2009
October 2009
Post-partisan politics is seen as providing a cure for whatever currently ails American politics. Charles Jones explores post-partisanship and the various forms of partisanship that currently exist in Washington. Although conventional wisdom tells us that we must move beyond partisanship, Jones concludes that partisanship continues to serve as the basis for the workings of American politics. Simply put, partisanship is the way lawmaking works in representative government.
September 2009
Voters elect governments to solve social problems and governments design and implement an array of programs to ensure the public good. However, little theoretical attention has been devoted to the final step of the implementation chain: explanations of why the targets of public policies do or do not “comply” with those policies. Kent Weaver focuses on why program “targets” frequently fail to act in the way that program designers intended and wanted, even when it appears to be in their self-interest to do so.
August 2009
Blogs represent opportunities for individuals to express views, comment on the opinions of others and build a new online community. The U.S. government understands blogs’ dynamism and, as a result, agencies are seeking to increase their online presence by developing their own blogs. Julianne Mahler and Priscilla Regan examine the ways governmental and non-governmental blogs are used to link citizens and government officials.
May 2009
There is no question we are witnessing a fundamental economic and technological transformation of journalism, writes Darrell West. However, while traditional business models are dying, new ones are still being developed. In this multi-faceted, new-media universe, West says we need an information strategy for the news industry that expands on digital media's strengths while encouraging in-depth coverage.
April 2009
Pietro Nivola examines public attitudes toward the economic crisis, health care, the environment, immigration and foreign affairs. He argues that Americans appear to have tilted toward the Democrats only on some matters and that much of the public remains divided or doubtful about the capacity of government to meet the nation’s greatest challenges.
March 2009
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, John Witte and Stéphane Lavertu analyze the impact of charter school attendance on student gain scores on mathematics and reading achievement tests in the Milwaukee Public School district.
2008
December 2008
In this Issues in Governance Studies, Bruce Buchanan examines how Congress and the American people evaluate presidential wars of choice. When it comes to whether or not to use American military power, presidential discretion is virtually unchecked. Using the Korean War, Vietnam War and the current Iraqi operation as case models, Buchanan explores the presidential accountability for wars of choice and recommends the use of policy trials.
October 2008
The White House Office is so large and complex that systematic process of policy evaluation is essential in order to provide the president with a range of options on all important policy decisions. However, some of the most important decisions that President Bush has made have been taken without the benefit of broad deliberation within the White House or Cabinet, writes James Pfiffner for a Brookings paper.
September 2008
President-elect Obama faces daunting challenges when he assumes office in January. Pietro Nivola and Charles O. Jones examine these and the probable policy outcomes, at home and abroad, of an Obama presidency.
September 2008
The 2008 presidential race may be the first in which the candidates’ positions on climate change have some influence on electoral outcome. Barry Rabe and Christopher Borick examine public attitudes toward climate change, with particular emphasis on policy options, including how to design and implement policies with states that have very different levels of capacity and patterns of emissions growth.
July 2008
During the past two years, public perceptions of global warming have shifted significantly in the U.S. In the first of a two-part series, Barry Rabe and Christopher Borick examine the factors that drive individual views on global warming.
June 2008
John Courtney examines whether “importing” the Canadian model of independent electoral boundary redistricting commissions would help the American districting problem.
May 2008
Women in the United States remain severely under-represented in our political institutions. Jennifer Lawless and Richard Fox argue that this is because women do not run for office at the same rate men do. They offer guidance to organizations and individuals seeking to increase the number of women in elected positions.
April 2008
Public confidence in charities remains at contemporary lows, writes Paul C. Light in a recent report. Americans will be treated to a cascade of stories about charitable fraud, waste and abuse unless the sector takes aggressive action to create headlines about success.
March 2008
Experience has become a dominant issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Charles Jones examines the CVs of the three remaining contenders and explores whether prior White House experience is a guarantee for success and how the historical experience of experience might apply to 2008.
January 2008
A key contributor to political polarization in the U.S. frequently overlooked is the demographic and geographic changes in the electorate that have altered the sizes of different population groups and even shifted their political orientations over time. Brookings Ruy Teixeira examines the new wave of demographic and geographic changes currently washing over the U.S. and their profound effects on future politics.
2007
September 2007
Recent media reports suggest that Americans feel they are under a great deal of economic pressure. In this paper, Brookings Elisabeth Jacobs asserts that government should play a key role in mitigating economic insecurity by creating an effective social safety net for the 21st century.
August 2007
Kathryn Tenpas and Charles O. Jones examine what the 44th president will inherit, a diminished presidency, in a system that appears now to be pitted against itself.
July 01, 2007
The central government in the United States has grown inordinately preoccupied with concerns better left to local authorities. Pietro Nivola examines an overextended government too often distracted from higher priorities, and offers several suggestions for how particular policy pursuits might be devolved.
April 2007
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, Russell Wheeler examines efforts to balance judicial independence and accountability in the 110th Congress and beyond.
April 2007
An Ad Hoc Group on Federal Judicial Salaries, comprised of former U.S. senators and representatives, has called for Congress to end the practice of linking the salaries of federal judges and those of members of Congress. In this paper, Russell Wheeler and Michael Graves describe the history of interbranch salary linkage and analyze it as policy.
2006
December 2006
The Brookings Institution, in collaboration with Stanford University's Hoover Institution, set out understand the causes and consequences of polarizion in America's body politic. In March 2006, Brookings's Governance Studies Program hosted a conference in which scholars presented their papers.
August 2006
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, Barry Rabe examines the historic role of American states in national policy development and particular drivers that seem pivotal in the climate case.
July 2006
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, Kathryn Tenpas examines the veto record of President George W. Bush.
July 2006
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, Thomas Mann examine the November 2006 congressional elections.
June 2006
In this Issues in Governance Studies paper, Peter Beinart examines the shifting currents in American foreign policy.
June 2006
The consensus of the scientific community has shifted from skepticism to near-unanimous acceptance of the evidence of an artificial greenhouse effect. Brookings fellow Gregg Easterbrook suggests that reducing emissions of greenhouse gases may turn out to be much more practical and affordable than currently assumed.
May 2006
In light of the extreme divisiveness of recent presidential elections, the Brookings Institution in collaboration with the Hoover Institution convened a conference of leading political experts to discuss polarization and the state of American politics.