Election

By Didier Fassin, James D. Wolfensohn Professor in the School of Social Science:

The French president’s first term, with his neoliberal and authoritarian policies, has situated him on the right of the political spectrum rather than in the center as he had announced prior to being elected. But his shift has progressively gone even further with the decision to put immigration control and hardline secularism on the agenda.

On November 30, the far-right pundit Éric Zemmour announced that he would be candidate to the French presidential election. A journalist and polemicist, he was mostly known for his Islamophobic, xenophobic, racist, and sexist public statements.

Writing for the New York Times, 2018–19 Member in the School of Social Science Michael Kazin recalls the civil strife surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention. He argues that the cultural, social, and political divisions of that period,...

Eric Maskin, Professor in the School of Social Science from 2000–2011 and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences in 2007, and Amartya Sen, Institute Trustee (1987–1994) and Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences in 1998, return to their recent essay “The...

Those that did not foresee the likelihood or even the possibility of Donald Trump’s victory are going to find it hard to discipline themselves to a balanced projection of his forthcoming first term. To ardent liberals in the United States – not...

Americans have been using essentially the same rules to elect presidents since the beginning of the Republic. In the general election, each voter chooses one candidate; each state (with two current exceptions) awards all its Electoral College votes...

Glen Bowersock weighs in on the 2016 Election with a reflection on Cleon, the Donald Trump of fifth century B.C. Athens. Cleon’s fiery rhetoric made him exceptionally persuasive to the people, Bowersock writes:

Cleon's wealth, bluster, ignorance, and...

 Dan Ariely, Member and Visitor in the School of Social Science, explores strategies for boosting turnout on Election Day.