Politics in Question

Lee and James talk Republican Party politics in this week’s episode of Politics In Question. Are Republicans becoming an illiberal and authoritarian party as their critics attest? Or is Republicans’ increasingly strident rhetoric on issues like vaccine mandates and critical race theory a distraction from their unwillingness to act to achieve their goals in institutions like the House and Senate? How does gridlock in Congress obscure divisions among Republicans over important issues like health care, immigration, and tax policy? And what will it take to change things on Capitol Hill? These are some of the questions Lee and James ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James discuss David Shor’s recent controversy-provoking advice for Democrats. What does Shor advise Democrats to do ahead of next year’s midterm elections? Why is his advice controversial? And what does the race-versus-economics debate that Shor’s advice sparked reveal about American politics more broadly and why our political institutions are dysfunctional? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Katherine Gehl joins Julia, Lee, and James to take a fresh look at how Americans conduct their elections and to discuss the prospects for reform. Gehl is the founder of the Institute for Political Innovation, a non-profit, cross-partisan public policy organization that aims to reform American politics by using private-sector insights to improve congressional elections and - by extension - fix Congress. She is the author of The Politics Industry: How Political Innovation Can Break Partisan Gridlock and Save Our Democracy and the leading proponent of Politics Industry Theory.How do members of Congress get (and keep) their jobs? Does it help (or hurt) Congress’s ability to do its job? Is there a better way to elect lawmakers? What is Final Five Voting? Can it change how the House and Senate operate? And what is Politics Industry Theory? These are some of the questions that Katherine, Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.

In the season four opener of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James unpack the rampant dysfunction on Capitol Hill. Why did Congress wait until the last minute to fund the government and raise the debt limit? What is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., endgame? And will Democratic divisions prevent Congress from passing President Joe Biden’s agenda moving forward? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

In this episode of Politics In Question, Amanda Ripley joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss political conflict. Ripley is an investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent book is High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out (Simon & Schuster, Inc., 2021). Ripley's writing has appeared in the Atlantic Magazine, Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Slate, Politico, the Guardian, and The Times of London.What is high conflict? How does it impact politics? Can participating in politics in institutions like Congress help solve the problems high conflict causes? And what exactly is a conflict entrepreneur? These are some of the questions Amanda, Julia, Lee, and James ask in this episode.

In this episode of Politics In Question, Noam Gidron joins Julia and Lee to discuss political polarization. Gidron is an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is the co-author of American Affective Polarization in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2020). His writing has appeared in the American Political Science Review, Annual Review of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Social Forces.What is affective polarization? How does it differ from ideologically polarization? And how does American political polarization compare to politics in other nations? These are some of the questions Noam, Julia, and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Tony Madonna joins Julia and James to discuss voting in Congress. Madonna is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Georgia. He received his PhD in political science from Washington University in St. Louis. His research interests include American political institutions and development, congressional politics and procedure and presidential politics. His work has appeared in such journals as the American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, the Journal of Politics, Presidential Studies Quarterly and the Illinois Law Review.Why don’t lawmakers like taking votes? What goes through their heads when they think about voting? Have lawmakers always been afraid of taking votes? When did things change? And why? How can lawmakers conquer their fear of taking votes? These are some of the questions Tony, Julia, and James discuss in this week’s episode. 

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James discuss Liz Cheney and whether House Republicans should remove her from their leadership team. What role do party leaders play in Congress? Has that role changed over time? How does the party leader job change when a president of the same party is in the White House? And when is it ok for rank-and-file members to change leaders? These are some of the questions that Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.Show NotesDaniel P. Klinghard, “Grover Cleveland, William McKinley, and the Emergence of the President as Party Leader,” Presidential Studies Quarterly Vol. 35, no. 4 (December 2005).Julia Azari, “Is the U.S. the Exception to Presidential Perils?” in Democracy and Autocracy Vol. 19, no. 1 (April 2012).Susan Dunn, Roosevelt’s Purge: How FDR Fought to Change the Democratic Party (Belknap Press, 2012).Marina Pitofsky, “Jordan says ‘votes are there’ to oust Cheney from GOP leadership,” The Hill (May 6, 2021).Liz Cheney, “The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us.” The Washington Post (May 5, 2021).

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Jake Grumbach, joins Julia, Lee, and James to discuss democratic backsliding in the United States. Grumbach is is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Washington. He has developed a tool for measuring democracy in the states called the State Democracy Index. His research focuses broadly on the political economy of the United States. He is particularly interested in public policy, American federalism, racial capitalism, campaign finance, and statistical methods. His book project, based on his award-winning dissertation, investigates the causes and consequences of the nationalization of state politics since the 1970s.What is American democracy? How do Americans measure the health of their democracy? Is it backsliding at the state and federal levels? When is it ok for citizens to change how they regulate their elections? Who decides if those changes are good or bad? How do they decide? And where do they decide? These are some of the questions that Jake, Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.Show NotesJacob M. Grumbach, “Laboratories of Democratic Backsliding,” (March 26, 2021).Jacob M. Grumbach, “From Backwaters to Major Policymakers: Policy Polarization in the States, 1970-2014,” Perspectives on Politics vol. 16, n. 2 (2018): 416-435.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Julia, Lee, and James discuss President Joe Biden’s performance during his first 100 days in office. Is Biden a transformative president? Or will his presidency be remembered as “Not Trump?” Can presidents even transform American politics? These are some of the questions Julia, Lee, and James discuss in this week’s episode.