by Pamela Clouser McCann
We ask the question: what are the conditions under which legislators would vote against fiscal transfers to their states? We argue that members of Congress, who care about the ability to claim credit and show their constituents they are fighting for their interests, think carefully about their intergovernmental context and the fact that executive branch agencies disseminate federal dollars and implement federal programs.
The Washington Post published commentary by Abby Wood of the USC Gould School and Christian Grose of the USC Dornsife College on whether elected officials who violate campaign finance laws will be punished at the polls. The authors turned to the post-Watergate era when campaign finance violations were often in the headlines. Violations at that time told voters that a candidate was, at worst, corrupt or, at best, a disorganized manager, the authors wrote.
Our current political climate has enough parallels to the Watergate era that we suspect voters will react negatively to campaign finance violations again. We will find out Nov. 6.
Toward the end of the spring semester, representatives from three university student organizations showed up at a class taught by USC Price School of Public Policy Professor LaVonna Lewis and announced she had been chosen as the recipient of the 2018 Student Government Community Achievement Award.
“The study of state and local politics has taken off over the last decade. Data, methods, and research interests have evolved. There are a variety of important questions that can’t be examined well at the Federal level, because of severe case limitations. But scholars can get leverage on these questions thanks to the sizable and interesting variation that exists at the state and local levels,” said Jeff Jenkins as he brought together scholars from across the nation to examine the study of subnational policy making.
“In order for us to be inclusive, we need to really highlight that representation matters and include as many people, organizations, thought processes and concerns that people may have,” said Malaika Merid, a second-year Master of Public Policy Student at USC Price who was one of the event organizers. “This is a gathering space of real diverse thought, and I think that the best way for us to move forward with that is to keep creating ways to find more diversity of thought to be included within the forum.”
With the goal of fostering cross-disciplinary synergies among political economy scholars and fill the need for a regular meeting place, the USC PIPE Collaborative hosted the First Annual Political Institutions and Political Economy Conference on March 15-16, convening major U.S. scholars from political science, economics, and law to cover important new research on topics such as the unilateral presidency, Congressional committees, city policies, electoral rules, political leadership, and partisanship.
Inspired by his forthcoming book Is the Cemetery Dead?, Sloane was the featured speaker for the March 12 USC Price Conversation in New York, addressing Price alumni and current students, as well as SEO Scholars from local high schools. He gave a poignant, personal talk that encompassed changing American attitudes about cremation to how to support friends who are grieving.
Speaking to cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, USC Price School of Public Policy Professor Erroll Southers let them know that, even though they are intelligent students demonstrating a commitment to being the next generation of American leaders, they are also prime targets for recruitment by homegrown violent extremist organizations.
“My greatest hope is that this will trickle down to the everywoman, because they are the stories that really need to be told,” Carlson said. “The waitress, the teacher, the lawyer, the accountant, the members of our military; I’ve heard from oil-rig operators, police officers, firefighters. It’s everywhere. It’s a pervasive epidemic, so we’re just getting started on the #MeToo movement.”
Southers, who directs the Safe Communities Institute and Homegrown Violent Extremism Studies at USC Price, was one of three experts asked to speak at the March 20 briefing in Washington, D.C., that examined an FBI intelligence assessment released last August titled, “Black Identity Extremists Likely Motivated to Target Law Enforcement Officers.”