The United States has long been associated with liberal principles, but the nation has also nurtured deep pockets of authoritarianism. With a broad angle of vision across the past century, McGirr teases out the leaders, movements, and regional strong-holds of an American authoritarian tradition. She excavates the historical conditions that have fueled these movements, arguing that the growing power of authoritarianism within the Republican Party poses an urgent peril to the United States as a pluralist and multiracial democracy.

Who gets deplatformed? More specifically, why do social media firms designate only some militant organizations as “terrorists,” imposing consequences on the groups and their supporters? There has been little research on which political actors are removed from tech platforms, despite the importance of this topic. Militant organizations use social media for recruiting, fundraising, and other necessities, so being banned is costly. We build an argument drawing on comparisons to governmental terrorist designation policies, but highlighting firms’ profit motivation.

(joint work with Roman Senninger and Daniel Bischof)

Abstract: Partisanship is the primary driver of voter decision-making in the United States. Even when partisans learn negative information about their candidate, motivated reasoning often limits the extent to which they will change their evaluations or vote choice. However, there is evidence of a “tipping point” at which partisans will update their prior beliefs about their party’s candidate. This study seeks to determine whether that tipping point comes earlier when voters see a woman running in their party and under what circumstances.