Department of Government
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Faculty Spotlight: Daniel Brinks
“My research is primarily about the way in which we are all constituted as citizens—whatever regime we live under—by a set of rights and duties, and about the legal scaffolding that makes those rights and duties a reality (or not).”
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The Re-Enfranchised, in Theory and Practice
Political scientist Hannah Walker explores how to bring the formerly incarcerated back into political participation.
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Polish Club Founder Graduates to International Stage
Nathan Silverstein came to UT Austin from Los Angeles, but it’s easy to see his heart beats in Poland, connected with his heroic ancestors as well as the modern population still reaching to secure democracy.
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To Do Justice
Federal prosecutor Heidi Boutros Gesch (Plan II and Government ’04) is on the case.
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The Oracle of the Enlightenment
How did one of the 18th century’s greatest students of Rome become its foremost voice for balance and moderation in the construction of the modern state?
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Laws of the Lands: Exploring the World’s Constitutions
There are almost two hundred countries with constitutions currently in existence, and their contents vary considerably. The Comparative Constitutions Project has been documenting and analyzing them for almost two decades, creating a set of resources for scholars and non-scholars along the way.
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Spring Books Unfold
Disentangling: The Geographies of Digital DisconnectionOxford University Press, July 2021Edited by Paul C. Adams, Professor, Department of Geography and the Environment, and André Jansson, Karlstad University After the rapid rise of digital networking in the 2000s and 2010s, we are now seeing a rise of interest in how people can disentangle their lives from the…
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Leaf Through a Good Book
Keep your to-read list up-to-date with our fall book list, featuring a selection of titles from College of Liberal Arts faculty members and alumni.
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Book Excerpt: Armies of Arabia by Zoltan Barany
A major legacy of the conflict is Arabia’s increased dependence on US weapons, training, and power projection capabilities, and this reliance has only increased in the past three decades.
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A Semester in New York
The UTNY program enables students to live, work and learn in New York City. Read a Q&A with UTNY participant and government senior Hannah Hayes.
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The Misinformation Age
Depending on whom you ask, conspiracy theories are either having a heyday or it’s just business as usual. But whether or not there is a long-term increase happening, certain factors likely influence the ebb and flow of conspiratorial beliefs.
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A Texas Politics Explainer
Many Texans learned a new word this year: quorum. And, no, it’s not the collective noun for a group of opossums. A quorum is the minimum number of assembly members that must be present in order to conduct business. For the Texas House of Representatives, that minimum is two-thirds of its members.
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A Look at Our Latest Books
2021 Spring and Summer titles from our college community.
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Trump, defying custom, hasn’t given the National Archives records of his speeches at political rallies
Public figures live on within the words they are remembered by.
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Strong political institutions can uphold democracy, even if people can’t agree on politics
Americans’ trust in the federal government has declined steadily in the last half-century, polls show.
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Shake Up Your Winter Reading
Winter 2020-21 books from our college community.
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Election Polling Needs More Transparency, Better Reporting of Results
Although it may be weeks until we have verified vote counts for the U.S. presidential election, the error in the polls is undeniable, with state-level polling consistently underestimating support for President Donald Trump.
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2020 Vision: Examining Some of the Country’s Big Issues
Experts from UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts weigh in on some of the major issues facing our country and the president-elect over the next four years.
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Ticket to Read
Fall 2020 books from our college community.
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Rebooting Our Lives After COVID-19
The world’s new reality amid the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing us to confront issues and critically think about how to revive communities slowly, safely and sustainably.
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Intern Supreme
Bahar Sahami is a Dedman Distinguished scholar from Plano, Texas. She is a senior double majoring in government and international relations and global studies, while minoring in Middle Eastern studies and completing a certificate in global management from the McCombs School of Business. She is a 2018 Bill Archer fellow, an Intellectual Entrepreneurship Citizen scholar,…
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The “C” that Changed the Constitution
It took two centuries and one mediocre grade to ratify the 27th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. In 1982, Gregory Watson stumbled upon a 200-year-old proposed amendment, written by James Madison, while researching a paper for his sophomore government class. It read: “No law varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives…
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School Rules
Texas Lawmakers Need to Rethink the Program that Gives Property Tax Breaks to Corporations Since the 2002 creation of the economic program known as Chapter 313, Texas has awarded more than $7 billion in tax credits to companies. The program is intended to attract investors by providing abatements to offset some of the property taxes…
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The Campaign for Your Vote: Just Add Brand Power
After months of being bombarded by pollsters, campaign ads and the most outlandish sound bites on repeat, the moment will come for you to finally cast your ballot. Whom will you choose? “The presidency is the one office that represents the American people: all their wishes, dreams, desires, hopes, fears and everything else,” says history…
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Spark Your Interests: Five Liberal Arts Classes That Ignite Critical Thinking
It’s not uncommon for the College of Liberal Arts to break the Registrar’s website. Not on purpose — the interdisciplinary nature of the courses offered in liberal arts do not always mesh well with a system that was designed around rigid department codes. The level of collaboration among faculty members across departments to create in-depth, fascinating…
