the delivery of elections worldwide. Elections are indispensable for democracy, but the high volume of human interactions within the electoral process risked spreading the virus. Electoral officials therefore found themselves planning or managing an election during an emergency situation, often for the first time. This article argues that there are several major organizational ‘elephant traps’ that polities will need to side-step during pandemics in order to safely protect the healthy running of elections. IMPACT: Elections often take place in during emergency situations such as pandemics, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes. In order to secure electoral integrity, this article encourages governments, legislators and electoral management bodies to: build political consensuses, consider the impact on the whole electoral cycle, include a wide range of stakeholders in meetings, invest in sufficient resources, undertake risk assessments and avoid late major changes to electoral law