Month: January 2020

ECU Political Science Professor Reacts to Trump’s Middle East Peace Plan

Dr. Hanna Kassab recently spoke with WNCT about Iran and the president’s Middle East peace plan.

EYE ON THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION: Who will the Democratic Party Nominate for President in 2020?

EYE ON THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINATION: Who will the Democratic Party nominate as their giant slayer in 2020? Who will they pick to challenge President Trump? Will it be the familiar – and unpredictable – Joe Biden? The fiery but controversial Elizabeth Warren? Uber-progressive (and old white male) Bernie Sanders? What about “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg, the seemingly sensible centrist? Or will one of the other candidates make a surprise showing in Iowa or New Hampshire and vault to the front of the pack?

Join us this spring for three “Eye On The Democratic Nomination” events as we follow the Democratic nomination race. During each we will follow the evening’s events on as they unfold, in addition to talking about what it might all mean for the race, and our democracy in general.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 8:00 – 10:30 PM: The Iowa Caucuses. A lot will be determined on this first in the nation nominating event. While we might not get a better answer to the question, “who will win the nomination,” the Iowa caucuses gives us a clear idea of those several who probably cannot win.
Join us in the Main Campus Student Center’s Black Box Theater to follow this event as it unfolds.
Snacks & drinks will be provided.

Dr. Samantha Mosier Explores Partisanship and Dietary Choices

Mosier, Samantha L., and Arbindra Rimal. 2019. Where’s the Meat? An Evaluation of Diet and Partisanship Identification. British Food Journal, DOI: 10.1108/BFJ-03-2019-0193.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to comprehensively evaluate the connection between dietary choice and partisanship affiliation among the US population. Food has the potential to be a powerful factor connected to identity and political behaviour. This study analyses survey data (including frequency distributions, cross-tabulations and Tobit regression models) from the Natural Marketing Institute’s 2016 LOHAS database with a total sample population of 4,134. The results provide a platform for further exploring the interaction and effect of diet and partisan affiliation as it applies to political outcomes and market activities. This study confirms that individuals identify as either a Democrat or unaffiliated are more likely to report a vegan or vegetarian-based diet compared to Republicans. However, unaffiliated respondents are also just as likely as Republicans to report a red meat-intensive diet. Gender, race and education level are consistent explanatory factors across the entire population for influencing self-reported dietary behaviour, but location lifestyle factors, such as marital and employment status, influence partisan groups differently.

Center for Survey Research’s Study on Opinion Toward Marijuana Legalization

The Center for Survey Research issued a new report the week before Christmas from its Life, Liberty, and Happiness Project on national public opinion of marijuana legalization. The CSR’s marijuana report, which was co-authored by graduate students in the Department of Psychology, an undergraduate student majoring in political science, and faculty (Mark Bowler and Peter Francia), received coverage from National Public Radio in Raleigh (WUNC) and Charlotte (WFAE). The report also received local television and radio coverage in Greenville.

See:

https://www.wunc.org/post/ecu-study-finds-most-americans-support-marijuana-legalization and https://www.wfae.org/post/ecu-study-finds-most-americans-support-marijuana-legalization#stream/0.

https://www.wnct.com/top-stories/ecu-center-for-survey-research-releases-recent-research-on-legalization-of-marijuana/ and https://www.publicradioeast.org/post/ecu-study-finds-most-americans-support-marijuana-legalization.

 

Dr. Mosier Published in “Politics and the Life Sciences”

Samantha Mosier recently published an article titled “Policies as Species: Viewing and Classifying Public Policy from an Evolutionary Perspective” (Politics and the Life Sciences, 38(3):117-131).

From the Abstract: This article proposes equating policies as species to develop a better understanding of how policies emerge, change, and diffuse across policymaking environments. Scholars have long shown an interest in understanding policy change and reinvention, whether incremental or nonincremental. The two subfields of public policy that can answer how and whypolicies change are not unified, leading to difficulty in comprehensively assessing policy emergence and change. The policy species concept bridges knowledge of the policy process and knowledge in the policy process by creating an operationalized definition of public policy and suggesting a process for classifying policies to observe subsequent behavior. Drawing from the field of biology, the policy species framework outlines how policies possess genotypes and phenotypes, which dictate what a policy is and how it can change. In tracing genotypic and phenetic change over time, policy evolution and change is more easily discernible. In turn, a more precise picture of how policies function is painted.

 

See: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/politics-and-the-life-sciences/article/policies-as-species/7BF1B832C6BB839BC3C6FD5C65581288#fndtn-information

 

Check Out ECU’s “Citizen U” – It’s Informative, Fun & Free!

Want to learn more about primaries, elections and voting? Need help navigating the news and media? Think about attending sessions of Citizen U. This is a 10-week program, hosted by ECU Leadership and Engagement, meeting one night a week, with FREE food, awesome field trips and engaging guest speakers!

For more information and to apply, click here

Apply by Jan. 24, 2020. First session begins on Jan. 28, 2020.