How Pleasure Lulls Us into Accepting Surveillance
The domestication of surveillance technology has caused big legal and ethical implications for security on both a personal and a social scale.
Did Barack Obama Deserve the Nobel Prize?
Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009. He took the award not as a reward for accomplishments but as a "call to action."
How Harry Truman Transformed the Vice Presidency
Initially viewed by his critics as a parochial, lackluster Midwestern politician, Harry Truman emerged as a president who oversaw grand historic events.
How FDR’s Presidency Inspired Term Limits
The Founding Fathers considered term limits, but ultimately rejected the idea. It wasn't until FDR's unprecedented four terms that lawmakers reconsidered.
How To Make a Leader Step Down
President Xi Jinping of China recently managed to abolish term limits. What compels some leaders to discard the rules of the very systems that led them to power?
Is Gerrymandering to Blame for Our Polarized Politics?
Gerrymandering is the process by which districts for the House of Representatives are drawn so that one party has a distinct election advantage.
How Consumerism Sold Democracy to Postwar Germany
After World War II, the United States was battling the Soviet Union for cultural influence. In divided Berlin, the tactics included lavish consumer goods exhibitions.
Are Referendums Good For Democracy?
Referendums have a way of turning everyone into a self-proclaimed political expert. But does giving a population the chance to directly weigh in on a specific issue lead to a more informed voting public?
What Is Presidents’ Day Actually About?
For most of American history, Washington's Birthday was a really big deal, but, as scholar Barry Schwartz explains, that's changed a lot since the middle of the twentieth century.
Could the Twenty-Fifth Amendment Spark a National Crisis?
One scholar's opinion: the Twenty-Fifth Amendment is a Pandora's Box.