Myth and Reality of the Seventeenth Amendment

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Seventeenth Amendment ◽  
Institutional Representation ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Key Questions

This chapter summarizes the book's findings and reflects more broadly on the quality and context of Senate representation under two different electoral systems. In doing so, it addresses several key questions about institutional representation in the U.S. democracy. Are U.S. senators more responsive today to the needs and opinions of their constituents than under indirect elections? Did state legislators actually serve as good trustees in choosing their U.S. senators on behalf of their states' voters? Finally, if the Tea Party and other advocates for the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment get their wish, will the U.S. Senate be a fundamentally different institution?

Electing the Senate

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wendy J. Schiller ◽  
Charles Stewart III
Keyword(s):  
Original Data ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Internal Conflict ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Senate Elections ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Public ◽  
Seventeenth Amendment ◽  
The People ◽  
Election Process

From 1789 to 1913, U.S. senators were not directly elected by the people—instead the Constitution mandated that they be chosen by state legislators. This radically changed in 1913, when the Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, giving the public a direct vote. This book investigates the electoral connections among constituents, state legislators, political parties, and U.S. senators during the age of indirect elections. The book finds that even though parties controlled the partisan affiliation of the winning candidate for Senate, they had much less control over the universe of candidates who competed for votes in Senate elections and the parties did not always succeed in resolving internal conflict among their rank and file. Party politics, money, and personal ambition dominated the election process, in a system originally designed to insulate the Senate from public pressure. The book uses an original data set of all the roll call votes cast by state legislators for U.S. senators from 1871 to 1913 and all state legislators who served during this time. Newspaper and biographical accounts uncover vivid stories of the political maneuvering, corruption, and partisanship—played out by elite political actors, from elected officials, to party machine bosses, to wealthy business owners—that dominated the indirect Senate elections process. The book raises important questions about the effectiveness of Constitutional reforms, such as the Seventeenth Amendment, that promised to produce a more responsive and accountable government.

Growing Tea With Subnational Roots: Tea Party Affiliation, Factionalism, and GOP Politics in State Legislatures

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110411
Author(s):  
Stella M. Rouse ◽  
Charles Hunt ◽  
Kristen Essel
Keyword(s):  
Republican Party ◽  
State Legislatures ◽  
State Level ◽  
Party Politics ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Party Affiliation ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Original Dataset

Most research has examined the influence of the Tea Party as a social movement or loose organization, but less is known about its influence within legislative party politics, especially at the state level. In this paper, we argue that in this context the Tea Party is primarily an intraparty faction that has caused significant divisions inside the Republican Party. Using an original dataset of legislators across 13 states for the years 2010 to 2013, we examine legislator and district-level characteristics that predict state legislators’ affiliation with the Tea Party. Our results reveal that in some respects legislators affiliated with the Tea Party are a far-right wing of the Republican Party. However, by other measures that capture anti-establishment political sentiment, Tea Party affiliated legislators comprise a factional group attempting to transform the Party in ways that go beyond ideology. These findings have important implications for the future prospects of the GOP.

Congress and Foreign Policy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan W. Marshall
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
New Institutionalism ◽  
Changes Over Time ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Key Questions

The U.S. Congress has broad constitutional powers to shape foreign policy. However, Congress rarely shapes foreign policy as an equal partner with the president. Politics has the potential to enhance or lessen Congress’s role. What explains changes over time in congressional power in foreign policy? Why does Congress assert itself on some issues but less so on others in U.S. foreign policy? What strategies or tools does Congress employ to shape the nation’s foreign policy? The lens of New Institutionalism, two presidencies, and presidential unilateralism connect in useful ways to help explain these kinds of key questions in foreign policy. They offer scholars a future framework to continue to enhance theories explaining variation in congressional assertiveness in foreign policy.

Legislative Expression: Sanctuary Policymaking in the U.S. States

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-117
Author(s):  
Loren Collingwood ◽  
Benjamin Gonzalez O’Brien
Keyword(s):  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Minority Population ◽  
Racial Threat ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
The U.S

While sanctuary policies have traditionally been passed by cities and counties rather than states, this situation has shifted in recent years with both California and Oregon embracing their identity as “sanctuary states,” while in Texas SB4 was signed into law, officially banning sanctuary legislation across the state. This chapter examines the factors that increase the likelihood that state legislators will introduce pro- or antisanctuary legislation. We find that racial threat activated by an increasing minority population, the ideology of the state and its voters, and the structure of state institutions all increase the likelihood of pro/anti-sanctuary legislation being introduced at the state level.

Big Rewards for the Small Screen

Cold War II ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 49-69
Author(s):  
Helena Goscilo
Keyword(s):  
General Assembly ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Moon ◽  
The Us ◽  
Un General Assembly ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Small Screen ◽  
Key Questions

President John Kennedy’s suggestion to the UN General Assembly that the U.S. and the USSR embark on a joint expedition to the moon adumbrated the appearance of a highly successful American TV series: NBC’s Man from U.N.C.L.E (1964-68). What, one may ask, prompted the successful British director Guy Ritchie in 2015, when relations between Russia and the US were (and remain) at a nadir, to reprise/revamp the 1960s series in a film with the same title? To what extent does Ritchie’s film revise the earlier situation and the symbiosis between the two spies from the 1960s, even as he recreates that period? Does the film reflect the political tensions of the 1960s or of the 2010s–or both? These constitute some of the key questions that the chapter addresses in a comparative, politically contextualized analysis of The Man from U.N.C.L.E on the small and big screens.

Candidate Networks, Citizen Clusters, and Political Expression

2015 ◽  
Vol 659 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leticia Bode ◽  
Alexander Hanna ◽  
Junghwan Yang ◽  
Dhavan V. Shah
Keyword(s):  
Direct Method ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
The Political ◽  
Election Cycle ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Political Right ◽  
A Direct Method ◽  
The U.S

Twitter provides a direct method for political actors to connect with citizens, and for those citizens to organize into online clusters through their use of hashtags (i.e., a word or phrase marked with # to identify an idea or topic and facilitate a search for it). We examine the political alignments and networking of Twitter users, analyzing 9 million tweets produced by more than 23,000 randomly selected followers of candidates for the U.S. House and Senate and governorships in 2010. We find that Twitter users in that election cycle did not align in a simple Right-Left division; rather, five unique clusters emerged within Twitter networks, three of them representing different conservative groupings. Going beyond discourses of fragmentation and polarization, certain clusters engaged in strategic expression such as “retweeting” (i.e., sharing someone else’s tweet with one’s followers) and “hashjacking” (i.e., co-opting the hashtags preferred by political adversaries). We find the Twitter alignments in the political Right were more nuanced than those on the political Left and discuss implications of this behavior in relation to the rise of the Tea Party during the 2010 elections.

scholarly journals It’s Tea Time but What Flavor? Regional Variation in Sources of Support for the Tea Party Movement

2012 ◽  
Vol 33 ◽  
pp. 95-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacy G. Ulbig ◽  
Sarah Macha
Keyword(s):  
Illegal Immigration ◽  
Geographic Region ◽  
Tea Party ◽  
Moral Issues ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Gallup Poll ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sources Of Support ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The U.S

While the Tea Party movement has gained much support and media attention over the past several years, the debate remains about the sources of support for the movement. Some argue that supporters are drawn to the movement by concerns about the state of the U.S. economy. Others believe the movement attracts those who are most disgruntled with the size and direction of the national government. Further, charges of racism and anti-immigrant attitudes among movement supporters continue to arise. Finally, some wonder what role moral issues play in this movement, if any. We believe that much of this debate results from the varied attraction of the Tea Party movement across the nation. Using data from a June 2010 nationwide USA Today/Gallup Poll, investigate the sources of movement support, finding that the basis of support varies by geographic region. We find that traditional, moral values, and counter to much popular sentiment, racism play no role in movement support in any region of the nation. Instead, concerns about illegal immigration, the economy, and the size of federal government predict movement support, but vary by region.

Geotechnical study of an abandoned limestone mine for crude oil storage

1979 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 577-590
Author(s):  
W. F. Bawden ◽  
D. R. McCreath
Keyword(s):  
Crude Oil ◽  
Bulk Oil ◽  
Oil Storage ◽  
Mine Workings ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Structurally Stable ◽  
The U.S ◽  
Geotechnical Studies ◽  
Key Questions

The Ironton limestone mine in southern Ohio lies at a depth of approximately 150 m below the surface within the limestones of the Maxville (Mississippian) Formation. The mine was abandoned in 1970 after 60 years of operation. In 1976, the Federal Energy Administration awarded a contract to evaluate the potential of the mine for the storage of crude oil as a part of the U.S. Strategic Oil Storage Program. The paper reviews the geotechnical studies that were undertaken to assess the key questions of whether or not containment of the oil could be assured, and whether or not the mine would remain structurally stable over the life of the storage project.Piezometric data obtained from drilling investigations confirmed that the Maxville limestone, and the over- and underlying formations, were fully saturated. Although some lowering of piezometric levels had occurred over the mine workings, the measured hydrostatic pressures and calculated gradients were found to be sufficiently high to provide positive oil and vapor containment.Based upon in-mine mapping and simple computations, the stability of the mine was determined to be acceptable. It was concluded that bulk oil storage at Ironton mine is technically feasible with minimal costs for remedial geotechnical work.

To Reinstate or to Not Reinstate? An Exploratory Study of Student Perspectives on the Death Penalty in Michigan

2016 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mensah Adinkrah ◽  
William M. Clemens
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Death Penalty ◽  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Public University ◽  
The State ◽  
State Legislators ◽  
Death Sentence ◽  
Attitudinal Survey ◽  
The U.S

The U.S. state of Michigan abolished the death penalty in 1846. Since then, several abortive efforts have been made by state legislators to re-establish the death sentence to deal with convicted murderers. Concurrently, some support exists among Michigan residents for the restoration of capital punishment in the state. This article presents the results of the analysis of an attitudinal survey of 116 college students enrolled in three criminal justice courses in a Michigan public university concerning the reinstatement of the death sentence in the state. The data from this exploratory study show that a slight majority (52.6%) of respondents favored reinstatement whereas 45.7% opposed restoration. Advocates and opponents of re-establishment of the death penalty in Michigan provided similar religious, moral and economic arguments proffered by others in previous surveys on capital punishment available in the death penalty literature. The current study makes a contribution to the scant extant literature on attitudes toward the death penalty in abolitionist jurisdictions. As this body of literature grows, it can provide baseline data or information with which to compare attitudes in retentionist states.

Drinking the Tea: The Tea Party Movement and Legislative Agendas in the U.S. Senate

2019 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-88
Author(s):  
Carly Schmitt ◽  
Chera LaForge ◽  
Hanna K. Brant
Keyword(s):  
Tea Party ◽  
Tea Party Movement ◽  
Legislative Agendas ◽  
The U.S
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