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FULL EPISODE https://www.patreon.com/politicalreality/posts/war-why-dont-we-170386581 1. ⚔️ Sun Tzu (circa 500 BCE), The Art of Warhttps://classics.mit.edu/Tzu/artwar.html 2. 🏛️ Thucydides (circa 400 BCE), History of the Peloponnesian War (brief overview here)https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7142/7142-h/7142-h.htmhttps://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/thucydides 3. 🌐 Morgenthau (1949), Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (overview here)http://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/04%20Conflict%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Morgenthau%20-%20Politics%20among%20nations%20(selected%20chapters).pdfhttps://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/social-sciences-and-humanities/morgenthau-advances-realist-school-power-politics 4. 🎓 By the way, many of these classic texts are currently available as PDFs on Branislav Sanchez’s course page for an international relations course he teaches at UCSD. Happy reading, and thanks, Prof. Sanchez for making these available! The syllabus on this page also offers a fantastic rundown of many of the themes we covered in this episode (plus many more, and deeper divers – enjoy!).https://polisci.ucsd.edu/people/faculty/faculty-directory/currently-active-faculty/slantchev-profile.htmlhttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/ 5. 📘 Waltz (1959), Man, the State, and War: A Theoretical Analysishttps://pages.ucsd.edu/~bslantchev/courses/ps240/02%20Levels%20of%20Analysis%20and%20Strategic%20Choice/Waltz%20-%20Man,%20The%20State,%20and%20War.pdf 6. ♟️ Schelling (1960), The Strategy of Conflicthttps://www.sackett.net/Strategy-of-Conflict.pdf 7. 💥 Blainey (1973), The Causes of Warhttps://archive.org/details/causesofwar0000blai/page/n5/mode/2up 8. 🔗 Keohane & Nye (1977), Power and Interdependencehttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/05%20Cooperation%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Keohane%20&%20Nye%20-%20Power%20and%20interdependence%20%5BCh%201-3%5D.pdf 9. 🌎 Waltz (1979), Theory of International Politicshttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/03%20Anarchy,%20Hierarchy,%20and%20Sovereignty/Waltz%20-%20Theory%20of%20International%20Politics%20(Ch%205-8).pdf 10. 🤝 Keohane (1984), After Hegemonyhttp://slantchev.ucsd.edu/courses/ps240/05%20Cooperation%20with%20States%20as%20Unitary%20Actors/Keohane%20-%20After%20Hegemony%20%5BCh%204-6%5D.pdf 11. 🔄 Axelrod (1984), The Evolution of Cooperationhttps://bert.stuy.edu/pbrooks/spring2015/materials/HumanReasoning-2/Axelrod_Robert_The_Evolution_of_Cooperation.pdf 12. 🗳️ Fearon (1994), “Domestic Political Audiences and the Escalation of International Disputes”https://web.stanford.edu/group/fearon-research/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Domestic-Political-Audiences-and-the-Escalation-of-International-Disputes.pdf 13. ⚖️ Fearon (1995), “Rationalist Explanations for War”https://web.stanford.edu/group/fearon-research/cgi-bin/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Rationalist-Explanations-for-War.pdf 14. 🕊️ B. Bueno de Mesquita et al. (1999), “An Institutional Explanation of the Democratic Peace”https://www.jstor.org/stable/2586113 15. 🌍 Mearsheimer (2001), The Tragedy of Great Power Politicshttps://wwnorton.com/books/9780393349276 16. 📜 Fortna (2003), “Scraps of Paper? Agreements and the Durability of Peace”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/scraps-of-paper-agreements-and-the-durability-of-peace/70A924CC6B4785C30BADF415244FFA1F 17. 🏢 Koremenos et al. (2003), “The Rational Design of International Institutions”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/rational-design-of-international-institutions/29B784E99033C7B3FC0564B96A64FE21 18. 🧩 Ruggie (2005), “What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge.”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/what-makes-the-world-hang-together-neoutilitarianism-and-the-social-constructivist-challenge/0160858E3E6D4D6468C926BCD6654FE9 19. 🔎 E. Bueno de Mesquita (2005), “The Quality of Terror”https://www.jstor.org/stable/3647729 20. 🧠 Wendt (2009), “Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/anarchy-is-what-states-make-of-it-the-social-construction-of-power-politics/B03BC7C9AAC5211B6DC319C077C1A854 21. 🤝 Walter (2009), “Bargaining Failures and Civil War”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.10.101405.135301 22. ❓ Ramsay (2017), “Information, Uncertainty, and War”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051215-022729 23. 📚 Chenoweth et al. (eds.) (2019), The Oxford Handbook of Terrorismhttps://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/28267 24. 🤖 Murphy, et al. (2024), “The Promise of Machine Learning in Violent Conflict Forecasting”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/data-and-policy/article/promise-of-machine-learning-in-violent-conflict-forecasting/40D559ADA18FF7308915B08956B4E8F3 25. 📊 Some datasets we mentioned: Correlates of War, Uppsala conflict data program, Fragile states index Correlates of War:https://correlatesofwar.org/ Uppsala conflict data program:https://ucdp.uu.se/ Fragile states index:https://fragilestatesindex.org/

FULL EPISODE 1. 🧠 Dias et al. (2025), “American partisans vastly under-estimate the diversity of other partisans’ policy attitudes.”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/political-science-research-and-methods/article/american-partisans-vastly-underestimate-the-diversity-of-other-partisans-policy-attitudes/CD71B9D75D10CFA0A9A07501E1CCD81A#article 2. 👥 A few corporate-focused diversity of thought resources (Scott E. Page was my Ph.D. advisor so bias alert):https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_E._Page     📘 1. Page (2007; 2025 second edition), The difference: How the power of diversity creates better groups, firms, schools, and societies     📗 2. Page (2019), The diversity bonus: How great teams pay off in the knowledge economy     📄 3. Page & Hong (2004), “Groups of diverse problem solvers can outperform groups of high-ability problem solvers”    https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.0403723101 3. 📊 Democrats tend to be more diverse along many (not all) standard demographic/identity dimensions: Pew researchhttps://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/the-changing-demographic-composition-of-voters-and-party-coalitions/ 4. 🎓 Republicans tend to be more diverse along education (depending on how you measure it!): More Pewhttps://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/04/09/partisanship-by-race-ethnicity-and-education/ 5. 📰 Older work on diversity of Democrat vs. Republican news consumption: Pew again!https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2014/10/21/section-1-media-sources-distinct-favorites-emerge-on-the-left-and-right/ 6. 📱 More recent shifts in news consumption: rise of online, proliferation on the right     🌐 Rise of online:    https://www.odwyerpr.com/story/public/23818/2025-10-28/shifts-political-news-consumption.html     ➡️ Proliferation on the right:    https://www.mediamatters.org/google/right-dominates-online-media-ecosystem-seeping-sports-comedy-and-other-supposedly 7. 📲 Chang et al. (2025), “Liberals and conservatives share information differently on social media”https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40697192/ 8. 🕸️ Lüders et al. (2023), “Attitude networks as intergroup realities: Using network-modeling to research attitude-identity relationships in polarized political contexts.”https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bjso.12665 9. 📊 American National Election Studies (ANES) data on:     ⚕️ 1. Abortion    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=abortion_by_law     🌎 2. Immigration    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=immigrants_should_be_decreased_increased     🔎 3. Guns    https://electionstudies.org/data-tools/anes-guide/anes-guide.html?chart=gun_purchase_control 10. 🤔 Other background on ways we misunderstand each other:     📄 1. Ahler (2014), “Self-fulfilling misperceptions of polarization”    https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0022381614000085     📄 2. Enders & Armaly (2018), “The differential effects of actual and perceived polarization.”    https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11109-018-9476-2     📄 3. Ahler & Sood (2018), “The parties in our heads: Misperceptions about party composition and their consequences.”    https://repository.lib.fsu.edu/islandora/object/fsu:605549/datastream/PDF/view     📝 4. Garton et al. (working paper; not peer-reviewed yet, but just to explore some of the latest/current/ongoing research), “Partisans overestimate their side’s intolerance.”    https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-7579935/v1

**1. ⛪ Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI):** https://prri.org/ --- **2. 👩‍🏫 More on Dr. Melissa Deckman:** https://www.melissadeckman.com/ --- **3. 📊 2025 PRRI Census on American Religion** https://prri.org/spotlight/2025-prri-census-of-american-religion/ --- **4. 🗺️ Mapping abortion views across the 50 states: Insights from PRRI’s 2025 American Values Atlas** https://prri.org/research/mapping-abortion-views-across-the-50-states-insights-from-prris-2025-american-values-atlas/ --- **5. ✝️ Collection of PRRI’s research on Christian Nationalism** https://prri.org/prri-research/prri-issues/christian-nationalism/ --- **6. 📚 Melissa’s most recent book: *The politics of Gen Z: How the youngest voters will shape our democracy*** https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-politics-of-gen-z/9780231560085/ --- **7. 🔬 More of Melissa’s (many!) books and (prolific!) papers and other research here** https://www.melissadeckman.com/research --- **8. 📱 Follow/watch/read/learn more from PRRI on their:**     **▶️ 1. YouTube**     https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1GzzUoUV9zsSB-FEOJDryg     **📸 2. Instagram**     https://www.instagram.com/prripoll/     **💼 3. LinkedIn**     https://www.linkedin.com/company/public-religion-research-institute/     **📰 4. Substack**     https://prri.substack.com --- **9. 💝 And you can always donate to their nonprofit work if you feel so moved!** https://prri.org/donate/

1. 📊 Burns et al. (2025), What’s happened to the gender gap in political activity? Social structure, politics, and political participation in the United Stateshttps://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/whats-happened-to-the-gender-gap-in-political-activity/1A6EFA30E995F841B8D61D6EDEC0F777?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=bookmark 2. 📄 Burns et al. (2018), “What’s happened to the gender gap in political participation? How might we explain it?”https://academic.oup.com/book/5111/chapter-abstract/147698891?redirectedFrom=fulltext 3. 📚 Burns et al. (2009), The private roots of public action: Gender, equality, and political participationhttps://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.4159/9780674029088/html 4. 🗳️ Lawless & Fox (2019), “A Trump effect? Women and the 2018 midterm elections”https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/for-2018-0038/html 5. 🎯 Fox & Lawless (2023), “The invincible gender gap in political ambition”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/invincible-gender-gap-in-political-ambition/547D8E289D82299856644844269E2FC9 6. 📈 Fox & Lawless (2022), “The gender gap in political ambition: Everything you need to know in ten charts” (not a peer-reviewed research paper; rather, is a helpful PDF with some charts of broad trends)https://thelawmakers.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Gender-Gap-in-Political-Ambitions_Report_Final-Jen-Lawless-2022-3-1.pdf 7. ⚖️ Hayes & Lawless (2021), “The contingent effects of sexism in primary elections”https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/10659129211043134 8. 🧠 Dolan & Lawless (2021), “The importance of political science for understanding the developmental roots of gender gaps in politics”https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1047840X.2021.1930762 9. 📝 Dolan & Lawless (working paper), “Gender bias in primary elections? Survey says no” (note this is a working paper, which means it is still in progress and has not been peer reviewed)https://www.dannyhayes.org/uploads/6/9/8/5/69858539/dolan_and_lawless_ncapsa_paper.pdf 10. 🏛️ Center for American Women and Politics (CAWP) graph of percentage of members of Congress who are women (plus lots of other data and historical information)https://cawp.rutgers.edu/data/levels-office/congress#Current 11. 👥 Overview of voter attitudes towards women in elections (also from CAWP)https://cawp.rutgers.edu/research-analysis/gender-and-politics-research-hub/research-Inventory/voter-attitudes-toward-women-politics 12. 🔬 In general two people to follow who are leading researchers in this space are:     👩‍🏫 1. Nancy Burns (bias alert! She was my professor for a research methods course in graduate school!)     https://lsa.umich.edu/polisci/people/faculty/nburns.html     🎓 2. Jennifer Lawless     https://www.jenlawless.com/

## Show Notes for Electoral College Ep. ### 🏛️ History & background 1. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/Great_Compromise.htm 2. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/connecticut-compromise-great-compromise 3. https://libguides.ctstatelibrary.org/US-Constitution/Connecticut-Compromise 4. https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/4.4-info-brief-compromises-of-the-convention 5. https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/common/generic/Connecticut_Compromise_Unveiling.htm 6. http://www.federalism.org/encyclopedia/no-topic/connecticut-compromise/ 7. https://www.jud.ct.gov/lawlib/history/sherman.htm 8. https://connecticuthistory.org/the-connecticut-compromise/ ### ✅ Key arguments for the electoral college: 🛡️ **Prevents “tyranny of the majority”** 10. https://www.thoughtco.com/electoral-college-pros-and-cons-4686409 11. https://www.kqed.org/w/youdecide/election2008/electoral_college/02.html 12. https://www.arlnow.com/2026/02/12/bill-to-support-popular-vote-in-presidential-elections-passes-virginia-senate/ 13. https://www.sightline.org/2020/11/24/afraid-cities-would-rule-with-a-national-popular-vote-dont-be/ 🏘️ **Protects the voice of small states** 14. https://www.thepolicycircle.org/understanding-the-electoral-college/ 15. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-11-22/electoral-college-popular-vote-founders-james-madison-great-compromise 16. https://www.moabtimes.com/articles/the-importance-of-the-electoral-college/ 17. https://theconversation.com/the-electoral-college-system-isnt-one-person-one-vote-150342 🇺🇸 **Preserves federalism** 18. https://riponsociety.org/article/why-the-electoral-college-should-be-preserved/ 🏆 **Creates decisive mandates** 19. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-government-and-civics/american-civics-parent/american-civics/v/electoral-college 20. https://www.heritage.org/the-essential-electoral-college/the-benefits 🔎 **Localizes recounts** 21. https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/VLA20210511Ross132651777911040076.pdf 22. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11127-005-3210-4 23. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_United_States_presidential_election 24. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_United_States_presidential_election ### ❌ Key arguments against the electoral college: 🗳️ **Conflict with popular vote** 25. https://www.dailyjournal.com/articles/380960-understanding-the-us-electoral-college-who-what-why-when-and-how-we-elect-our-presidents 26. https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/virginia/virginia-bill-electoral-college-votes-national-popular-vote/291-fb82926e-ca20-4441-927b-97c491c4cdc1?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_13News_Now_-_WVEC 27. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_presidential_elections_in_which_the_winner_lost_the_popular_vote 🎯 **Hyper-focus on swing states** 28. https://www.polyas.com/election-glossary/electoral-college 29. https://foley.wsu.edu/research/ask-the-foley-institute/afi-electoral-college/ 30. https://www.albert.io/blog/electoral-college-ap-us-government-crash-course/ ⚖️ **Unequal vote weight** 31. https://www.nytimes.com/article/the-electoral-college.html 32. https://www.monmouth.edu/magazine/the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-about-the-electoral-college/ 33. https://www.kare11.com/article/news/nation-world/electoral-college-how-it-works-history/507-90d314dd-1e0d-4d85-b336-d2612dd1ef38 📊 **Winner-take-all distortion** 34. https://ash.harvard.edu/articles/the-electoral-college-and-our-broken-presidential-election-system/ 35. https://www.lwvme.org/NPVmyths 36. https://www.uchscommander.com/opinions/2025/01/31/electoral-college-disrupts-democracy/ 37. https://indianacitizen.org/kennedy-commentary-the-electoral-college/ 📉 **Depresses local turnout** 38. https://virginiahistory.org/sites/default/files/2024-09/7.4-Activity-3-Persuasive Writing.pdf 39. https://medium.com/@dukepolis/your-vote-does-not-count-why-the-electoral-college-erodes-the-foundations-of-democracy-3bc7632d3283 ### 🔧 Possible reforms 40. https://www.insidepolitics.org/brookingsreports/AbolishElectoralCollege.pdf 41. https://news.gallup.com/poll/2323/Americans-Historically-Favored-Changing-Way-Presidents-Elected.aspx 42. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Popular_Vote_Interstate_Compact#cite_note-FOOTNOTENealeNolan20191-104 43. https://fairvote.org/archives/the_electoral_college-past_attempts_at_reform/ 44. https://www.brookings.edu/articles/how-to-get-rid-of-the-electoral-college/ 45. https://www.gilderlehrman.org/history-resources/essays/different-ways-reforming-electoral-college-past-and-present 46. https://effectivegov.uchicago.edu/primers/the-electoral-college

Thank you for watching/listening to this season. We hope you find the show informative and will join us in Season 2

Thanks for joining on this new endeavor.

Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/being-in-s01e21-159335999 Thanks to Derek Kilmer for joining us!

Prof. Cormack’s excellent book, How to Raise a Citizen (And Why It’s Up to You to Do It): https://howtoraiseacitizen.com/ Her DC Inbox searchable database of e-newsletters from members of Congress (well worth exploring): https://www.dcinbox.com/ More of her research and writing: https://www.lindseycormack.com/ Follow Prof. Cormack: https://www.instagram.com/howtoraiseacitizen/

🌍 Primary studies discussed in the episode: 1. 📄 Wagner, Markus (2024), “Affective polarization in Europe,” European Political Science Reviewhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-political-science-review/article/affective-polarization-in-europe/36BDBF804365FE0B350E610E9E7C714E 2. 📄 Boxell et al. (2024), “Cross-country trends in affective polarization,” The Review of Economics and Statisticshttps://direct.mit.edu/rest/article-abstract/106/2/557/109262/Cross-Country-Trends-in-Affective-Polarization 3. 📚 Reiljan, Andres (2025), “Affective polarization in Europe,” ch. 8 of the Handbook of Affective Polarizationhttps://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-oa/book/9781035310609/chapter8.xml 📘 Handbook of Affective Polarizationhttps://www.elgaronline.com/edcollbook-oa/book/9781035310609/9781035310609.xml 4. 📄 Iyengar et al. (2012), “Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization,” Public Opinion Quarterlyhttps://pcl.sites.stanford.edu/sites/g/files/sbiybj22066/files/media/file/iyengar-poq-affect-not-ideology.pdf 5. 📄 Iyengar et al. (2019), “The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States,” Annual Review of Political Sciencehttps://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051117-073034 6. 📄 Druckman & Levy (2022), “Affective polarization in the American public,” ch. 18 of the Handbook on Politics and Public Opinionhttps://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781800379619/book-part-9781800379619-30.xml 7. 🎙️ And, of course, see our previous episode on this :).https://politicalrealitypodcast.com/videos/is-polarization-actually-a-problem-s01e05-teaser/ Finally, you may be surprised to see that Turkey is included as a European country. We were also surprised! While only 3% of Turkey’s landmass (or 15% of its population) is in Europe (the rest is considered to be in Asia), it is relatively standard practice in global measures to categorize it along with other European countries. For example, see also the latest Economist Intelligence Unit 2025 democracy index report:https://www.eiu.com/n/campaigns/democracy-index-2025/ Or their Wikipedia page if you don’t feel like downloading it!:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Economist_Democracy_Index Turkey is also a NATO member, member of the Council of Europe, and an EU candidate (though negotiations are currently frozen), among other European memberships. Most importantly, it’s also part of Eurovision ;). All of that said, this is an excellent example of how the “simple” act of classification, never mind quantification, is an enduring challenge in political science! You could certainly imagine a valid case for analyzing, say, aggregate European data both with and without Turkey included (as well as Russia, and some others). 🧠 For a primer/refresher on affective polarization in general, see:🇹🇷 A quick note on Turkey and “Europe”

https://www.npr.org/2025/12/22/nx-s1-5642965/what-cuts-to-research-under-trump-have-meant-for-science-in-2025⁠ ⁠https://www.nature.com/immersive/d41586-026-00088-9/index.html⁠ ⁠https://www.science.org/content/article/how-trump-administration-dismantling-science-u-s⁠ ⁠https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/23/opinion/doge-hiv-funding.html⁠ ⁠https://scienceimpacts.org⁠ ⁠https://www.cgdev.org/blog/update-lives-lost-usaid-cuts⁠

https://www.patreon.com/posts/politicization-156907450

1. 🎙️ Check out Andrew Heaton’s podcast and Substack, The Political Orphanagehttps://www.thepoliticalorphanage.com 2. ▶️ You can also find his podcast and other videos on YouTubehttps://www.youtube.com/@AndrewHeatonTPO 3. 📚 Here’s one of his many books: Tribalism is Dumbhttps://www.amazon.com/Tribalism-Dumb-Where-Came-about/dp/B0DJKSZP6J 4. 🎧 Here are some of his Political Orphanage episodes that are about homelessness:     🏚️ Homelessness, and our stupid solutions     https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/homelessness-and-our-stupid-solutions/id1439837349?i=1000548447580     🦖 How Godzilla beat the housing crisis     https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-godzilla-beat-the-housing-crisis/id1439837349?i=1000710268550&l=fr-FR     🏘️ The best tiny house village in America (an interview with Alan Graham, the founder of Community First! Village, an organization we discussed in the episode)     https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-best-tiny-house-village-in-america/id1439837349?i=1000549032659     🐶 We’ll watch your dog while you’re in rehab (an interview with Evan Taylor and Cindy Webb, who lead Pause for Paws, one of the organizations we talked about in the episode)     https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/well-watch-your-dog-while-youre-in-rehab/id1439837349?i=1000685060836 5. 🏡 More information about Community First! Villagehttps://mlf.org/community-first/ 6. 🐾 More information about Pause for Pawshttps://www.pause4pawsok.org 7. 🌐 Check out all of Andrew Heaton’s goings on:https://mightyheaton.com/ 8. 😂 You can also watch him in comedy videos about politics, like this one!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1z_xtOmgek

Full Episode: https://www.patreon.com/posts/155715368 1. 📚 Katherine J. Cramer, The Politics of Resentmenthttps://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/P/bo22879533.html     📝 a. Non-paywalled, non-scientific, but nevertheless helpful and short(!) student summary of a talk by Kathy about this work     https://civic.mit.edu/index.html?p=1891.html 2. 📄 Katherine J. Cramer, “Putting inequality in its place: Rural consciousness and the power of perspective.”https://www.jstor.org/stable/23275431     🔬 a. Somewhat unrelated, and we didn’t actually mention this in the episode, but Katherine Cramer is also involved in a project at the MIT Center for Constructive Communication that might be of interest to our audience :)     https://www.ccc.mit.edu 3. 📄 Nelson & Petsko, “Race and white rural consciousness”https://www.christopherpetsko.com/uploads/1/2/5/8/125868532/race-and-white-rural-consciousness.pdf 4. 📄 Trujillo & Crowley, “Symbolic versus material concerns of rural consciousness in the United States”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0962629822000725 5. 📄 Brown & Mettler, “Rural politics in the United States”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-040623-114017 6. 📄 Brown & Mettler, “Sequential polarization: The development of the rural-urban political divide, 1976–2020”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/sequential-polarization-the-development-of-the-ruralurban-political-divide-19762020/ED2077E0263BC149FED8538CD9B27109 7. 🌐 Quick article summarizing some empirical trends between population density and vote sharehttps://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-urban-rural-divide 8. 📄 Kaufman, “Where are the values voters? Ideological constraint and stability among rural, suburban, and urban populations in the United States”https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0743016721003259     📊 a. Relatedly, here’s a research report that underscores that urban, suburban, and rural areas are by no means monoliths     https://globalaffairs.org/sites/default/files/2021-08/report_urban-rural-divide-us-foreign-policy_170524.pdf     📈 b. And here’s a Pew survey with similar findings     https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/what-unites-and-divides-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/ 9. 🤝 Braver Angels is an example of an organization working to increase conversations across political differences, including between urban and rural Americanshttps://braverangels.org 10. 📚 Lorrie Frasure-Yokley, Racial and ethnic politics in American suburbs (we touched on these themes a bit in our discussion of the suburbs, but certainly much more to cover in future episodes about racial and ethnic politics!)https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/racial-and-ethnic-politics-in-american-suburbs/8E23703D5C1E6DDA8D7AB7609C6C0E9F     🎤 a. Separately, here’s an interesting interview with Lorrie about the need for more high-quality data for research on this topic!     https://politicalsciencenow.com/ucla-associate-professor-of-political-science-lorrie-frasure-yokley-shares-her-experiences-as-a-political-scientist-and-apsa-member/     🏙️ b. For more on suburbs if you’re interested: Thomas Vicino is another political scientist whose body of research on the suburbs may be of interest, particularly his recent, “In what sense a post-suburban era?” in The Routledge Companion to the Suburbs     https://thomasjvicino.com/research     https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/89019656/9781315266442-4-libre.pdf

1. 📄 Downs et al. (2009), “Is the good news about compliance good news about cooperation?”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/international-organization/article/abs/is-the-good-news-about-compliance-good-news-about-cooperation/636DE333F8E1EC944825DDBFD81BE294 2. 📄 Von Stein (2005), “Do treaties constrain or screen? Selection bias and treaty compliance”https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/do-treaties-constrain-or-screen-selection-bias-and-treaty-compliance/99619F321DE63766D626E19155D69C35 3. 📄 Morrow (2000), “Alliances: Why write them down?”https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.63 4. 🌍 Wendt (1992), “Anarchy is what states make of it: the social construction of power politics”https://www.jstor.org/stable/2706858     🧠 a. Brief description of constructivism     https://www.e-ir.info/2020/05/19/a-brief-overview-of-alexander-wendts-constructivism/     🤓 b. What’s that? You wanted even more on constructivism?     https://institutes.abu.edu.ng/idr/public/assets/docs/Constructivism%20and%20International%20Relations%20%20Alexander%20Wendt%20and%20his%20Critics%20(The%20New%20International%20Relations)%20(%20PDFDrive%20).pdf 5. 📊 Major dataset on military alliances by Prof. Brett Ashley Leeds (whose work we also discussed)http://www.atopdata.orghttps://leeds.rice.edu/research/ 6. 📰 Paul’s weekly columns for the World Politics Reviewhttps://www.worldpoliticsreview.com/author/paul-poast-2920/ 7. 📚 One of Paul’s (several, excellent) books, Arguing about Allianceshttps://www.paulpoast.com/arguing-about-alliances 8. 🌐 Recent-ish article in the Atlantic by Paul, “Not a world war but a world at war” (we didn’t talk about this specifically in the episode, but it’s a great writeup)https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/conflicts-around-the-world-peak/676029/ 9. 🔗 Paul’s websitehttps://www.paulpoast.com/ 10. 💼 Follow Paul on LinkedIn – he posts regular commentary on international relations events as they unfoldhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-poast-83550b79/https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7446569050081710080/?originTrackingId=bnCSJxFBZsvkuC7Xqvk9nw%3D%3D

1. 🚪 Broockman and Kalla, “Durably reducing transphobia: A field experiment on door-to-door canvassing” (the excellent paper that’s a great model for field experiments on this topic)https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aad9713     🧠 a. In general, Joshua Kalla and David Broockman’s work (joint and separate) is worth checking out, both on political persuasion and other topics (mostly connected to political attitudes one way or another).     https://joshuakalla.com/research/     https://polisci.berkeley.edu/people/person/david-edward-broockman     🧪 b. I particularly recommend their work as great examples of using experiments in political science     👂 c. Some of the remaining open questions about the role of listening in political persuasion conversations are discussed thoughtfully here.     https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2421982122 2. ⚠️ The retracted paper we mentioned and a brief article about the retraction. Even more gory details about the retraction.     📄 Paper:     https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.1256151     📰 Article:     https://www.science.org/content/article/science-retracts-gay-marriage-paper-without-agreement-lead-author-lacour     🔍 More details:     https://retractionwatch.com/2025/06/06/same-sex-marriage-retraction-political-science-study-lacour-green-broockman-kalla/     📚 a. The more senior coauthor on the retracted paper is quite prolific on persuasion specifically in the context of political campaigns and also recently in the context of AI; his other work has not been retracted as far as we know!     https://donaldgreen.com 3. 📊 A comprehensive recent overview of the state of the research on persuasion, including what we don’t know and why some of the pieces don’t quite fit together stillhttps://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-051120-110428 4. 🌱 Broader, more background review paper on where political preferences come from in the first place and what affects them. (We didn’t talk about this specifically, I just think it’s interesting and helpful — and reflects earlier thinking that shaped much of the more recent research.)https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev.polisci.3.1.1 5. 💻 Experiment on reducing antisemitism, measured in terms of online browsing behavior after an interventionhttps://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-experimental-political-science/article/combating-hateful-attitudes-and-online-browsing-behavior-the-case-of-antisemitism/05E860416F9D0B7EFEFA0AABDB88C33D 6. 📰 We may have cited him in other episodes, but Adam Berinsky’s work on combatting misinformation is always in the background whenever we talk about media, misinformation, social media, changing minds – anything along that theme – and is always worth a look.https://berinsky.mit.edu/published-papers/#overlay-context=research

https://politicalrealitypodcast.com Show Notes for Voter ID Ep. 📄 Riker and Ordeshook, “A Theory of the Calculus of Voting” (paper where the key equation came from):https://www.jstor.org/stable/1953324 ⚡ World’s briefest summary of the above:https://adambrown.info/p/notes/riker_and_ordeshook_a_theory_of_the_calculus_of_voting 📊 Meta-study of papers that built from this earlier work (alas, it’s behind a paywall, I’m sorry):https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0261379412001527 📚 “Classic” (2008 lol cry) review of research on convenience voting:https://www.annualreviews.org/docserver/fulltext/pl/11/1/annurev.polisci.11.053006.190912.pdf?expires=1774472398&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=4CCCEB2034EED20DCF150C7F87AD6286 ➕ plus some specific papers (there are lots more out there but this is a decent start):     🧠 People with greater political knowledge are more likely to use convenience voting:     https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17457289.2020.1814308     ⚖️ Convenience voting can exacerbate socioeconomic biases in composition of voters:     https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.mit.edu/dist/9/583/files/2026/01/perverseconsequences_2005.pdf     📬 Voting by mail increases turnout but does so differently across groups:     https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.mit.edu/dist/9/583/files/2026/01/whovotesbymail_2001.pdf 🏛️ Background on the SAVE act:     🔎 https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/five-things-to-know-about-the-save-act/     📰 https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/9-things-to-know-about-the-proposed-save-america-act     ⚠️ https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/new-save-act-bills-would-still-block-millions-americans-voting 📜 The SAVE act itself:https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/22/text 🗺️ Voter ID laws by state:https://ballotpedia.org/Voter_identification_laws_by_state ⚖️ Discussion of the constitutionality and legality of the SAVE act:https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/03/the-supreme-court-and-voting-identification/ 💸 Discussion of the poll tax issue regarding the SAVE act:https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/5757040-save-act-voter-id-debate/

Show Notes Coming Soon

📰 Reporting on extent to which 2025 US strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckglxwp5x03o ⚛️ Details about Iran’s uranium enriched to 60%: https://www.armscontrol.org/issue-briefs/2026-03/us-war-iran-new-and-lingering-nuclear-risks 📄 March 2026 Congressional report about Iran’s nuclear capabilities: https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/IN12665 ☢️ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reporting on Iran’s nuclear activities and uranium stockpiles: https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/focus/iran/iaea-and-iran-iaea-board-reports 🛰️ Satellite imagery of the Feb. 28, 2026, school strike in Iran: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/05/world/middleeast/iran-school-us-strikes-naval-base.html 🚀 Evidence that the school was struck by a US Tomahawk cruise missile: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/08/world/middleeast/iran-minab-school-strike.html 📺 Reporter Jeremy Vine correcting himself about the dancing video: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tv/article-15616555/jeremy-vine-alan-partridge-iran-blunder-channel-5.html 🤖 Examples of AI-generated war videos and photos: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg8wvz427vo 🐦 Example of a “shallowfake” posted on X: https://x.com/TehranTimes79/status/2027766149862117731? 🎬 Examples of “hype” videos shared by the US government: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/mar/07/trump-iran-hype-videos 🔍 BBC verify: https://www.bbc.com/news/bbcverify

Full info on https://www.patreon.com/posts/152180612

More about Seth & his work: https://www.sethmasket.com Seth’s book Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020 Preview of Seth’s new book (coming summer 2026): The Elephants in the Room: How Trump Voters Seized the Party from Republican Leaders Subscribe to his (excellent) Substack, Tusk Follow him on Instagram and Bluesky (he’s @smotus most places)

Full Episode https://www.patreon.com/posts/can-we-vote-our-151099132 https://patreon.com/politicalreality Further Reading & Resources on Voting Theory 📘 1. Kenneth Arrow's amazing 1951 book, Social Choice and Individual Values: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300179316/social-choice-and-individual-values/ a. A good writeup of the basics of the math if you don't want to buy a book: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arrows-theorem/ 🧠 2. Arrow's 1950 paper introducing the idea (this paper is magnificent and you simply must read it): https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/256963 a. Non-paywalled version: https://www.stat.uchicago.edu/~lekheng/meetings/mathofranking/ref/arrow.pdf 🔄 3. A nice primer on Condorcet's Paradox: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/14-75-political-economy-and-economic-development-fall-2012/a9fd8e5ab75a325016094e6bbe625b2a_MIT14_75F12_Lec12.pdf a. Even more on the math of voting systems: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/voting-methods/ 🗳️ 4. Early work on approval voting by Steve Brams, a leading thinker on it: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/abs/approval-voting/7CE5DEEE235794B0B12F76ADAE621482 a. Video of Brams talking about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZiS3U7EG0M b. Uh oh! It's a video from forever ago of Andrea interviewing Brams about approval voting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAlxoW8WLX4 🏛️ 5. Some prominent advocacy groups on voting system reform: a. Approval voting: https://electionscience.org/ b. Ranked-choice voting: https://fairvote.org/ 🎓 6. Political science professor Lindsey Cormack speaking (admittedly briefly in these clips) about some tradeoffs around Ranked-Choice Voting (sneak preview, she'll be a guest on the show in the not-so-distant future; her instagram @howtoraiseacitizen is also a great resource on civics, politics, and current events (e.g., the SAVE act; more on that soon, too)): a. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLGXzYVMOyX/?hl=en b. https://www.instagram.com/p/DLPkrogss5K/?hl=en

https://politicalrealitypodcast.com Follow Tom: Tom Pepinsky’s website with links to his research & books: https://tompepinsky.com Tom’s blog: https://tompepinsky.com/blog His substack: https://tompepinsky.substack.com/ Selected books and peer-reviewed works by Tom relevant to this episode: Recent paper on authoritarianism: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13510347.2020.1775589 Recent paper on voting in authoritarian vs. democratic systems: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/voting-in-authoritarian-elections/1C066CD75F6F070930181135B288F632 Book on global challenges to democracy: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/global-challenges-to-democracy/C50D0AC769FF0AA2C62DA9337F2C03E6 Covid paper we briefly referenced: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0249596 Book based on his research on partisanship and Covid: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691218991/pandemic-politics Selected essays by Tom relevant to this episode: Preventing a slide into authoritarianism in the US: https://www.vox.com/politics/477317/donald-trumps-ego-democracy-authoritarianism Crucial characteristics of fascism: https://tompepinsky.com/2017/01/03/berman-on-fascism/ An absolutely fantastic “mini syllabus” on how to make sense of the Trump administration through a comparative political science lens: https://tompepinsky.com/2016/12/21/comparative-politics-and-the-trump-administration/ US’s lost leadership in East Asia: https://eastasiaforum.org/2025/11/02/a-united-states-that-is-disintegrating-and-no-longer-a-leader-in-asia/ Life in authoritarian states: https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/1/9/14207302/authoritarian-states-boring-tolerable-fascism-trump Working papers by Tom relevant to this episode: Democratic backsliding: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=5363315 Biased learning from elections: https://osf.io/preprints/osf/q9zpm_v2 Umberto Eco’s Ur-Fascism: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism

Full Audio episode available on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/is-polarization-149962215 Full Video episode available on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/posts/149974348 Many of the empirical trends mentioned come from the (still a favorite!) American National Election Studies dataset: Party identity (including strength of party identity) Affective polarization (specifically shown here as the gap between attitudes towards in-group and out-group ideologies) Trust in government index  Public opinion on LGBTQ laws  Public opinion on abortion Public opinion on government spending The observation of “party sorting” was initially made by political scientists Morris Fiorina. It’s most extensively written about in his book Unstable Majorities, but you can read some other writings here and here. For further reading, see also Matthew Levendusky’s book The Partisan Sort A fantastic overview of the research on affective polarization is in this review article An interesting example of a recent application of using affective polarization to make sense of public opinion during Covid is here (we didn’t reference it; I just think it’s cool — and it’s a preview of our guest for the next episode!). I also wrote about all this in The Daily Beast, though I did not write the headline and would never actually sound that confident about anything.

The graph on total immigration numbers vs. percentage of the US population is from the Migration Policy Institute. Evidence that the percentage of immigrants in the US peaked recently, but is in the ballpark of an earlier wave is from Pew Research. (n.b. I may have said in the episode that this was in 2023 or 24, when actually it was January 2025, more recent than I realized. I don't know if that matters!)  In the episode I mentioned the Deportation Data Project.  You can explore their ICE data here.  And read more about the FOIA requests/challenges around getting this data here. I also specifically mentioned my favorite public opinion dataset (which I will likely reference a lot in this show!), which is the American National Election Studies (ANES) dataset. I also recently wrote about some of these trends in an article for The Preamble, a digital magazine about US politics from Sharon McMahon. You’ll see some of the charts we talked about in the episode as well as links to other sources, particularly various additional Pew Research data, in the article.

https://politicalrealitypodcast.com How do we quantify misinformation? Thank you to Prof. Joshua A. Tucker for joining us on this episode about Misinformation.

https://politicalrealitypodcast.com How do you measure democracy? Are these standards reasonable, onerous, empirical, propagandistic, unscientific or quantifiable?

Our daily lives seem increasingly overwhelmed by polarization, misinformation and dubious culture wars while we face countless serious problems that require thoughtful and evidence-based solutions. To move forward we need a shared reality of facts and reason with an equally shared dedication to democracy and fairness. The Political Reality podcast is here to fill that void, diving into how politics and governments work, how to make them work better, how to navigate the dizzying world of political information, and how to better understand and approach the “other side”.  We can find a shared political reality, if we are willing.