Democracy and culture

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    Ranked choice voting in New York City will not upset the two-party system, but it is raising questions about political parties

Ranked choice voting in New York City will not upset the two-party system, but it is raising questions about political parties

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Last month, New York City held primary elections for Mayor and other city government positions. These contests used ranked-choice voting (RCV), whose majoritarian version is gaining popularity in the United States. Jack Santucci questions whether RCV has transformed New York City politics and argues it is part of a wider debate about the role of political parties in America. 

New […]

July 22nd, 2021|Democracy and culture, Jack Santucci|0 Comments|
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    Book Review: The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution by Michael McConnell

Book Review: The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution by Michael McConnell

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In The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution, Michael McConnell explores presidential power and its limits under the Constitution. Jeffrey K. Tulis gives an overview of the book, and discusses the merits and serious defects of its legalistic approach to presidential power. 

The President Who Would Not Be King: Executive Power Under the Constitution. Michael […]

July 18th, 2021|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, Jeffrey K. Tulis|0 Comments|
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    Book Review: The Crowdsourced Panopticon: Conformity and Control on Social Media by Jeremy Weissman

Book Review: The Crowdsourced Panopticon: Conformity and Control on Social Media by Jeremy Weissman

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In The Crowdsourced Panopticon: Conformity and Control on Social Media, Jeremy Weissman explores the role of ‘peer-to-peer’ surveillance through social media and how this is increasingly shaping our behaviour. This is a welcome addition to the scholarly work on surveillance and privacy, writes Matt Bluemink, with a clear, approachable writing style and a wealth of empirical examples. 

The Crowdsourced Panopticon: Conformity and […]

June 20th, 2021|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, Matt Bluemink|0 Comments|
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    Alexis de Tocqueville, pandemic virtue and selfishness, and American democracy in decline.

Alexis de Tocqueville, pandemic virtue and selfishness, and American democracy in decline.

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The 19th century French political thinker, Alexis de Tocqueville, observed that in America, motivation almost universally came from self-interest understood in a new way, rather than from virtue, which was often the case in European aristocracies. Jeffrey K. Tulis writes that the COVID-19 pandemic has seen deviations from this tendency, with a rise in both brute selfish and virtuous […]

June 3rd, 2021|Democracy and culture, Jeffrey Tulis|0 Comments|
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    Book Review: Online Afterlives: Immortality, Memory and Grief in Digital Culture by Davide Sisto

Book Review: Online Afterlives: Immortality, Memory and Grief in Digital Culture by Davide Sisto

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In Online Afterlives: Immortality, Memory and Grief in Digital Culture, Davide Sisto explores how digital technologies have come to impact our relationship with death, traversing the numerous digital devices and practices that are shaping mourning and grief today. Illustrated by multiple real-world examples and supported by relevant literature, this book offers an excellent introduction to death and digital culture, finds Mona Oikarinen.

Online Afterlives: […]

May 23rd, 2021|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, Mona Oikarinen|0 Comments|
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    Capitalism versus capitalism: Fox News and ‘strategic lying’

Capitalism versus capitalism: Fox News and ‘strategic lying’

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In the US, two election technology companies are suing right-wing broadcaster Fox News for defamation over the network’s coverage of the 2020 presidential election, when it broadcast stories about rigged voting machines. Bart Cammaerts looks at the implications of the cases for the relationship between capitalism, the media and disinformation.

Capitalism tends to have all the cake, eat it […]

May 14th, 2021|Bart Cammaerts, Democracy and culture|0 Comments|
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    Why Americans’ support for democratic values may not protect democracy in practice

Why Americans’ support for democratic values may not protect democracy in practice

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Former President Trump’s claims that he lost the 2020 election because of voter fraud, and the increasing number of states enacting voter restrictions have led to questions about the state of democracy in the US. In new research, Peter Hanson, Danielle Lussier, and Georgia Rawhouser-Mylet find that in general, support for democratic values in the US is robust. But […]

May 12th, 2021|Danielle Lussier, Democracy and culture, Georgia Rawhouser-Mylet, Peter Hanson|0 Comments|
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Evangelicals and Their Politics: Dispatches from the Field

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In the 2016 and 2020 US Presidential elections, evangelical Christians voted overwhelmingly for Donald Trump. Katie Gaddini unpicks the political relationship this type of Christianity had with Donald Trump, how it changed in 2020, and what it means for American politics moving forward.

On 15 June, LSE Religion and Global Society, together with the US Centre and Department of International Relations, […]

May 8th, 2021|Democracy and culture, Katie Gaddini, Religion and the Biden Administration|0 Comments|
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    In explaining the rise of populism, it’s not economic anxiety vs. identity politics – it’s both.

In explaining the rise of populism, it’s not economic anxiety vs. identity politics – it’s both.

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Many commentators attributed Donald Trump’s surprise 2016 election victory to the role played by voters heavily affected by deindustrialization, often located in the so-called Midwestern ‘Rust Belt’. In new research which examines voting patterns in counties which have experienced manufacturing layoffs, Leonardo Baccini and Stephen Weymouth find that that these layoffs are associated with greater support for Republican challengers […]

May 7th, 2021|Democracy and culture, Leonardo Baccini, Stephen Weymouth|0 Comments|
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    Book Review: Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control by Matthew Crawford

Book Review: Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control by Matthew Crawford

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In Why We Drive: On Freedom, Risk and Taking Back Control, Matthew Crawford argues for driving as an activity that illustrates important features of a humanistic outlook worth preserving: the ability to exercise skill and judgment, to balance prudence and risk and, more broadly, to negotiate one’s individual freedom within the collaborative give-and-take of the road. While the book underplays the environmental […]

April 25th, 2021|Book Reviews, Democracy and culture, Iancu Daramus|0 Comments|
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