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Privacy and Outing
Gordon Babst
Some elected officials have been both closeted and homophobic, supporting anti-gay policies and laws at every opportunity, even trumpeting their anti-gay voting record to constituents. While their choice to be closeted may be protected by privacy, an aspect of broader liberty, may they at the same time be outed without violating their right to privacy? Some members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community have chosen to express their autonomy in a different way: by being out, yet being out in a homophobic society with its anti-gay policies and laws has entailed risks that impinge on this autonomy and on the freedom to participate as an equal citizen in a society that was foreclosed as much possible by the closeted homophobic elected public official who helps to maintain a system that accords him money, privilege, and power at a cost he is apparently willing to bear. This is an asymmetrical relationship in which the choice of the gay but homophobic lawmaker to be closeted is protected but incompatible with the autonomy of others, namely, of gay individuals and the LGBT community as a whole who are negatively by the laws and policies the former advocates for. This asymmetry, based on a fraudulent pretense, contributes to the injustice at work and affects the political process for gay-citizen participants that outing rightly seeks to rectify.
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Civil Liberties and the Dual Legacy of the Founding
John W. Compton
"This chapter will argue that the framers’ dual legacy in the area of civil liberties has cast a long historical shadow. Since the early republic, Americans have invoked constitutional civil liberties provisions to challenge customary forms of authority. Yet establishing the abstract legitimacy of one's claim – that it comports with a particular conception of religious liberty or the freedom of speech, for example – has typically been insufficient to prevail in the courts."
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Introduction to Hatred of America's Presidents: Personal Attacks on the White House from Washington to Trump
Lori Cox Han
"To provide a better understanding of the current state of affairs as related to hatred of presidents, this edited volume provides historical and political context to explain how we got to this point."
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Equal Citizenship and Religious Liberty: An Irresolvable Tension?
Gordon Babst and John Compton
In this paper our focus is not on discrimination against religion, but for it. We are concerned that U.S. citizens who are religious believers receive degrees of latitude and deference in the law relative to non-religious believers that privilege religion in general in American society to the detriment of the equal citizenship and standing of other citizens. In many cases, the citizens most impacted by religious deference are precisely those who have been identified in law and policy partly through the lens of majority religious belief, as not deserving of equal consideration. This not ought to be an effect of constitutionally securing religious freedom. We distinguish religion-based deference in law and policy with respect to race and sexual orientation to illustrate the conundrums we find, conundrums that are highlighted in the Supreme Court's recent Hobby Lobby decision.
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Benjamin Barber
Gordon Babst
This is a section focusing on the American poltical theorist, Benjamin Barber.
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Brian Barry
Gordon Babst
This is a section on philosophy and political science professor Brian Barry.
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A Presidency Upstaged: The Public Leadership of George Bush, Joseph V. Hughes Jr. and Holly O. Hughes
Lori Cox Han
A president who distances himself from stagecraft will find himself upstaged. George H. W. Bush sought to “stay the course” in terms of policy while distancing himself from the public relations strategies employed during the administration of Ronald Reagan, his predecessor. But Bush discovered during his one-term presidency that a strategy of policy continuity coupled with mediocre communication skills “does not make for a strong public image as an effective and active leader in the White House", as author and scholar Lori Cox Han demonstrates in A Presidency Upstaged.
Incorporating extensive archival research from the George Bush Presidential Library at Texas A&M University—including documents only recently available through requests made under the Freedom of Information Act—Han thoroughly examines the public presidency of George H. W. Bush. Han analyzes how communication strategies, relationships with the press, and public opinion polling shaped and defined his image as a leader. The research for this study also includes content analysis of press coverage (both print and television) and major public addresses during the Bush administration.
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Off to the (Horse) Races: Media Coverage of the "Not-So-Invisible" Invisible Primary of 2007
Lori Cox Han
"While it may seem obvious to even the casual observer of U.S. politics how important news media coverage is for a presidential candidate in the heat of the primary or general election battle, it is the media attention garnered during the pre-nomination phase of the campaign that can play a crucial role in deciding if the candidate even makes it to the first nominating contest. Often referred to as the "invisible primary;' the pre-primary period for the 2008 election occurred earlier and lasted longer than in any previous campaign in modern American history...This chapter will consider two aspects of news media attention during the 2007 invisible primary. First, the role of the news media as the "great mentioner" was considered by analyzing how often candidates' names were mentioned in news coverage...Second, a more specific analysis will be provided of the four candidates presenting a potential first to U.S. presidential politics-Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Bill Richardson, and Mitt Romney-and the news coverage each received during the invisible primary."
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Boy Scouts v. Dale
Gordon Babst
This section deals with the discrimination against Boy Scouts of America soutmaster James Dale.
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Bradwell v. Illinois
Gordon Babst
This section focuses on the right of a married woman to be a practing lawyer.
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Consuming Its Own? Heteronormativity Contra Human Plurality
Gordon Babst
This chapter focuses on heterosexuality and heteronormativity.
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Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston
Gordon Babst
This section focuses on the rights of Irish LGBT groups in Boston.
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Introduction to Moral Argument, Religion, and Same-sex Marriage: Advancing the Public Good
Gordon Babst
This introduction explains the ongoing arguments about gay marriage and religion.
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Lawrence v. Texas
Gordon Babst
This section focuses on the discrimination of homosexuality in Texas.
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Zorach v. Clausen
Gordon Babst
This section focuses on the case for deaf private school students to have a sign-language interpreter in the classroom.
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Public Leadership in the Political Arena
Lori Cox Han
"In this chapter, I address the concept of leadership and the Important role that it now in the process at all levels and in various branches of I offer a definition of leadership and the various political that encompass this of governing. The vast scholarly literature that has developed in recent decades on the topic of presidential communications offers an excellent assessment of the contemporary importance of public leadership. I a brief overview of public strategies and how they have evolved over time (particularly in concurrence with technological advances in mass as well as relevant examples' that help us to understand the of public leadership. Finally, I conclude with an assessment of how public leadership specifically has shaped the overall definition of political and how that contributes to the dynamic of the current political environment within American government."
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The Family and Religion
Gordon Babst
This introduction focuses on religious beliefs in American families.
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The President Over the Public: The Plebiscitary Presidency at Center Stage
Lori Cox Han
"In this chapter, I will address the question of the usefulness of the public presidency in the current political environment (that is, can a president’s communication strategy make a difference in terms of what he achieves), as well as the constitutional danger, if any, posed by a president’s attempt at public leadership. Has the public presidency, and its focus on the public aspects of the office, thrown the constitutional balance of power between the three branches out of balance? Does the president really gain political power within the constitutional framework of our government if he is a skilled and effective communicator? Or have we just been duped into thinking that an image of strong presidential leadership on our television screens equates success in the arenas of domestic and foreign policymaking? Finally, I offer a brief assessment of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush and their respective efforts at public leadership, and argue that our definition of what constitutes a “good communicator” may be permanently altered due to Bush’s reelection in 2004."
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The Rose Garden Strategy Revisited: How Presidents Use Public Activities
Lori Cox Han
"The overall goal of this study was to determine how often, and in which formats, presidents choose to go public, and if differences exist in that pattern during their reelection efforts. This chapter also considers the major developments within the public presidency during the twentieth century, and how those developments contributed to the patterns in public activities that have emerged for Presidents Hoover through Clinton."
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Life After the White House: The Public Post-Presidency and the Development of Presidential Legacies
Lori Cox Han and Matthew J. Krov
"This chapter considers two distinct yet related issues: First, we examine the role that continuing press coverage of a former president plays in the development of a presidential legacy; and second, we consider the impact of Clinton’s lingering presence in the news media in the first year after he left office and how that has shaped the early phase of his legacy. While the historical rankings and public approval ratings of former presidents can and do shift—sometimes dramatically—in the years after leaving office, news coverage during the first year can be important in setting a tone as to how the president will be viewed and the public role that he will assume, as well as what news organizations view as significant from his time in office. A recent study on press coverage of former presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush suggests that the amount of post-White House coverage decreases after the first year out of office; once both the press and the public are satisfied in knowing how the former president is adjusting to his new responsibilities, then he is no longer viewed as tremendously newsworthy. Therefore, the first year of coverage is important if the former president hopes to create positive coverage through his public activities by working 'toward the goals in which he believes in the hopes of drawing both media and public attention . . . [since] an ex-president with a rigorous agenda is bound to capture more media attention than one with a less rigorous postpresidential schedule.'"
Below you may find selected research books and book chapters from Political Science faculty in the Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.
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