Suchergebnisse

Neither a case study of a particular genocide nor a work of comparative genocide, this book explores the political constraints and imperatives that motivate debates about genocide in the academic world and, to a lesser extent, in the political arena. The book is an analysis of the ways that political interests shape discourse about genocide.

Unions worked very hard to elect Barack Obama in 2008. Labor leaders made a concerted effort to counter defections to Republican John McCain among white workers, who some commentators predicted would be reluctant to vote for an African‐American candidate. Obama received 59 percent of the vote from those residing in union households. This was precisely the share of the labor vote won by the Democratic presidential nominee in 1996, 2000, and 2004. The Obama victory and expanded Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate enhanced the prospects for the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). This legislation would facilitate union organizing in the U.S. Despite Democratic control of the executive and legislative branches, the ferocious opposition to EFCA by business interests made it difficult to predict the fate of EFCA in early 2009.

The conservative political preferences of many working class Americans have been the subject of much academic and popular analysis in recent years. This article investigates the voting behavior of union household residents in the 2004 presidential election. The source for this information is national and state exit polls from the 2004 election. There has been much debate about whether white working class support of Republicans is rooted in conservative cultural values. Despite ardent opposition by the Bush administration to the goals of organized labor, 46 percent of white voters who resided in union households voted Republican in the 2004 presidential election. The impact of race, religion, and gun ownership on the voting choice of labor households is investigated in an effort to provide an understanding of conservative voting by so many households affiliated with an interest group that is at odds with the Republicans.

Much of the literature on the effort to increase minority representation in Congress has focused on the extent to which creating majority-minority districts decreased the prospects for the election of Democrats. Little attention is paid to the partisanship of those drawing the district lines. An examination of redistricting in the South after the 2000 census indicates that Republican controlled state legislatures will distribute minority voters in a dramatically different fashion than will Democrat majority legislatures. When Democrats draw district lines, it is possible to draw district lines that benefit minority candidates and enhance overall Democratic electoral prospects.