LibGuides: Global Trends: Governing is getting harder

Articles

Restoring the power and legitimacy of governance. (2021). Defense & Foreign Affairs Strategic Policy, 49(1), 8-11. (ProQuest) If nothing else, 2020 demonstrated that the majority of peoples in most societies would willingly subordinate freedom, including such things as "democratic rights", to any authority which promised "security", even at the loss of economic wellbeing. It demonstrated something which the Russian polity seemed to have intrinsically known: that there was always something more powerful as a political-strategic driver than mere economics, or material transactionalism. Leadership lost its mysticism and authority, the source of national pride and security, so the concept of the Russian state became vulnerable.
Gerbaudo, P. (2020). The Pandemic Crowd: Protest in the Time of Covid-19. Journal of International Affairs, 73(2), 61–75. From collective flash-mobs such as “clap for our carers,” to solidarity campaigns launched by a variety of activist organizations, to the Black Lives Matter movement and anti-lockdown protests by right-wing groups, the COVID-19 crisis has been marked by intense social protest.
Brunello, A. R. (2021). The Tragic Fall of Better Angels: Nationalism, Neoliberalism, and the Failure of Responsibility in American Conservativism. World Affairs, 184(1), 8–32. American political conservatism is distinct from its counterparts in Europe and elsewhere in the world. American conservatives have long staked their claims on devotion to limited government and free-markets, but also on an image of responsibility. Conservatives posed as the "adult in the room," admonishing the young, the anti-war types, social progressives, ultra-liberals, environmentalists, and socialists for their radicalism and immaturity. Conservatives defended tradition, rules, hierarchy, and social conventions. Today the roles are switching.
Note from the Editor: Storming the Capitol, Political Irresponsibility, and Questions for Democracy. (2021). World Affairs, 184(1), 4–7.
Beith, Malcolm. (2020). Social media-amplified QAnon conspiracy rises as US election nears. Janes Intelligence Review, 32(11). The United States web-based conspiracy theory network QAnon has come to the forefront of the US national conversation. At least 15 Republican Congressional candidates have embraced QAnon theories, according to US media watchdog Media Matters for America, and by 20 August President Donald Trump had amplified at least 216 tweets from accounts linked to QAnon, although he has not publicly declared his support for the group. Preliminary results from a Facebook investigation in early August showed that there were thousands of QAnon-linked groups and pages – with as many as three million members and followers – using the social networking site.
MIDTBØ, T. O. R. (2018). Democracy and the demand for government redistribution: A survey analysis. European Journal of Political Research, 57(4), 829–844. his article uses survey data to study the impact of democracy on the demand by poor citizens for government redistribution. Taking the well‐known Meltzer‐Richard theory as the point of departure, three arguments are presented as to why such a demand should be stronger in democracies than in autocracies: in democracies low‐income groups are: (1) exposed to elections that can make a policy difference: (2) better informed about the income distribution; and (3) better equipped to process such information.
Yap, O. F. (2017). When Do Citizens Take Costly Action against Government Corruption? Evidence from Experiments in Australia, Singapore, and the United States. Journal of East Asian Studies, 17(1), 119–136. (EBSCO) When do citizens take costly collective action against government corruption? When citizens act in concert, their demands are credible and not easily discounted by governments, which should be more likely to respond. In this study, we use the stag-hunt game, supplemented by Granovetter's threshold model of collective action, to investigate the conditions under which citizens coordinate to collectively act against government corruption.
Goldhammer, A. (2018). When to Be Free Meant to “Live More.” Nation, 307(5), 16–19. (EBSCO) The article discusses the protests and uprisings in the U.S. and Paris, France in 1968, including the meaning of freedom and the election of Richard Nixon as president. An overview of youth culture in 1968, including the desire to live differently, interest in jazzman John Coltrane and solidarity, is provided.
SEAGREN, C. W., & HENDERSON, D. R. (2018). Why We Fight: A Study of U.S. Government War-Making Propaganda. Independent Review, 23(1), 69–90. (EBSCO) The article analyzes the extent to which the U.S. government employs propaganda to influence the public's opinion regarding going to war. The authors define propaganda as the deliberate attempt to persuade people to think and behave in a desired way. It focuses on the public statements or actions of the president, secretary of defense, and high-ranking members of the military.
Brill, S. (2018). My Generation Was Supposed to Level America’s Playing Field. Instead, We Rigged It for Ourselves. (Cover story). TIME Magazine, 191(20), 32–39. (EBSCO) The article discusses the author's views about how America has changed politically, economically, and socially from the 1960s to 2018, and it mentions America's core values, political polarization, and a meritocracy in the U.S. According to the article, America is the richest country in the world and it has the third-highest poverty rate among Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Wages, due process, and the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment are assessed.
Steinmetz, K. (2017). Fighting Words. TIME Magazine, 189(22), 32–36. (EBSCO) The article describes the street protest scene in Berkeley, California during the free speech movement which demonstrates the existing political issues in the U.S. It discusses the role of antifascists in protesting to embrace anarchist ideals of fighting government, capitalism and any form of hierarchy. It mentions efforts of Berkeley College Republicans to host other conservatives events with David Horowitz and Ann Coulter.
Country Reports - United States. (2018). In United States Country Monitor (pp. 1–21). (EBSCO) A country report for the U.S. is presented from publisher IHS Markit with topics including political structure of the country, economic conditions of the country, and risk of terrorism in the country.
DRUTMAN, L. (2018). Learning to Trust Again. New Republic, 249(3), 4–6. (EBSCO) The article discusses the need of objectivity and non-partisan in journalism in the U.S. It notes that objective, nonpartisan media existed in the U.S. from around the 1950s to the late 1970s. It adds how newspapers controlled by the Federalists branded Thomas Jefferson an infidel,” while the Democratic-Republican press put George Washington in the category of a traitor.
Calabresi, M., Shuster, S., Miller, Z. J., & Elliott, P. (2017). The Trouble With Russia. TIME Magazine, 189(7/8), 44–49 (EBSCO) The article discusses how several of America's allies are looking to U.S. Donald Trump for clarity in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin's military actions to rebuild Russia's empire, and it mentions pro-Russian political unrest in Montenegro and Russian-backed military attacks on pro-European government positions in Ukraine. U.S.-Russian relations are examined, along with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Russian military threats directed at Estonia, Serbia, and Moldova
Garen, J., & Clark, J. R. (2015). Trust and the Growth of Government. CATO Journal, 35(3), 549–580. (EBSCO) The article discusses the general public's mistrust in government and the increasing scope and growth of the government in a country's economy. Topics include trust as a form of social capital and how the lack of it affects the government's performance, the mutual dependence of government's rent- seeking activity and public's mistrust in government, and the public's general opinion on politicians and their intentions.
Active Antigovernment Groups in the United States // 2018. (2019). Intelligence Report, 166, 56–60. (EBSCO) The intelligence project identified 612 extreme anti-government groups that were active in 2018. Of these groups, 216 were militas, marked with and asterisk, and the remainder included "common-law" courts, publishers, ministries and citizens' groups.
PIGGOTT, S. (2017). One More Enemy. Intelligence Report, 162, 23–25. (EBSCO) The article focuses on the case of three members of an anti-government patriot group known as the Kansas Security Group, who were arrested for the alleged mass murder against Somali-born Muslim immigrants in the state. Kansans who were arrested include Patrick Stein, Curtis Allen, and Gavin Wright. Also mentioned is a 22-page essay endorsed by Three Percent movement leader Stewart Rhodes, concerning the Islam and international socialism.
Robiadek, K. M. (2017). International Approaches to Governing Ethnic Diversity. Studies In Ethnicity & Nationalism, 17(2), 302–305. (EBSCO) Full Text This volume, edited by international relations scholar Jane Boulden and political philosopher Will Kymlicka, identifies and begins to fill a gap in scholarship about the full range, variation, and influence of international actors in governing ethnic diversity.
Cohen, M. A. (2016, Dec 09). Welcome to america's governing nightmare. Boston Globe (ProQuest) ]who would be a better pick to defend the rights of American workers than a person who has built a career out of paying Americans minimum wage -- and who opposes overtime pay, paid sick leave, and expanding health care for workers. [...]at the top of the pyramid is America's soon-to-be kleptocrat-in-chief, Donald Trump, who has made increasingly clear that he has no intention of separating himself from his business ventures -- and clearly intends to personally profit from being president.
Cohen, R. (2016, Aug 02). Obama's self-governing america. International New York Times (ProQuest) He admonished Donald Trump, the would-be savior: "We don't look to be ruled." No, Americans are engaged in "self-government." He was reminding Americans, at a critical moment, of the first words of the Constitution: "We the People." Of every color, creed, sexuality, race, ethnicity are the people composed: That, for Obama, is America's strength; it's what gave him his
Parkinson, D. (2019). Scandals are one thing, the government's management of the economy is another: Manage the economy smoothly, and the electorate can overlook a lot of unsightly warts on your record. (ProQuest) With the country abuzz over Ottawa's deepening crisis involving SNC-Lavalin, it's worth remembering the enduring political axiom so eloquently put into words more than a quarter-century ago by U.S. political strategist James Carville: "It's the economy, stupid."
Civil unrest impacts citizens. (2019, Nov 20). The Mercury (ProQuest) Residents in several Bolivian cities are reporting food and gasoline shortages because of protests by supporters of former president Evo Morales, who resigned and fled to Mexico after a disputed election and nationwide unrest.
Little, J. (2018). Citizen unrest sweeping burlington: City manager goes after citizens group over high-rise opposition. (ProQuest) In the 45 years I've watched and participated in city affairs, there hasn't been a time when citizen unrest has been so sweeping.
Rivera, F. I. (2019). In puerto rico, protests signal citizens’ unrest amid leadership changes | commentary. (ProQuest) The sound of banging pots and pans could be heard all over the streets of Old San Juan the night of July 24. Just before midnight and after an intense two-week period of protests and civil unrest, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló released a message announcing his resignation as governor of Puerto Rico.
Public citizen: Groups urge congress to increase accountability and transparency of pandemic spending. (2020, May 27). Targeted News Service (ProQuest) Congress should quickly pass the Coronavirus Oversight and Recovery Ethics Act (CORE Act) to increase accountability and transparency of pandemic-related stimulus spending, more than 50 academics and organizations, including Public Citizen, said in a letter to congressional leadership.
SHRIBMAN, D. M. (2017, Feb 07). Governing in turbulent times. Daily Record. (ProQuest) Entry in the personal diary of Rutherford B. Hayes, Nov. 12, 1876 FREMONT, Ohio — He went to bed thinking he had lost the election, and in truth it looked as if his rival, Democratic Gov. Samuel J. Tilden of New York, had triumphed.
Martin, A., Orr, R., Peyton, K., & Faulkner, N. (2020). Political probity increases trust in government: Evidence from randomized survey experiments. PLoS ONE, 15(2), 1–12. (EBSCO) Low levels of trust in government have potentially wide-ranging implications for governing stability, popular legitimacy, and political participation. Although there is a rich normative and empiricial literature on the important consequences of eroding trust in democratic societies, the causes of political trust are less clear. In this article we estimate the effect that changing Americans' views about the perceived honesty and integrity of political authorities (or "political probity") has on their trust in government using randomized survey experiments.
Alkon, M., & Urpelainen, J. (2018). Trust in Government and Subsidy Reform: Evidence from a Survey of Indian Farmers. Studies in Comparative International Development, 53(4), 449–476. (EBSCO) What accounts for the persistence of inefficient subsidies? What are the obstacles to their reform? We examine the role of trust in government among farmers in explaining support for reforming India’s energy subsidies. The subsidies under study hold back efforts to provide a reliable supply of agricultural power and contribute to the unsustainable extraction of groundwater. This water-energy nexus in rural India represents both a poverty-perpetuating policy equilibrium and a crisis in environmental governance.
Koch, J. W. (2019). Racial Minorities’ Trust in Government and Government Decisionmakers. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 100(1), 19–37. (EBSCO) Objective: Compare the impact of being a racial minority for influencing political trust as measured by the standard, NES‐developed measures with its impact on assessments of the capacity of decisionmakers to make racially unbiased spending and hiring decisions. Additionally, to examine the political trust of American Indians, an understudied racial minority. Methods: Bivariate and multivariate analysis of 2004 and 2008 National Annenberg Election Study survey data.
Hanania, R. (2020). Worse than nothing: Why US intervention made government atrocities more likely in syria. Survival, 62(5), 173-192. (Paper copy available in library.) Rather than seek to stop human-rights abuses through regime change, the United States should choose engagement and seek to end civil wars.
Valasik, M., & Reid, S. E. (2021). The Alt-Right Movement and US National Security. Parameters, 51(3), 5-17. (ProQuest) Identifying the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol as an inflection point, this article analyzes the historical relationship between White supremacy and the US military from Reconstruction after the Civil War to the present. The article posits causes for the disproportionate number of current and former members of the military associated with White power groups and proposes steps the Department of Defense can take to combat the problems posed by the association of the US military with these groups.
Dunlap, C. J. (2022). On “The Alt-Right Movement and US National Security.” Parameters: U.S. Army War College, 52(1), 181–185. The article explores how Alt-Right Movement and the U.S. National Security by professors Matthew Valasik and Shannon E. Reid concede the level and extent to which support for White power sentiments has infiltrated the U.S. military. Topics include overrepresentation of military veterans affiliated with far-right groups and the broader White power movement; and individuals with military experience to the proportion of veterans in the broader U.S. population is misleading.