Brazil’s Supreme Court pushed back against an attempt to cancel participatory councils

The Brazilian Constitution will be upheld. Fabio Vieira/FotoRua/NurPhoto via Getty Images That’s good news for Brazilian democracy. On June 12, right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro faced his first defeat at the Supreme Court. The Court issued an injunction blocking part of his recent decree, which would have dismantled important tools...

Jul 2019

Six political scientists react to the first Democratic primary debates

Left to right: Democratic presidential candidates former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Sen. Kamala Harris onstage in the second night of the first Democratic presidential debate on June 27, 2019, in Miami, Florida. Drew Angerer/Getty Images A good event for the upper tier of candidates, a bad one for Biden, and a forgettable...

Jun 2019

Technology and transparency: the path to a modern Congress?

Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA), chair of the House Select Committee on Congressional Modernization Drew Angerer/Getty Images We’re starting to see the direction of a committee dedicated to changing Capitol Hill. At a time when Congress has arguably been more contentious than ever, the House Select Committee on Congressional Modernization has been...

Jun 2019

Brazil’s Bolsonaro took a page from US politics by dangling the possibility of an evangelical Supreme Court Justice

But US evangelicals have been more loyal to Trump than Brazil’s evangelicals have been to President Bolsonaro, so this move may not work. Speaking at an Assembly of God Pentecostal church this morning, Brazil’s rightist President Jair Bolsonaro opened a new front in Brazil’s culture wars: the composition of Brazil’s Supreme Court. Decrying a recent...

May 2019

What’s motivating the DNC’s debate rules

Democrats are trying to learn from 2016 and prevent the same problems in the nomination race. The Democratic National Committee’s newly released rules for participation in the September presidential primary debate reveal a party experimenting with ways to exert control over a large field of candidates. But what’s most notable about these rules is how...

May 2019

Why everyone runs for president these days

For the second presidential cycle in a row, there’s a record-breaking number of candidates in the nominee race. For the second presidential cycle in a row, Americans are being treated to a nomination field of record-breaking size. At 23 declared candidates and counting, the Democratic primary field dwarfs its 2016 Republican counterpart, a field so...

May 2019

Is Pete Buttigieg the next Jimmy Carter?

He sounds a lot more disjunctive than transformative. There are a lot of reasons why South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg isn’t quite like the rest of the Democratic field. He’s younger. He’s in a same-sex marriage. He’s a mayor, and not of a major metropolis like New York or Los Angeles. He’s also appeared in a Fox News town hall and on various...

May 2019

How the DNC can reduce the number of presidential candidates

On Thursday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio became the 23rd candidate and the third mayor competing for the Democratic presidential nomination. In recent posts, Hans Hassell, Jonathan Bernstein, and Vox’s Dylan Scott and Tara Golshan offer explanations for this rash of candidates. This post is on the next question: How could the Democrats shrink...

May 2019

Should we consider “electability” when evaluating candidates?

Hans Noel and Seth Masket discuss the pitfalls of electability arguments, and what might make for good evidence. We know there are problems with electability arguments, but to what extent should party elites still be thinking about it? We decided to sit down and discuss it. Hans Noel: You just wrote a piece arguing that electability isn’t a very useful...

May 2019

Trump might make us miss Watergate

In the 1970s, our political system was better suited to meet a crisis than it is now. We may be approaching the third* presidential impeachment effort of the past half century. There was widespread talk after Richard Nixon’s resignation that the “system had worked” despite the strain of a criminal president. Bill Clinton’s impeachment arguably placed...

May 2019