DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

There is growing recognition that mass incarceration is unjust and undemocratic, but when the subject of prison abolition is raised, a ready chorus emerges to declare that such a project is naïve, idealistic, and out of touch with reality. Anna Terwiel challenges this view, carefully examining the work of abolitionist thinkers and activists since the 1960s to argue that prison abolition is a realist political project. Abolition, Terwiel shows, is oriented toward practical realities and offers concrete proposals for radical democratic change. Based on insightful readings of renowned abolitionists such as Michel Foucault, Liat Ben-Moshe, and Angela Y. Davis, Prison Abolition for Realists illuminates the realist aspects of their approaches as well as the important differences between them.

"I discuss how political contexts ostensibly hinder the communication of science. I then demonstrate how these 'hindrances' can be addressed. But, should they be addressed? How do we define effective scientific communication? Science can play a critical role in the making of public policy. Yet, it only does so if it can be effectively communicated to citizens and policy-makers. In this presentation, I demonstrate three features of the current political environment – media saturation, partisan polarization, and the politicization of science – generate preference formation processes that are often deemed undesirable. I then discuss ways in which one can counteract these dynamics; however, I conclude by asking a larger question: what are the criteria for assessing whether the processing of scientific information generates 'better' or 'worse' preferences?"

Identifying Afro-Latino identity in the United States is necessary in understanding the potentially conflicting nature of belonging to two ethnic groups that, up to the present day, have behaved as mutually exclusive in politics. One such example of the consequences of considering Latinos to be one racial group is the shock at the 2016 and 2020 Latino voting trends.

NBC Chicago news spoke with Professor Harbridge-Yong about the government shutdown. Harbridge-Yong pointed to the incentives each party has to fight via shutdowns and how her research on legislators' fear of primary elections contributes to their unwillingness to compromise.

I have written this ‘Majority Report’ column every Saturday for eight straight years. Before, I wrote for The Observer for five years, similarly doing so every week without fail. Over these combined 13 years as a weekly columnist, I have had nearly unfettered freedom to take on topics I deemed apt and write without undue censorship from my editors, company management or owners.

This week on Party Politics, co-hosts Brandon Rottinghaus and Jeronimo Cortina break down a whirlwind of political developments shaping both the national and Texas landscapes — from Washington’s latest power transitions to Houston’s holiday stage. On the national front, a major political era nears its end as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced she will not seek reelection, closing a decades-long chapter of Democratic leadership. Meanwhile, the political world is remembering former Vice President Dick Cheney, who passed away at 84. His legacy — from the Bush administration’s post-9/11 policies to his enduring influence on conservative politics — continues to spark debate.

Arecent two-term governor in the swing state of Pennsylvania spoke about finding consensus while governing and also applauded a “generational shift” manifesting itself within the Democratic Party. Former Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf ’71, who spoke on Nov. 6 at the Law and Democracy: The United States at 250 series co-sponsored by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Public Policy and Dartmouth Dialogues, highlighted how, as a political newcomer, he brought pragmatic and ethical business experience to the governor’s office. “I think what the eight years proved to me was that actually virtue does have a place,” Wolf told more than 90 people attending the Nov. 6 talk in Filene Auditorium and another 200 watching the livestream. The conversation was moderated by Rockefeller Center Director Jason Barabas ’93, a professor in the Department of Government.

The Daily sat down for a Q&A with political science Prof. Anna Galland, who teaches a seminar titled “U.S. Democracy in Crisis: Perspectives on the Path.” Outside Northwestern, she works as an independent organizer and consultant. She was previously the executive director of MoveOn, a digitally connected organizing group devoted to progressive issues, for over seven years. ANNA GALLAND: I am an organizer who spent time in the trenches before coming into the classroom. I spent a number of years leading a progressive and pro-democracy mass organization called MoveOn that runs campaigns, both civic and electoral, to strengthen the democracy and make it deliver for regular people better.

Republican civil war broke out in the days and weeks leading up to this Tuesday’s “Blue-bath,” the election night triumph by the Democrats. American conservatives are in a knife fight for the future of the MAGA movement. Despite the nationalist turn of American conservatism over the past decade, the civil war centers around a foreign nation: Israel. Young conservatives and MAGA luminaries like Steve Bannon have grown sharply critical of Washington’s unbalanced and costly relationship with the Jewish state. In reaction, Israel and its American supporters have sought to shore up the “special relationship” by ostracizing Israel-critical voices. Their latest target: Kevin Roberts, president of the Heritage Foundation, who recently expressed support for Tucker Carlson, MAGA’s most prominent critic of Israel.

Kat Abughazaleh, a candidate for the Illinois 9th Congressional District, spoke about her campaign at a Tuesday event hosted by Northwestern’s political science department at the Segal Visitors Center. Political science Prof. Jaime Dominguez introduced Abughazaleh, a content creator and social media influencer who previously worked for the progressive watchdog group Media Matters for America. In her role, she covered Tucker Carlson and right-wing disinformation. “Part of why I’m running is I got sick of Democratic leadership not taking disinformation in the far right seriously,” Abughazaleh said. “We told them about January 6th before it happened, about COVID misinformation, where the DEI, (critical race theory), anti-trans panic would lead, and it fell on deaf ears.”