That Washington is corrupted by special interests and lobbyists is perhaps the most common critique of the federal government. Poll after poll reveals a public convinced that lobbyists are an unethical, destructive influence. Accordingly, most lobbying reform proposals take a strong moralizing tone. “Drain the swamp” was Nancy Pelosi’s rallying cry in 2006, backed by a promise to, on day one, “break the link between lobbyists and legislation.” President Obama, too, spent his campaign bashing special interests (as did John McCain). Obama also made a symbolic point of enacting new ... Read More
Anger, Politics and the Wisdom of Uncertainty
May 16, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
To say that these are angry political times is perhaps to state the obvious. Commentators and analysts bemoan the lost civility, wondering what is to be done. But here's something hopeful: New understanding of how emotions operate in politics might help us to better manage these emotions as a society. The first thing to know about anger is where it comes from. Research suggests it begins with a threat (in these political times, say, rising economic insecurity). But whether it gets translated into anger depends on a few things. First, it matters how the threat is described. If there's ... Read More
Why bin Laden Death Photos Won’t Change Minds
May 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
In debating whether or not to release the allegedly gruesome images of Osama bin Laden’s death, one of the main arguments in favor of release was that it might help to counter the conspiracy-minded thinking that the operation was a fake, or that bin Laden has been dead for years, or even that he was a CIA fabrication all along. But President Barack Obama seems to have realized what many social scientists have known for years: that no evidence in the world would convince certain people that a U.S. Navy SEAL unit killed bin Laden at his compound in Abbattabad, Pakistan, and buried him at ... Read More
Probing the Depths of the ‘Submerged State’
February 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
In 2009, when President Obama negotiated a stimulus bill that included $288 billion in tax cuts, his advisers decided to structure their "Making Work Pay" tax credits so that workers' regular paychecks were a little bit bigger, and the money would flow back into circulation gradually, rather than all at once. They believed it would have a greater economic impact that way. Without running the counterfactual, it's hard to know whether the tax credits had the desired economic impact. But one thing is clear: It was just about the worst-advertised tax cut ever. One year later, just 12 percent of ... Read More
America Not as Politically Conservative as You Think
January 14, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Among the many memes floating around in the wake of the 2010 election is that America has taken a rightward turn, and conservative pundits seem re-energized in calling America a center-right nation. After all, a plurality of American voters (42 percent) now call themselves “conservative” — as compared to just 35 percent who say they are “moderate” and 20 percent who say they are “liberal.” Two years ago, moderates and conservatives both were at 37 percent. But new research suggests that pundits ought to be cautious of overinterpreting the conservative label: It doesn’t ... Read More