Do contentious primaries have an effect on general election results? How does bigotry permeate public policy? What are the true forces driving polarization today?
Not Another Politics Podcast delves into these questions and more in its first season—not through opinion and anecdotes, but rigorous scholarship, massive data sets, and a deep understanding of what actually has happened. The show, which debuted Jan. 28, is hosted by three scholars from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy who explore what the most important political research really tells us about the issues that are so often fiercely debated—and often times obscured or misunderstood—within our government and our broader society.
Each episode features a guest scholar who will discuss their research, with an eye toward the implications for politics today, with Prof. William Howell and Assoc. Profs. Wioletta Dziuda and Anthony Fowler.
Episode one of the podcast examines research into the effects of party primary fights on who wins general elections. It’s a question many are asking as the Democratic presidential primary heats up ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 3.
“The hope is that listeners who are keenly interested in politics will find Not Another Politics Podcast to be a valuable dialogue that cuts through the noise and dives into what we really know about the topics that drive our news cycle,” said Howell, one of the world’s preeminent presidential scholars. “This is a vehicle for serious people to examine the political topics that matter most in today’s contentious atmosphere.”
Not Another Politics Podcast can be found on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts.
The three UChicago scholars who host Not Another Political Podcast:
- William Howell is the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the Harris School of Public Policy and a professor in the Department of Political Science and the College. He has written widely on separation-of-powers issues and American political institutions, especially the presidency. Howell is the author, most recently, of Relic: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government—and Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency (2016).
- Wioletta Dziuda is an associate professor at the Harris School of Public Policy. Her main interests lie in applied game theory, political economy and the economics of information. Her current research focuses on analyzing how legislative bargaining affects the nature and the efficiency of policies. She shows that in uncertain economic or political environments, policymaking may lead to legislators’ polarization and inefficient policy inertia. She is currently applying her findings to the economics of regulations, in particular trying to explain the frequent use of inefficient economic instruments.
- Anthony Fowler is an associate professor at the Harris School of Public Policy. His research applies econometric methods for causal inference to questions in political science, with particular emphasis on elections and political representation. Specific interests include the causes and consequences of unequal voter turnout, explanations for incumbent success, the politics of policymaking in legislatures and the credibility of empirical research.
—Story first appeared on the Harris Public Policy website.
—Prof. Kunle Odunsi
