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11. Consistent Partiality: US Foreign Policy on Palestine-Israel

Author:
Sarah Whitson and Peter Beinart
Publication Date:
09-2022
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Center for Security, Race and Rights (CSRR), Rutgers University School of Law
Abstract:
Although the Biden administration talks about supporting democracy and human rights, it has maintained unconditional US support for Israel even as human rights organizations label it an apartheid state. What are the political and ideological foundations of America’s hostility to Palestinian freedom? And what would it take to change them? Does the US’s unconditional support for Israel serve America’s national interests? Join the Center for Security, Race and Rights as we address these questions with two internationally known experts.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Apartheid, Human Rights, Politics, Democracy, Ideology, and Strategic Interests
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, North America, and United States of America

12. The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19*

Author:
Gianluca Grimalda, David Pipke, Fabrice Murtin, and Louis Putterman
Publication Date:
01-2022
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW)
Abstract:
We investigate the relationship between political attitudes and prosociality in a survey of a representative sample of the U.S. population during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that an experimental measure of prosociality correlates positively with adherence to protective behaviors. Liberal political ideology predicts higher levels of protective behavior than conservative ideology, independently of the differences in prosociality across the two groups. Differences between liberals and conservatives are up to 4.4 times smaller in their behavior than in judging the government’s crisis management. This result suggests that U.S. Americans are more polarized on ideological than behavioral grounds.
Topic:
Politics, Ideology, Pandemic, COVID-19, and Protection
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

13. Tackling Hate in the Homeland: US Radical Right Narratives and Counter-narratives at a Time of Renewed Threat

Author:
William Allchorn
Publication Date:
02-2021
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Hedayah
Abstract:
This country report, written by Dr. William Allchorn, is one of the outputs of the CARR-Hedayah Radical Right Counter Narratives Project, a year-long project under the STRIVE Global Program at Hedayah funded by the European Union and implemented by the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right (CARR). The overall project creates one of the first comprehensive online toolkits for practitioners and civil society engaged in radical right extremist counter narrative campaigns. It uses online research to map narratives in nine countries and regions, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Hungary, New Zealand, Norway, Ukraine, United Kingdom, and the United States. It also proposes counter narratives for these countries and regions and advises on how to conduct such campaigns in an effective manner.
Topic:
Radicalization, Ideology, Violence, Radical Right, and Militias
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

14. The Fall of Chile

Author:
Axel Kaiser
Publication Date:
10-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
The Cato Journal
Institution:
The Cato Institute
Abstract:
Following the failed Marxist experiment of Chilean President Salvador Allende, a free‐​market revolution led by the so‐​called Chicago Boys in the 1970s and 1980s created the conditions necessary for the country to experience an “economic miracle” that captured worldwide attention.1 As Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker (1997) put it, Chile became “an economic role model for the whole underdeveloped world.” This performance, said Becker, “became still more impressive when the government was transformed into a democracy.” Along the same lines, Nobel laureate economist Paul Krugman argued that the reforms introduced by the Chicago Boys “proved highly successful and were preserved intact when Chile finally returned to democracy in 1989” (Krugman 2008: 31). Indeed, from 1990 to 2010 a left‐​wing coalition called “Concertación” came to power. Despite having been comprised of opponents to the military dictatorship and by many former members of Salvador Allende’s government, Concertación kept in place the foundations of the free‐​market system. A pragmatic view prevailed, leading to the recognition and adoption of the economic legacy of the Pinochet years.
Topic:
Economics, Reform, Neoliberalism, Ideology, Crisis Management, Transparency, and Free Market
Political Geography:
South America, Chile, and United States of America

15. The Common Ground of the American People: Policy Positions Supported by Both Democrats and Republicans

Author:
Steven Kull
Publication Date:
08-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM)
Abstract:
The Federal government is currently failing to address numerous problems. This failure is largely due to increasing partisan polarization resulting in government gridlock. One may well have the impression that there is virtually no common ground between Republicans and Democrats in America today. Some speculate that polarization in the American public is driving the polarization in Congress. However, there are strong reasons to believe that the polarization in Congress primarily comes from other sources. Over the last decades, concurrent with the increase of polarization in Congress there has been an extraordinary increase in the amount of money flowing from special interests into political campaigns as well as a dramatic increase in the number of lobbyists operating in Washington. As many of these special interest have competing objectives their increased efforts at influencing government decisions, and the increased access derived from campaign contributions can exert centrifugal forces on the policymaking process. Still the question stands as to whether there is common ground between Republicans and Democrats in the public—at least more than Congress. If so, the public would have the potential to become an arbiter between the parties, offering a pathway toward convergence. To find out if there is such common ground, a major multi-year study of the American people was conducted by the Program for Public Consultation with the support and participation of Voice of the People, and more recently Common Ground Solutions. Financial support was also provided by the Democracy Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the MacArthur Foundation and the Circle Foundation.
Topic:
Ideology, Political Parties, Polarization, and Party System
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

16. Northern Populism: Causes and Consequences of the New Ordered Outlook

Author:
Frank Graves and Jeff Smith
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Canadian Global Affairs Institute (CGAI)
Abstract:
Canada has not been left untouched by a new authoritarian, or ordered, populism that has seen the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president and the United Kingdom vote to leave the European Union. Based on measurements of public opinion and other means developed to assess the phenomenon, this paper finds that populism in Canada is a significant political force, replacing the traditional left-right political spectrum. Not only has northern populism created a heightened partisan polarization in Canada, but it also proved to be a strong predictor of the outcome of the 2019 federal election. The authors’ research shows that 34 per cent of Canadians maintain a populist outlook. Older, less-educated, working-class Canadians are the most likely to sympathize with ordered populism, and it is more prevalent in Alberta and Saskatchewan. It is also more closely aligned with Canadians whose political sympathies lie with conservative political parties. A number of factors have contributed to the rise of ordered populism. These include economic stagnation, the growing disparity between the wealthy and the middle and working classes, a sense that society is headed in the wrong direction and a backlash against the loss of traditional core values. Ordered populism rests on the belief in a corrupt elite, and the idea that power needs to be wrested from this elite and returned to the people. Oriented toward authoritarianism, ordered populism emphasizes obedience, hostility toward outgroups, a desire to turn back the clock to a time of greater order in society, and a search for a strongman type to lead the return to a better time. Nothing about ordered populism serves the public interest. Instead, its anti-democratic nature makes it incapable of solving the problems that spawned its rise in the first place. Ordered populism is xenophobic, mistrustful of science and journalism, and unsympathetic to equality and gender issues. Arising out of fear and anger, ordered populism is ultimately unhealthy for Western democracies and their societies and economies. Canada has yet to accord the rise of ordered populism the attention it deserves, although this paper explains why it is a critical force in this country that needs to be addressed. Currently, attitudes toward ordered populism are generally limited to sneering, derisiveness and denial, all of which do nothing to address the problem. Solving it requires understanding its roots. And if its origins lie in the collapse of the middle-class dream, then policy-makers will need to focus on creating a new economics of hope. Ordered populism is at the heart of stark divisions in Canada, and the 2019 federal election did little, if anything, to mend the rupture. Dissatisfaction with the election’s results could forecast an even worse polarization in the near future, and increase the appeal of authoritarianism, if populism is left unaddressed.
Topic:
Politics, Authoritarianism, Elections, Populism, and Ideology
Political Geography:
Canada, North America, and United States of America

17. The Shifting Boundaries of Antisemitism

Author:
Manfred Gerstenfeld
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
The Begin-Sadat Centre for Strategic Studies (BESA)
Abstract:
An important tool in understanding the dynamics of antisemitism is the identification of moments when its boundaries shift. This occurred with the Trump Peace Plan, the antisemitism crisis in the British Labour party, the UN’s first World Conference against Racism, the huge outburst of antisemitism in France in 2000, and the German welcome policy for refugees and asylum seekers.
Topic:
Politics, Ideology, Peace, Anti-Semitism, and Donald Trump
Political Geography:
Europe, Middle East, Israel, Palestine, and United States of America

18. Beyond International Relations Theory

Author:
William Smith
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
Theories of American foreign policy are somewhat arbitrarily divided into two opposing camps: idealism and realism. Idealism involves constructing a world we hope would exist, such as freedom and democracy sweeping the globe, and then recommending foreign policy prescriptions based on this imaginary world. While realism is more firmly grounded in the world as it actually exists, it can suffer from a form of nihilism, sometimes positing that foreign policy is exclusively found in the domain of power politics and does not involve morality. The great Harvard professor Irving Babbitt refused to concede that these two lenses were the only way to view world affairs. As a fierce critic of the Romantic movement, Babbitt was particularly alarmed by the tendency of Western leaders to offer policies that were based on chimeras conjured up in their idealistic imaginations. Babbitt refused to accept an amoral realism, however, because he believed that sound statesmanship was determined by the character of statesmen and that the choices they made would not simply be matters of prudence but also a matter of character. Power may be the operative principle…
Topic:
International Relations, Foreign Policy, Hegemony, Leadership, and Ideology
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

19. Legal Conservatism and the Progressive Blame Game

Author:
Jesse Merriam
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Humanitas
Institution:
The Center for the Study of Statesmanship, Catholic University
Abstract:
In a recent essay in The Independent Review, I praised Bruce Frohnen and George Carey’s Constitutional Morality as “one of the best, if not the best, constitutional law books of the last decade.” As I explained in that review essay, Constitutional Morality is distinct from many other excellent pieces of constitutional law scholarship in both its ideological breadth and analytical depth. By “ideological breadth,” I am referring to how, as compared to other works in constitutional law and theory, Constitutional Morality resists partisan tropes and examines how both conservatives and liberals alike have derogated their constitutional duties. The book thereby exposes the deficiencies of the bipartisan consensus supporting our constitutional order. Constitutional Morality’s publication in 2016 is thus particularly apt, as the presidential election that year represents a reconsideration of the commitments and coalitions underlying our national political parties and institutions
Topic:
Legal Theory, Conservatism, Ideology, Progressivism, Legal Sector, and Partisanship
Political Geography:
North America and United States of America

20. Factsheet: Gates of Vienna

Author:
Bridge Initiative Team
Publication Date:
09-2020
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
The Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University
Abstract:
Gates of Vienna is an international far-right, anti-Muslim blogging website established in 2004 by the United States-based blogger Edward S. May and his wife. The website features the work of hard-line anti-Muslim writers and is a central player in the counter-jihad movement within the United States and across Europe. The blog has served as a platform for Fjordman, a Norwegian anti-Muslim writer, whose views were the ideological inspiration of Norwegian mass murderer, Anders Behring Breivik.
Topic:
Ideology, Islamophobia, Far Right, and Website
Political Geography:
Europe and United States of America