Political Science Department at Northwestern University
LightNews LightNews
banner
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Political Science Department at Northwestern University
@polisciatnu.bsky.social
1.3K followers 340 following 120 posts
Official account of Northwestern University's Political Science Department. https://lnk.bio/polisciatnu
Posts Replies Media Videos
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Please join us in congratulating Chloe Bernadaux, who has been awarded a 2025 Historical Political Economy grant from @hpe-project.bsky.social to support her project "Neoliberal Siege: How Sanctions Reshaped Power and Politics of Legitimacy in Saddam’s Iraq" www.hpeproject.org/grantees

👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉
October 8, 2025 at 8:01 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Professor Daniel Galvin's Alt-Labor and the New Politics of Workers' Rights @russellsagefdn.bsky.social named 2024 Noteworthy Books in Industrial Relations and Labor Economics by the Princeton University Industrial Relations Section @ipratnu.bsky.social irs.princeton.edu/post-notewor...
👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉
Over the last half century, two major developments have transformed the nature of workers’ rights and altered the pathways available to low-wage workers to combat their exploitation. First, while national labor law, which regulates unionization and collective bargaining, has grown increasingly ineffective, employment laws establishing minimal workplace standards have proliferated at the state and local levels. Second, as labor unions have declined, a diversity of small, under-resourced nonprofit “alt-labor” groups have emerged in locations across the United States to organize and support marginalized workers. In Alt-Labor and the New Politics of Workers’ Rights, political scientist Daniel J. Galvin draws on rich data and extensive interviews to examine the links between these developments. With nuance and insight, Galvin explains how alt-labor groups are finding creative ways to help their members while navigating the many organizational challenges and structural constraints they face in this new context.
October 5, 2025 at 2:54 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Please join us in congratulating Professor Nicole Wilson (@nicolewilson.bsky.social) for receiving TWO!! awards for her dissertation, “Seeing Like an Estate: Middle-Class Political Behavior After Collective Exit.” www.nicoleewilson.com

👏👏👏🎉🎉🎉
IMAGE: Profile Photo of Profession Nicole Wilson
October 4, 2025 at 4:42 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Forthcoming book alert, now with book cover!

Professor Daniel Krcmaric's new book ABOVE THE LAW: The United States and the International Criminal Court via @cambup-polsci.cambridge.org out this December!

Pre-order www.cambridge.org/core/books/a...
IMAGE: Book cover of ABOVE THE LAW, showing a U.S. Flag waving about the ICC flag. BOOK ABSTRACT: The United States has traditionally been a great promoter of international justice – forging the Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals after World War II and leading the way in creating tribunals to address genocides in Yugoslavia and Rwanda after the Cold War. Yet the US views the International Criminal Court – the culmination of the tribunal-building process – as a dire threat. The US voted against its establishment, passed legislation threatening to invade The Hague, and tried to destroy the ICC with economic sanctions. Delving into the uneasy relationship between the world's superpower and one of its most prominent international institutions, Above the Law explains how the desire to shield American soldiers from unwanted ICC scrutiny is the ultimate source of tension. Offering a sophisticated analysis of the ICC's track record that shows how American fears are overblown, Daniel Krcmaric argues that a more cooperative US policy toward the ICC would benefit both sides.
October 3, 2025 at 6:20 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Now in Print!

Elizabeth Good (@tgsatnu.bsky.social Ph.D. & @stanfordcisac.bsky.social Postdoc), "Power Over Presence: Women’s Representation in Comprehensive Peace Negotiations and Gender Provision Outcomes" via @apsrjournal.bsky.social

doi.org/10.1017/S000... #NUResearch
Power Over Presence: Women’s Representation in Comprehensive Peace Negotiations and Gender Provision Outcomes ELIZABETH GOOD Northwestern University, United States American Political Science Review (2025) 119, 3, 1099–1114 doi:10.1017/S000305542400073X The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) sector assumes increasing the number of women involved in peace negotiations drives better outcomes for local women. However, empirical support for this assumption is inconsistent. This article tests how power alters the relationship between women’s formal (Track 1) involvement in peace negotiations and the inclusion of women-specific provisions in peace agreements. Using an original dataset comprised of 2,299 Track 1 delegates involved in 116 comprehensive peace agreements finalized between 1990 and 2021, I find women’s involvement in peace negotiations is positively correlated to comprehensive agreements containing provisions for women. However, this correlation is dependent on women holding positions of power—simply having women in the room is insufficient. This article offers a novel quantitative approach to WPS studies, provides nuance to theories linking descriptive and substantive representation, and casts doubt on the longstanding assumption that increasing women’s involvement inherently enhances gender equality.
August 14, 2025 at 5:16 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"In the broadest sense, I study women revolutionaries who challenged what politics could be.”

Ph.D. Candidate Amanda Ziyi Fu discusses her research, inspirations, and academic career in the @tgsatnu.bsky.social spotlight.

Read more here: www.tgs.northwestern.edu/about/our-pe...
Amanda Ziyi Fu pictured in the desert
August 14, 2025 at 12:26 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Nathalia Justo (www.nathaliajusto.com), @polisciatnu.bsky.social PhD & @grinnellcollege.bsky.social Prof., argues that state, United Nations, and nongovernmental organization representatives constructed human rights as moral to defer responsibility for rights realization. doi.org/10.1080/1475...
Above politics: The construction of human rights in the negotiation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Professor Nathalia Justo, Grinnell College Journal of Human Rights, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14754835.2025.2530093 Abstract This article contributes to the academic debates on the legacies of the negotiation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for human rights and global politics. Shifting the conversation about the negotiation beyond consensus, I argue that state, United Nations, and nongovernmental organization representatives constructed human rights as moral to defer responsibility for rights realization. I show that representatives deferred addressing the tensions in human rights by inserting them into a teleological trajectory organized around attempts to separate morality and politics. Representatives proposed to protect an abstract, internal, and thus universalizable “essence” to the detriment of external, embodied, and contextual manifestations of the human. This differentiation between the moral and political facets of the human incidentally supported the claim that rights should be declared first and enforced only in the future. By collapsing morality and law through the effacement and evacuation of politics, the declaration began to emphasize notions of moral worth as the condition of possibility for liberal rights, thus framing the potentialities and limits for international legal protection.
July 31, 2025 at 8:27 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"We use real-world data to demonstrate a counterintuitive result: precision gains from block-randomized or pre-post designs can withstand significant sample loss that may arise during implementation."

@gustavodiaz.org & Erin Rossiter via @polanalysis.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/pan....
“Balancing Precision and Retention in Experimental Design.” Political Analysis, 2025, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2025.10008 Gustavo Diaz and Erin Rossiter In experimental social science, precise treatment effect estimation is of utmost importance, and researchers can make design choices to increase precision. Specifically, block-randomized and pre-post designs are promoted as effective means to increase precision. However, implementing these designs requires pre-treatment covariates, and collecting this information may decrease sample sizes, which in and of itself harms precision. Therefore, despite the literature’s recommendation to use block-randomized and pre-post designs, it remains unclear when to expect these designs to increase precision in applied settings. We use real-world data to demonstrate a counterintuitive result: precision gains from block-randomized or pre-post designs can withstand significant sample loss that may arise during implementation. Our findings underscore the importance of incorporating researchers’ practical concerns into existing experimental design advice.
July 23, 2025 at 1:48 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
What corruption is most harmful? Unbundling citizen perceptions

@aaronerlich.bsky.social (McGill), @jgansmorse.bsky.social (Northwestern), Simeon Nicther (@ucsandiego.bsky.social) & @aholver.bsky.social (@polisciatnu.bsky.social) via World Development doi.org/10.1016/j.wo...
What corruption is most harmful? Unbundling citizen perceptions Aaron Erlich, Jordan Gans-Morse, Simeon Nichter, Arne Holverscheid World Development Volume 194, October 2025, 107001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107001 Abstract To combat corruption, many countries employ information campaigns aimed at citizens. When designing such campaigns, practitioners often consider citizen perceptions of corruption’s harms, but typically lack data about two key questions: Which forms of corruption do citizens deem especially pernicious? And how do citizens’ perceptions differ when considering distinct types of harms? This article introduces a diagnostic approach to investigate these questions, drawing on a conjoint experiment conducted in collaboration with Armenia’s Corruption Prevention Commission. This approach maps citizen perceptions of corruption’s consequences across four distinct types of harms: economic, political, moral, and personal. It not only identifies forms of corruption viewed as particularly damaging, but also reveals how findings may diverge across harms. For example, our findings suggest that Armenians perceive high-level embezzlement as especially harmful for all four types of harms we examined. By contrast, they deem healthcare corruption to inflict more personal and moral harm — but less economic and political harm — than corruption in other sectors. While citizens’ perceptions of corruption harms are context specific, our approach has broad applicability both for practitioners designing campaigns, and for scholars seeking to conceptualize corruption and its consequences.
July 20, 2025 at 3:18 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
🔥Hot off the press & #OpenAccess !!!

"Diverging Trajectories of Post-Soviet Constitutional Courts" by J.D./Ph.D. candidate & TGS Presidential Fellow Alisher Juzgenbayev (@alisher.bsky.social) & Alexi Trochev (Nazarbayev U) via @constlstudies.bsky.social #NUResearch

doi.org/10.15781/43f...
Diverging Trajectories of Post-Soviet Constitutional Courts Alexei Trochev, Alisher Juzgenbayev Vol. 11 No. 1 (2025): State of the Field https://doi.org/10.15781/43f33f59 ABSTRACT Three decades of constitutional law in the former non-Baltic Soviet republics reveal significant variation. Almost all post-Soviet states—whether autocracies or not—have established constitutional courts with judicial review powers to uphold their constitutions, but these tribunals operate differently: some are relatively invisible, while others are central to heated political disputes. We examine this variation across three areas. First, we consider the roles of constitutional courts in high politics, noting that in autocracies, pressured courts lack the authority to protect outgoing leaders. In freer regimes, courts face attacks from various political factions, leading to rulings based on temporary alliances rather than stable principles, complicating alignment with European democratic standards. Second, we analyze how these courts contribute to nation-building efforts, including decolonization and de-Sovietization. Some shape national identities through language, gender norms, and citizenship, displaying a range of judicial agency from autonomy to compliance with the regime. Finally, we explore how post-Soviet constitutional courts address fundamental rights disputes—encompassing social, criminal, and civil rights—which significantly influence the trajectories of constitutional law. While many tribunals still lack rigorous reasoning and broad public backing, a minority now serve as credible forums for constitutional debate and decision making---incrementally strengthening accountability and the protection of human rights.
July 19, 2025 at 4:16 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Forty Acres and a Mule: Symbolic Politics and the Pursuit for Black Reparations in the United States

@mattnelsen.bsky.social, Ph.D. candidate Monique Newton, & @asdurso.bsky.social via @poppublicsphere.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/S153... #NUResearch #polisky
Forty Acres and a Mule: Symbolic Politics and the Pursuit for Black Reparations in the United States Nelsen, Matthew D., Monique Newton, and Amanda Sahar d’Urso Perspectives on Politics, 2025, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592725000751. Reparations for African Americans reflect both material concerns aimed at eliminating the Black–White racial wealth gap and symbolic political aspirations, including the end of structural racism. But do material or symbolic considerations drive policy evaluations across racial and partisan divides? What knowledge and experiences undergird processes through which individuals weigh the symbolic importance of a policy against its actual benefits? Leveraging a set of forty-one in-depth interviews with Black and White residents of Evanston, Illinois—the first municipality in the United States to approve a publicly-funded reparations-related ordinance—we highlight a mechanism through which individuals develop their opinions about reparations: political socialization. Black interviewees linked their understanding of reparations to robust financial compensation while White Democrats viewed their support for Evanston’s policy as symbolic of their longstanding, affective commitments to racial equality. Drawing from these observations, we present a framework highlighting policy attributes that frame how different constituencies respond to reparations-related policies. We test this framework using a conjoint experiment about reparations policies fielded in the 2022 Cooperative Election Study. We find Americans—especially White Republicans—possess less familiarity about reparations and remain strongly opposed to these policies, regardless of the form they take. While White Democrats are more familiar with reparations and more supportive of policies mirroring Evanston’s, Black Americans—those who are most familiar with reparations—support direct cash payments regardless of their political identification.
July 18, 2025 at 4:59 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
How do voters respond to elected officials wielding their powers of office for retributive purposes?

Prof Mary McGrath, Evan Myers & Anna Wander, "Electoral costs of political retaliation: bipartisan rejection of attacks on corporate speech" doi.org/10.1017/bap.... #NUResearch @ipratnu.bsky.social
Electoral costs of political retaliation: bipartisan rejection of attacks on corporate speech Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 May 2025 Evan S. Myers , Anna M. Wander and Mary C. McGrath Abstract Overt political retribution, typically considered outside the bounds of American democracy, has recently risen to the surface of American political discourse. How do voters respond to elected officials wielding their powers of office for retributive purposes? In the current partisan political climate, do voters’ views of retribution depend on whether the official is a member of their party? Politicians in both parties have demonstrated willingness to threaten or pursue retaliation against corporations for using their political voice to publicly express opposition. Due to the American public’s ambivalence about the role of business in politics and the rights of corporations to political speech, the scenario of corporate political speech provides a useful case in which to test for partisan acceptance of the use of political retaliation. In an original and replication experiment, we find strong bipartisan rebuke of an elected official’s employment of “abusive legalism” in response to corporate political criticism. Strikingly, the negative consequences are greatest for an in-party official. The drop in support suffered by the official is equivalent to the effect of partisanship, such that an in-party official using their powers of office to “keep business out of politics” is viewed as unfavorably as a non-responsive out-party official.
June 9, 2025 at 1:57 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
How can we ground political theologies in feminist, ecological, & Latin American epistemologies? How can Latin American ecofeminist liberation theologies contribute to illuminating & addressing the politics of our time?

PhD candidate Ely Orrego Torres @elyorrego.bsky.social doi.org/10.5840/pga2...
Beyond Boundaries Exploring Transnational Ecofeminist Political Theologies and Solidarities in Latin America This paper centers voices that have not yet been explored in academic debates over political theologies. It does so by relocating the central terms of contestation in ecofeminist ideas of the Americas for the sake of exploring possibilities of building transnational solidarities to propose alternative notions of “the political.” How can we ground “political theologies” in feminist, ecological, and Latin American epistemologies? How can Latin American ecofeminist liberation theologies contribute to illuminating and addressing the politics of our time? The first section delves into the different conceptual priorities of ecofeminism and ecofeminist theologies in the context of Latin America to argue that sharp distinctions between these projects should be blurred. The second section challenges the ideas of “First” or “Third” world as proposed by Chandra Talpade Mohanty as potentially causing obstacles to building transnational feminist solidarities in a global context. The third section examines the collective, Con-spirando, in Chile as an exemplar of new possibilities for how reshaping political theology can enrich resistance and solidarity in the religious and spiritual context of Latin America and beyond.
June 5, 2025 at 3:40 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"QCA relies on case knowledge and existing theories to select conditions and calibrate sets. ... This article proposes machine-learning enhanced QCA (mlQCA) for condition selection, set calibration, and iterative model development in large-N QCA."

read more: link.springer.com/article/10.1...
Huang, Q. Towards machine-learning enhanced QCA: optimizing coverage and empirical significance. Qual Quant (2025). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-025-02146-2 Abstract Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) relies on case knowledge and existing theories to select conditions and calibrate sets. However, as the number of cases grows, researchers’ case knowledge tends to decrease, posing significant challenges to large-N QCA practitioners. In response, this article proposes machine-learning enhanced QCA (mlQCA) for condition selection, set calibration, and iterative model development in large-N QCA. This approach specifically incorporates Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) because its tree-based models have algorithms similar to QCA sufficiency tests. By using mlQCA, practitioners can identify explanatory conditions and calibration cut-offs that optimize the coverage of QCA solutions. Drawing on a classic study on voting participation, the article illustrates how mlQCA can leverage empirical information to produce substantively important results. Two versions of mlQCA are presented. The radical version makes extensive use of automation tools, while the conservative version prioritizes theoretical engagement and allows QCA practitioners to decide the extent to which automation tools are used.
June 4, 2025 at 9:21 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
“Prof. Gilbert's warm, welcoming presence in her course site invited all students to engage deeply with the course content."

Dani Gilbert (@danigilbert.bsky.social) recognized for teaching excellence in digital course design at Northwestern University!
🥇💜💜💜🥇

www.it.northwestern.edu/departments/...
Pictured: Prof. Yiji Zhang (stage right) and Prof. Dani Gilbert (stage left) holding their awards for teaching excellence in Digitla Course Design Northwestern Canvas Hall of Fame Recognizes Excellence in Digital Course Design at TEACHx The Northwestern Canvas Hall of Fame honors instructors who go above and beyond to create engaging learning experiences for their students using the Canvas Learning Management System. Each year, winners are announced and awarded at the TEACHx conference. Nominations for the Hall of Fame come entirely from students, who submitted 440 nominations for this year's awards. This year's honorees are: Yiji Zhang, Assistant Professor of Instruction in Computer Science, won Most Innovative Course Site for "Fundamentals of Computer Programming II" Mindy Thorpe, Assistant Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, won Best Use of Video for "Principles of Orthotic and Prosthetic Practice" Danielle Gilbert, Assistant Professor and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Policy Research, won the Community and Accessibility Award for "Introduction to International Relations"
June 3, 2025 at 8:10 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Hot off the press! 🔥

Ph.D. candidate Jacob Fortier (@fortierjacob.bsky.social), "Unraveling the Radical Flank Effect: The Role of Moderate Organizations in the Face of Radical Flank Violence" via Terrorism and Political Violence (@tandfresearch.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1080/0954... #NUResearch
Unraveling the Radical Flank Effect: The Role of Moderate Organizations in the Face of Radical Flank Violence TERRORISM AND POLITICAL VIOLENCE https://doi.org/10.1080/09546553.2025.2486458 Jacob Fortier Department of Political Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA ABSTRACT Why do moderate social movement organizations sometimes benefit from or avoid the negative effects of radical flank violence, while in other cases, they suffer strategic setbacks due to such extremism? Scholars have diverged in their conclusions regarding the impact of radical flank actions on more moderate organizations, a phenomenon known as the Radical Flank Effect (RFE). Some argue that radical elements within a movement can inadvertently boost the credibility and support for moderate groups by offering a contrast. Others believe that violence can tarnish the movement’s overall image as extremist, negatively impacting moderates. I propose that these varying conclusions stem partly from a lack of focus on the agency of moderate organizations in managing the extent to which radical factions harm their core interests. Examining the emergence of radical flank violence in the Quebec pro-independence movement during the 1960s and 1970s, this study investigates how and when moderates might enhance their distinction from radical elements and avoid detrimental associations. Relying on in-depth interviews with moderate leaders and archival research, the findings reveal that moderates can achieve this by publicly denouncing violence, avoiding interactions with radicals, and signal to state authorities intent to de-escalate the conflict.
June 1, 2025 at 7:05 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
MUST READ new article from @gustavodiaz.org, @viroliveros.bsky.social, Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro & Matthew S. Winters via @bjpols.bsky.social

Ignoring Women’s Performance: A Survey Experiment on Policy Implementation in Argentina

doi.org/10.1017/S000...

#openaccess #polisky #NUResearch
Diaz, Gustavo, Virginia Oliveros, Rebecca Weitz-Shapiro, and Matthew S. Winters. “Ignoring Women’s Performance: A Survey Experiment on Policy Implementation in Argentina.” British Journal of Political Science 55 (2025): e54. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123424000668. Abstract How does a politician’s gender shape citizen responses to performance in office? Much of the existing literature suggests that voters hold higher expectations of women politicians and are more likely to punish them for malfeasance. An alternative perspective suggests that voters view men politicians as more agentic and are, therefore, more responsive to their performance, whether good or bad. Using an online survey experiment in Argentina, we randomly assign respondents to information that the distribution of a government food programme in a hypothetical city is biased or unbiased, and we also randomly assign the gender of the mayor. We find that respondents are more responsive to performance information – both positive and negative – about men mayors. We find little evidence that respondents hold different expectations of malfeasance by men versus women politicians. These results contribute to our understanding of how citizens process performance information in a context with few women politicians.
April 4, 2025 at 9:12 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"Conflict relocation and blood diamond policy shifts"

Must read new article by Andrew Saab, Ph.D. candidate, out in the Journal of Peace Research (@jpeaceresearch.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1177/0022... #polisky #NUResearch
Saab, A. (2025). Conflict relocation and blood diamond policy shifts. Journal of Peace Research, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00223433241295838 Abstract There is substantial evidence that various aspects of violent civil conflict are tied to natural resources, of which diamonds are perhaps the most notorious. While the presence of resources themselves has been given substantial attention, existing works have overlooked a key issue: substitute resources. This article focuses on the geographic distribution of violent conflict relative to natural resource sites as a provider of information on the geostrategic organization and extraction behaviors of insurgents. Using the rise of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, a multilateral regime aimed at regulating the illicit diamond trade, and accounting for the presence of potential substitute resources, empirical evidence indicates that the regulations disrupted and delocalized conflicts away from diamond sites. Moreover, the geography of violent conflict shifted and relocated toward substitute resources such as tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. These findings suggest that such policy efforts may have adverse unintended consequences on the structure of violent conflict and the expansion of other black markets as a byproduct of regulation-induced changes in extraction incentives.
February 14, 2025 at 2:44 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Hot off the Press & Open Access!!!

Jordan Gans-Morse (tw @J_GansMorse / #NUResearch) and Aaron Erlich (@aaronerlich.bsky.social lich.bsky.social / @mcgill.ca ca), "Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption?" via AJPS @ajpseditor.bsky.social #polisky doi.org/10.1111/ajps...
Erlich, Aaron, and Jordan Gans-Morse. 2025. “ Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption?” American Journal of Political Science 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12940 Abstract Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption? Such campaigns use messaging about how people typically behave (descriptive norms) or ought to behave (injunctive norms). Drawing on survey and lab experiments in Ukraine, we unpack and evaluate the distinct effects of these two types of social norms. Four findings emerge: First, injunctive-norm messaging produces consistent but relatively small and temporary effects. These may serve as moderately effective, low-cost anti-corruption tools but are unlikely to inspire large-scale norm transformations. Second, contrary to recent studies, we find no evidence that either type of norm-based messaging “backfires” by inadvertently encouraging corruption. Third, descriptive-norm messages emphasizing corruption's decline produce relatively large and long-lasting effects—but only among subjects who find messages credible. Fourth, both types of norm-based messaging have a substantially larger effect on younger citizens. These findings have broader implications for messaging campaigns, especially those targeting social problems that, like corruption, require mitigation of collective action dilemmas.
January 9, 2025 at 5:34 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
"I am inspired by the work of other scholars who base their research in meticulous and respectful engagement with the communities and cultures they are studying.”

Ph.D. candidate Matej Jungwirth in the @tgsatnu.bsky.social spotlight #NUResearch www.tgs.northwestern.edu/about/our-pe...
January 7, 2025 at 6:37 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
This article offers a novel quantitative approach to WPS studies, provides nuance to theories linking descriptive and substantive representation, and casts doubt on the longstanding assumption that increasing women’s involvement inherently enhances gender equality. doi.org/10.1017/S000...
Screenshot of the first page of GOOD E. Power Over Presence: Women’s Representation in Comprehensive Peace Negotiations and Gender Provision Outcomes. American Political Science Review. Published online 2024:1-16. doi:10.1017/S000305542400073X Abstract The Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) sector assumes increasing the number of women involved in peace negotiations drives better outcomes for local women. However, empirical support for this assumption is inconsistent. This article tests how power alters the relationship between women’s formal (Track 1) involvement in peace negotiations and the inclusion of women-specific provisions in peace agreements. Using an original dataset comprised of 2,299 Track 1 delegates involved in 116 comprehensive peace agreements finalized between 1990 and 2021, I find women’s involvement in peace negotiations is positively correlated to comprehensive agreements containing provisions for women. However, this correlation is dependent on women holding positions of power—simply having women in the room is insufficient. This article offers a novel quantitative approach to WPS studies, provides nuance to theories linking descriptive and substantive representation, and casts doubt on the longstanding assumption that increasing women’s involvement inherently enhances gender equality.
January 6, 2025 at 1:24 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Linking datasets on organizations using half a billion open-collaborated records

Brian Libgober (@blibgober.bsky.social) & Connor T. Jerzak (@jerzakconnor.bsky.social) via PRSM @psrm.bsky.social doi.org/10.1017/psrm... #polisky #NUResearch
Brian Libgober and Connor T. Jerzak. Linking datasets on organizations using half a billion open-collaborated records. Political Science Research and Methods. Published online 2024:1-20. doi:10.1017/psrm.2024.55 Abstract Scholars studying organizations often work with multiple datasets lacking shared identifiers or covariates. In such situations, researchers usually use approximate string (“fuzzy”) matching methods to combine datasets. String matching, although useful, faces fundamental challenges. Even where two strings appear similar to humans, fuzzy matching often struggles because it fails to adapt to the informativeness of the character combinations. In response, a number of machine learning methods have been developed to refine string matching. Yet, the effectiveness of these methods is limited by the size and diversity of training data. This paper introduces data from a prominent employment networking site (LinkedIn) as a massive training corpus to address these limitations. By leveraging information from the LinkedIn corpus regarding organizational name-to-name links, we incorporate trillions of name pair examples into various methods to enhance existing matching benchmarks and performance by explicitly maximizing match probabilities. We also show how relationships between organization names can be modeled using a network representation of the LinkedIn data. In illustrative merging tasks involving lobbying firms, we document improvements when using the LinkedIn corpus in matching calibration and make all data and methods open source.
January 2, 2025 at 6:03 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Status Threat, Campaign Rhetoric, and US Foreign Policy

Forthcoming article by Northwestern Ph.D. / @upenn.edu Post Doc Jonathan Schulman (@jonathanschulman.bsky.social) via Politics & Governance (@cogitatiopag.bsky.social) doi.org/10.17645/pag...
Jonathan Schulman (2025). Status Threat, Campaign Rhetoric, and US Foreign Policy. Politics and Governance, 13, Article 8760. https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.8760 Candidates for office frequently warn that the United States is falling behind its rivals. How does this rhetoric affect voters’ perceptions of their commitment to action and, in turn, potential foreign policy outcomes? The study of status in international politics has blossomed over the past decade, including a recent turn to the origins and consequences of domestic concerns over national status and decline. I contribute to this research, arguing that candidates frequently employ status-threatening rhetoric on the campaign trail due to its emotional and identity-threatening appeal, but this rhetoric in turn significantly increases the public’s expectation of action. As a result, status-threatening campaign rhetoric allows candidates to define issues as arenas for status competition but simultaneously increases pressure on leaders to follow through once in office with policies they can justify as status-saving. I support this theory with two survey experiments and a case study examining how Kennedy attached space exploration to status in the 1960 campaign, increasing domestic pressure to act once in office.
December 25, 2024 at 6:39 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
FIRST VIEW / MUST READ:

Professor Danielle Gilbert (@danigilbert.bsky.social), "Partners in Crime: Comparative Advantage and Kidnapping Cooperation" via Comparative Political Studies (cpsjournal.bsky.social) doi.org/10.1177/0010... #polisky #NUResearch
Danielle Gilbert (2024). Partners in Crime: Comparative Advantage and Kidnapping Cooperation. Comparative Political Studies, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00104140241302726 Abstract What explains cooperation between armed groups? Challenging existing literature that assumes armed groups must be similar or not cooperate at all, I argue that explicit differences are key to some cooperation. Comparative advantage explains why rebels and criminals—organizations that typically eschew collaboration—cooperate to produce violence. This article introduces “black market white labeling”—cooperation that emerges when one actor buys an illicit good or service from another and re-brands it as their own. To demonstrate this phenomenon and the conditions under which it occurs, I focus on kidnapping, an underexplored but common form of armed group violence. Drawing on 113 interviews with Colombian kidnappers and hostage recovery personnel from Colombia and the United States, I theorize the conditions under which rebels “outsource” violence to criminal gangs or produce it “in house.” This article explains the organizational dynamics of rebel-criminal cooperation that perpetuate violence against civilians.
December 23, 2024 at 9:10 PM
polisciatnu.bsky.social
Also from this excellent and thought provoking roundtable!

"The International Order of White Sovereignty and the Prospect of Abolition"

Owen Brown (@obrown.bsky.social), @tgsatnu.bsky.social PhD / Scripps College, via Ethics & International Affairs doi.org/10.1017/S089...
Owen R. Brown. The International Order of White Sovereignty and the Prospect of Abolition. Ethics & International Affairs. 2024; 38(2):189-199. doi:10.1017/S0892679424000169 Abstract Discussions of the liberal international order, both inside and outside the academy, tend to take its necessity and desirability for granted. While its specific contours and content are left somewhat open in such debates, the idea that this international order is essential for global peace and stability is left largely unquestioned. What is more, the potential loss or end of this order is often taken to mean a return to anarchy, chaos, and disorder. In this essay, I question the presumed necessity and desirability of the liberal international order that most discussions of it seem to share. By rethinking the international order as processual, emergent, and grounded in the social and political contexts that shape its constitution and operation, I suggest that fears about the crisis of international order are less about international order itself and more about the loss of a specific order. This specific order, I argue, constituted in part through processes of racialization, is not so much a rules-based order of sovereign equality but rather an international order of White sovereignty that secures the domination and rule of some over others, of Whiteness over non-Whiteness. Recognizing the role of White sovereignty in the contemporary international order points toward a need to take seriously calls for abolition. Rather than signifying a return to chaos and disorder, the prospect and promise of abolition represents a call to break free from the constraints of the present order and reach into an as-yet-unimaginable future.
December 20, 2024 at 2:02 PM