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Brown's distinguished political science faculty includes experts on today's most important global and domestic issues, from democratic erosion and income inequality to nuclear security and climate change. They write essays in leading newspapers and magazines and are regularly quoted in the media.

An important stylized fact about American government is that many societal problems persist despite expert recognition that better outcomes are technically feasible. What explains the weakness of the political demand for more effective public policies? This study investigates one factor that may contribute to the attenuated demand for policy improvements: namely, the belief among many affluent citizens that they are personally insulated from societal problems. Drawing on a national public opinion survey, we show that affluent Americans believe their resources and ability to activate powerful social networks affords them a measure of personal insulation from key problems in areas such as education, healthcare and neighborhood safety. We also find that the affluent express a more optimistic view than other respondents of the average citizen’s financial situation and capacity to manage problems in several domains. Taken together, our results have important implications for understanding how highly influential Americans think about public policy in an era of inequality.
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The Ralph J. Bunche Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best scholarly work in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism.
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A new book by Professor Corey Brettschneider explores the history of presidents who abused their constitutional power and the citizen movements that stopped them. There’s a lesson for a second Trump administration.
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