Center For American Political Responsiveness, Penn State

04/12/2018

And how much young people know—and don't—about Holocaust history

02/14/2017

A unique poll from Penn State’s McCourtney Institute for Democracy tracks how the nation is feeling.

04/04/2016

Just posted a short interview with Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz on the MID YouTube channel. Really interesting comments about policy entrepreneurs--how they operate, how they understand themselves, and how the party tries and sometimes fails--to capture their energy.

03/14/2016

Michael Heaney gave a presentation at the CAPR conference on anti-war protesters during the '00s. MID director Chris Beem asked him about his research and whether there are any legacies of this movement in the 2016 election.

03/09/2016

David Karol gave the keynote at the CAPR conference last week. After the conference, he sat down with MID Managing Director Chris Beem to talk about the democratizing process within political parties. He also talks about the 2016 campaign and what it means to the argument he and his co-authors present in the book The Party Decides.

03/08/2016

03/07/2016

Our CAPR poll director, Eric Plutzer was recently featured on NPR's All Things Considered. Dr. Plutzer and his colleagues explain why science teachers are struggling with adequately covering climate change in the classroom.

The results of a new survey, published in the journal Science, suggest that many of America's middle and high school science teachers are misrepresenting climate change in their classrooms.

03/02/2016

Activism and American Political Parties

03/01/2016

We are uploading photos and video from the CAPR conference this weekend, but we also wanted to make sure you had a chance to see this interview with CAPR director Michael Berkman on Super Tuesday. Interesting comments about Nevada's failures at the caucus format, and how Donald Trump just seems to break every rule and still succeed. Watch and learn everything you need to know before the returns come in tonight!

In Studio is Michael Berkman, Professor of Political Science at Penn State . Prof. Berkman is also the Dir. of the Center for American Political Responsivene...

02/16/2016

This article recounts important survey research by CAPR colleague Eric Plutzer. He asked middle and high school science teachers how they were teaching climate change. Turns out the methodology and the results recall similar work he and CAPR director Michael Berkman did on the teaching of evolution. About one third of teachers surveyed are presenting the issue as controversial despite the vast preponderance of scientific research. The piece has gotten a lot of attention, including the Onion!: http://www.theonion.com/americanvoices/teachers-misinform-students-climate-change-52357

Many high school and middle school teachers present a muddled view of the scientific consensus.

01/20/2016

On February 26 CAPR will be hosting a public talk by David Karol, a University of Maryland political scientist. David’s talk is entitled: "Parties, Activists and Presidential Nominations: 2016 in Perspective." This talk headlines CAPR’s weekend conference on political activism.

Karol is one of several authors of The Party Decides, an influential book about the important role the party establishment plays in picking the presidential candidate. This book has been receiving quite a bit of attention this year, because Donald Trump appears to run counter to his argument. After all, the Republican Party establishment does not seem to be deciding anything. In fact, they don’t seem very happy about a Trump candidacy!

In this column from the New York Times, David answers questions about the Trump candidacy. In brief: David says that he thinks the Trump campaign is different from any campaign not just this year, but going back decades. Very interesting stuff!
Mark your calendars for David’s February 26 talk, and visit the CAPR website http://capr.la.psu.edu/ for more information!

The key role of party elites has evolved but has not fundamentally changed, an author of “The Party Decides” says.

01/15/2016

This article is written by two Penn State doctoral students. They present impressive data analysis to draw an interesting conclusion: Trump’s media coverage does not appear to push up his poll numbers. So unlike just about any other candidate, more media won't do much to help him directly. However, there is only so much oxygen in the room. And every story about Trump means one less story about any other political candidate. Kevin and Nick, great work!

Bumps in media coverage for Trump don't increase his polling numbers, but they may stifle coverage of other candidates.