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The modern South is a thriving region that is increasingly like the rest of the United States; however, that has not always been the case. Indeed, the political history of the American South is one that has been focused on the integration of this historically underdeveloped region into the remainder of American society, economically (especially in terms of labor markets), politically, judicially, and socially. And, even as the South has become increasingly similar to the rest of the country, it remains an especially important region for the balance of national political power. In this essay, I describe a class I teach on Southern Politics, explaining how I have organized it around topics critical to an understanding of American political development, and I describe the innovative pedagogical perspective I bring to the class (rooting the course in the labor economics of slavery and the "peculiar institution's" long-term consequences). I also discuss in some detail the importance of this class for American students as they try to understand America's development as a nation and the lessons that can be learned by international students from the South's experiences, providing some qualitative evidence of the course's impact. (Contains 55 notes.)

One of the environments in which political science faculty most directly face issues of community, communities, and politics is when they find themselves teaching in programs abroad. The rigors of international teaching force faculty to confront issues of community identity, assumptions about political orientation, and presumptions about how communities interact that often remain unstated or unexplored at home institutions in the United States. In this paper, we will explore these matters based on our experiences teaching in the Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies during the late 1990s. The Hopkins-Nanjing Center brings together Chinese and international (mainly American) graduate students in a unique living-learning environment. Chinese students take graduate-level course work in political science, American history, economics, and ESL in English from visiting American faculty members, while international students take analogous classes in Chinese from faculty at Nanjing University. Faculty and students are housed in the Center's residential wing, where Chinese and international students are paired together as roommates. We discuss the unusual pedagogy involved in teaching Chinese students in the program (who are extremely bright and motivated, but usually lack substantive and methodological backgrounds in political science); the opportunities for extracurricular education afforded by the Center's living-learning facility; and describe our experiences interacting with our Chinese faculty counterparts. (Contains 24 notes.)

While there has been a good bit of scholarly attention paid to career dynamics in—including retirements from—the U. S. House of Representatives, relatively less attention has been paid to the Senate. The few studies of career decisions in the upper chamber (e.g., Bernstein and Wolak 2002; Masthay and Overby 2017) have focused on the more or less modern Senate. In this study, we extend the time series back to the early 1900s, taking in the entire century of the popularly elected Senate. In doing so, we increase our analytical leverage to explore dynamics in the frequency, ratio (compared to electoral defeats), and direction (i.e., progressive ambition or retirement from public life) of voluntary departures from the upper chamber. We are particularly interested in the ability of the parties to retain Senate seats opened up by voluntary departures and focus our multivariate analysis on that question. Among our most noteworthy findings are 1) that the partisan differential in retirements so obvious in the House (with Republicans outpacing Democrats in voluntary departures) is absent not only in the modern Senate but over the entire history of the elected chamber, and 2) that the GOP is systemically better at retaining open seats in the upper chamber, a finding consistent with other work on party asymmetries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research examines two referenda in the Deep South, both of which can be categorized as antiblack. Specifically, we analyze a 2001 Mississippi flag referendum (in which the electorate rejected a new flag and retained the old state flag containing a Confederate insignia) and a 2004 referendum in Alabama (in which citizens voted to retain unenforceable constitutional language requiring separate educational facilities for black and white students, and a poll tax on voting). Using state election returns and census data, we employ weighted least squares regression to analyze voting patterns. The results reveal that across both states, white voters displayed significantly greater 'antiblack' voting behavior in those areas with larger black populations and more urbanized environments. Our findings pose a direct challenge to both those who insist that the 'racial threat' perceived by whites is diminishing and those who hold that urbanization will ultimately be corrosive of racist attitudes and behavior. Keywords: Parties, Elections, Voting, Race, Ethnicity. Esta investigacion examina dos referendos en el sur de Estados Unidos, cada uno de ellos puede ser categorizado como anti afroamericano. Especificamente, se analizo el referendo en 2001 a la bandera de Mississippi (en el que el electorado rechazo una nueva bandera y decidieron conservar la bandera anterior que contenia una insignia del ejercito confederado) y un referendo en 2004 en Alabama (en el que los ciudadanos votaron para conservar un lenguaje constitucional imposible de aplicar que requeria separar las instalaciones educativas para blancos y afroamericanos, y un impuesto al voto). Usando los resultados de las elecciones estatales e informacion estadistica, empleamos un modelo de regresion de cuadrados minimos comunes para analizar patrones electorales. Los resultados revelan que a traves de ambos estados los votantes blancos mostraron un comportamiento electoral 'anti afroamericano' significativamente mayor en areas con una gran poblacion afroamericana y entornos mas urbanizados. Nuestros hallazgos plantean un desafio directo a quienes insisten que la 'amenaza racial' percibida por la poblacion blanca esta disminuyendo, y aquellos que afirman que la urbanizacion eliminara actitudes y comportamiento racista., In recent years, the results of a number of referenda and initiatives have suggested the continued presence of significant levels of racism in the American public, especially in the South. [...]

Although much research has been done on advertising in American political campaigns, virtually all has focused on the use of television. The dearth of work on radio advertising limits our ability to fully understand American electoral dynamics. More campaigns use radio than television, and there is reason to suspect that the narrowcasting that is possible with highly targeted radio ads may be substantively different from the campaign messages that are broadcast over the television airwaves. In this article, we use data from a survey of registered voters in Arkansas and Missouri during the 2002 election season to explore the dynamics of political advertising on the radio. We focus in particular on factors that influence exposure to radio ads, the public's perceptions of the importance of these ads, and the impacts of exposure on the public's perceptions of the quality of the democratic process in the United States. Keywords: campaign advertising; radio; narrowcasting; political media; political campaigns

Previous research on the effects of constituency preferences on senators' voting behavior on judicial confirmations has been limited to geographic conceptions of constituency. We extend this literature by considering the effects of reelection constituencies. Using exit poll data from the 1986, 1988, and 1990 general elections, we estimate the percentage of each senator's reelection constituency composed of African Americans and then use these estimates to reconsider the confirmation vote for Justice Clarence Thomas. Our results show modest but significant improvements in fit and predictive capabilities over previous models, and they highlight the cross pressures facing many senators in this case. These findings suggest that more precise estimations of constituency composition can help illuminate the factors influencing legislators' voting behavior.

This article tests the hypothesis that members of Congress are socialized into certain attitudes concerning interbranch comity or rivalry early during their tenures in office. Specifically, utilizing a multivariate regression model, we test the claim made by several scholars and former presidents that members who initially serve in Congress under a president of the other party will be less likely than their colleagues to support subsequent presidents of their own party. Our findings provide little support for a 'socialized to opposition' mentality and, in fact, indicate that members socialized under an opposition president are modestly more amenable to leadership from presidents of their own party.

Although retirements are a major source of legislative turnover, research on the topic has been limited, especially outside of the US House of Representatives. In this article, we address this shortcoming by examining retirements in two countries with similar electoral systems yet different legislative environments and party systems: Canada and the United Kingdom. In particular, we extend analysis on the Congress that has consistently shown Republican members retire at higher rates than their Democratic counterparts to examine whether this finding is generalizable to legislators from other parties of the right and/or favouring devolution in other parliamentary settings. In presenting data that support many of these hypotheses, we explore an important normative implication: because their partisan predispositions make them less willing to serve, politicians from parties favouring limited government and/or devolution may be less able to translate their vision of politics into policy because they face systemic problems maintaining legislative seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In trying to understand the effects of political parties on shaping the voting behaviour of legislators, research has attempted the difficult task of separating the effects of preferences from rules used by party leaders to enforce discipline. However, little research has explored the prospect that party labels also reflect a social identity that is independent of legislators’ preferences and the rules used by party leaders to enforce discipline. In this study we examine that possibility, employing a data set that permits us to control both for leadership-based effects and legislator preferences on a 2000 free vote dealing with stem cell research. Using the British Representation Studies 1997 – which interviewed Members of Parliament regarding their preferences on several key issues related to the bill – we find significant evidence that party-as-identification plays a role in shaping how legislators vote, even after preferences and discipline are accounted for. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]