Long Live Teddy/Death to Woodrow: The Polarized Politics of the Progressive Era in the 2012 Election

2014 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-443 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert D. Johnston
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Theodore Roosevelt ◽  
White House ◽  
Modern Presidency ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Robert Reich ◽  
2012 Election

Two historic moments from the run-up to the 2012 presidential election might well stir the interest of readers of theJournal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era:December 6, 2011: President Barack Obama traveled to Osawatomie, Kansas, to deliver what proved to be his signature speech about the economy. Indeed, former labor secretary Robert Reich called the address, “the most important economic speech of his or any modern presidency.” Obama castigated radical free marketeers, he vindicated communal bonds, and he upheld the great middle class. And the reason that the president traveled to the metropolis of Osawatomie? Because in 1910 Theodore Roosevelt had gone there to repudiate the laissez-faire policies of the Gilded Age and put forth his case for a progressive “New Nationalism” in an oration that White House press secretary Jay Carney characterized as “the speech that really set the course for the 20th century.”

The Never-ending Story of Law and Electoral System in Lesotho

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hoolo Nyane
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Legal Discourse ◽  
Electoral System ◽  
Constitutional Democracy ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Electoral Laws ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Mixed Electoral System ◽  
2012 Election

While electoral discontent has been the enduring feature of constitutional democracy in Lesotho since independence, disagreement over electoral system is a fairly recent phenomenon. When the country attained independence in 1966 from Britain, electoral system was not necessarily one of the topical issues of pre-independence constitutional negotiations. The major issues were the powers of the monarch, the office of prime minister, the command of the army and many more.  It was taken for granted that the country would use the British-based plurality electoral system.  This is the system which the country used until early 2000s when the electoral laws were reformed to anchor a new mixed electoral system.  When the new electoral laws were ultimately passed in 2001, the country transitioned from a plurality electoral system to a two-ballot mixed member proportional system. By this time, electoral system had acquired prominence in politico-legal discourse in Lesotho.  In the run-up to 2007 elections, bigger political parties orchestrated the manipulation of electoral laws which culminated in clearly distorted electoral outcomes. The manipulations motivated further reforms in the run-up to 2012 election which resulted in the single-ballot mixed member proportional system. The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate how electoral laws have anchored electoral system reforms throughout the various historical epochs in Lesotho since independence. The paper contends that while the country has been courageous, unlike most of its peers, to introduce far-reaching electoral system changes, the reform of electoral laws has not been so helpful in attaining the higher objectives of political inclusivity, constitutionalism and stability in Lesotho.

scholarly journals New Perspectives on Socialism II Socialism and Capitalism Reconsidered

2003 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 351-360
Author(s):  
Richard Schneirov
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
American Politics ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Socialist Party ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Political Movement ◽  
Social Democratic ◽  
History Of ◽  
Socialist Party Of America

The July 2003 special issue of the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era revisited the history of the Socialist Party of America during the Progressive Era. This second issue on “New Perspectives on Socialism” examines socialism largely outside the party context, thereby challenging the tendency of scholars and non-scholars alike to identify socialism with a party-based political movement. To the degree that the essays collected here examine party-based socialism, they focus on the gradualist or revisionist wing of the party, whose socializing and democratic reforms, programs, and ideas helped establish a context for the Progressive Era and thereafter, when a “social democratic” type of politics became intrinsic to the mainstream American politics.

scholarly journals Forecasting 2016 US Presidential Elections Using Factor Analysis and Regression Model

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-42
Author(s):  
Pankaj Sinha
Keyword(s):  
Factor Analysis ◽  
Standard Error ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Economic Factor ◽  
Vote Share ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
White House ◽  
Analysis Technique ◽  
Incumbent Party

The paper categorizes factors responsible for forecasting the outcome of U.S. presidential election 2016 using factor analysis, which groups the various economic and non-economic parameters based on the correlation among them. The major economic factor significant in 2016 US presidential election is the growth of the economy, and the ‘anti-incumbency factor that signifies how long the incumbent party has been controlling the White House is found to be an important non-economic factor likely to play a dominant role in the election. The dependent variables considered are the vote shares of the nominees of the incumbent and the non-incumbent majority party candidates. The forecast is calculated by running a regression of the significant factors, obtained through factor analysis technique, on the incumbent party vote share as well as on the non-incumbent party vote share. The proposed models forecast the vote share of Democrat candidate Mrs. Hillary Clinton to be 45.59% with a standard error of ±2.32% and that of Republican candidate Mr. Donald Trump to be 39.51% with a standard error of ±3.87%. Hence, the models built in the paper signal a comfortable margin of victory for the Presidential nominee of the incumbent party, Hillary Clinton.The study re-establishes the notion that the non-economic factors have a greater influence on the outcomes of election as compared to the economic factors, as some of the important economic factors such as inflation and unemployment rate failed to establish their significance. 

scholarly journals The Newest Southerners: Generational Differences in Electoral Behavior in the Contemporary South

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-74
Author(s):  
Charles Prysby
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Generational Differences ◽  
Bill Clinton ◽  
Electoral Behavior ◽  
Young Voters ◽  
White House ◽  
2008 Presidential Election ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Mitt Romney ◽  
Michael Dukakis

Young voters contributed disproportionately to Barack Obama’s presidential victory in 2012. In fact, if the electorate had been limited to those over 30 years old, Mitt Romney might be in the White House today. Obama captured 60 percent of the vote of those under 30, compared to 49 percent of those over 30, according to the national exit polls (Schier and Box- Steffensmeier 2013, 86). A similar pattern characterized the 2008 presidential election: Obama won 66 percent of the vote among those aged 29 or less, but under one-half of voters older than 45 (Pomper 2010, 53). The tendency for younger voters to be disproportionately Democratic emerged in the 2004 presidential election. Prior to that, Democratic presidential candidates did not consistently do better among younger voters. In 2000, for example, Al Gore did as well among older voters as he did among younger voters, and in 1992, Bill Clinton did his best among older voters, as did Walter Mondale in 1984 and Michael Dukakis in 1988 (Pomper 2001, 138; Pomper 1989, 133). 

News from the White House: The Presidential-Press Relationship in the Progressive Era.

1982 ◽  
Vol 97 (4) ◽  
pp. 707
Author(s):  
William W. Lammers ◽  
George Juergens
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
White House

Robber Barons and Wretched Refuse

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert F. Zeidel
Keyword(s):  
Progressive Era ◽  
Gilded Age ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Class Conflict ◽  
Foreign Workers ◽  
Open Door ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Workplace Conflict ◽  
Robber Barons ◽  
Post War

This book explores the connection between the so-called robber barons who led American big businesses during the Gilded Age and Progressive Era and the immigrants who composed many of their workforces. As the book argues, attribution of industrial-era class conflict to an “alien” presence supplements nativism—a sociocultural negativity toward foreign-born residents—as a reason for Americans' dislike and distrust of immigrants. And in the era of American industrialization, employers both relied on immigrants to meet their growing labor needs and blamed them for the frequently violent workplace contentions of the time. The book uncovers the connection of immigrants to radical “isms” that gave rise to widespread notions of alien subversives whose presence threatened America's domestic tranquility and the well-being of its residents. Employers, rather than looking at their own practices for causes of workplace conflict, wontedly attributed strikes and other unrest to aliens who either spread pernicious “foreign” doctrines or fell victim to their siren messages. These characterizations transcended nationality or ethnic group, applying at different times to all foreign-born workers. The book concludes that, ironically, stigmatizing immigrants as subversives contributed to the passage of the Quota Acts, which effectively stemmed the flow of wanted foreign workers. Post-war employers argued for preserving America's traditional open door, but the negativity that they had assigned to foreign workers contributed to its closing.

Playing Politics with Disaster

2020 ◽  
pp. 59-71
Author(s):  
Timothy W. Kneeland
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
American History ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Disaster Relief ◽  
White House ◽  
Richard Nixon ◽  
Disaster Declarations ◽  
Disaster Aid ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter examines how Richard Nixon mixed politics and policy in his response to Hurricane Agnes. To aid in winning his reelection bid in 1972, Nixon was determined to play politics with disaster relief legislation, mainly as it applied to New York and Pennsylvania. In order to gain Nixon as many votes as possible from the disaster, the Nixon White House wrote, and Congress enacted, the most generous disaster aid package in American history to that time: the Agnes Recovery Act of 1972. The relationship between disasters and elections has generated a body of research that shows a strong correlation between when and where presidents issue a disaster declaration. Disaster declarations are more frequent in highly competitive swing states during presidential election years, and presidents favor those states that may benefit them or their party in the election, as Nixon did in response to Hurricane Agnes.

A President Involved

2018 ◽  
pp. 229-234
Author(s):  
Roger R. Tamte
Keyword(s):  
Public Perception ◽  
The Other ◽  
American Football ◽  
Theodore Roosevelt ◽  
White House

In response to a public perception of brutality and dishonest play in American football, President Theodore Roosevelt is persuaded to intervene, and he invites coaches and graduate leaders from the Big Three of Harvard, Princeton, and Yale (including Camp) to meet with him at the White House on October 9, 1905. After the meeting, Camp and the other two graduate leaders draft a pledge at Roosevelt’s request, promising responsive action by their schools. Violations of the pledge occur quickly in the 1905 Harvard-Pennsylvania and Harvard-Yale games, and Roosevelt requests visits from a representative of Pennsylvania and separately from Harvard. President Eliot writes Roosevelt, criticizing the Harvard-Yale game umpire, Navy professor Paul Dashiell, whereupon Roosevelt writes Dashiell and criticizes him; Dashiell replies with a strong defense that persuades Roosevelt. Roosevelt continues to correspond with Camp in a complimentary manner.

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