{"title":"Human security as biosecurity <i>Reconceptualizing national security threats in the time of COVID-19</i>.","authors":"Craig Albert, Amado Baez, Joshua Rutland","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.1","DOIUrl":"10.1017/pls.2021.1","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Research within security studies has struggled to determine whether infectious disease (ID) represents an existential threat to national and international security. With the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), it is imperative to reexamine the relationship between ID and global security. This article addresses the specific threat to security from COVID-19, asking, \"Is COVID-19 a threat to national and international security?\" To investigate this question, this article uses two theoretical approaches: human security and biosecurity. It argues that COVID-19 is a threat to global security by the ontological crisis posed to individuals through human security theory and through high politics, as evidenced by biosecurity. By viewing security threats through the lens of the individual and the state, it becomes clear that ID should be considered an international security threat. This article examines the relevant literature and applies the theoretical framework to a case study analysis focused on the United States.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"83-105"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2021.1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38951286","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Policy for science by ballot or by roll call? <i>Observations from stem cell research policymaking</i>.","authors":"Jonah J Ralston","doi":"10.1017/pls.2020.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2020.14","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study compares stem cell research policymaking by legislators and citizens in the United States. First, using exit poll results from a 2006 stem cell research initiative in Missouri, the study finds that deeply held personal values such as religious beliefs and views of abortion predominate in an individual's voting decision on this issue; second, an analysis of voting behavior by senators on the Stem Cell Research Enhancement Act of 2005 finds that senators make their voting decisions based on their personal policy preferences rather than their constituents' preferences; and third, the complexity of the Missouri citizen initiative is compared with that of the legislation in the U.S. Senate, finding that the language of the citizen initiative is more sophisticated than the language of the legislative act. These findings provide the context for a broader discussion of the role of citizens and legislators in making policy for science.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"3-18"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2020.14","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38960544","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"In memoriam: Albert Somit, PhD","authors":"S. Peterson","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.2","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.2","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract. Dr. Albert Somit recently died at 100 years of age. He was a major figure in the development of biopolitics. This essay reflects on his career and his role in helping others in advancing the study of politics and the life sciences.","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"55 1","pages":"133 - 134"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"84876949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cynthia Rugeley, John Frendreis, Raymond Tatalovich
{"title":"Direct democracy, policy diffusion, and medicalized marijuana.","authors":"Cynthia Rugeley, John Frendreis, Raymond Tatalovich","doi":"10.1017/pls.2020.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2020.30","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Virtually all studies of policy diffusion are based on statutory enactments by state legislatures. But a substantial number of medicalized marijuana laws were initiated through citizen initiatives and ratified by referenda (I&R). This case study suggests that the diffusion of laws adopted by I&R requires two modifications to the conventional model of policy diffusion. First, early policy adoptions must occur through direct democracy so that horizontal diffusion results when those past adoptions by the I&R process lead to future adoptions. Second, the necessity of bypassing institutions of representative government must be operationalized as an interaction between the availability of direct democracy and the precise political variable that blocks legislative enactments.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"72-82"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2020.30","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38951289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The pleasure principle <i>Why (some) people develop a taste for politics: Evidence from a preregistered experiment</i>.","authors":"Alexander Wuttke","doi":"10.1017/pls.2020.18","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2020.18","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Existing theories struggle when political engagement is an end in itself. To explain intrinsically motivated engagement in politics, this study synthesizes psychological theories to deduce a need-based theory of political motivation. It posits that intrinsic political motivation has roots in seemingly apolitical processes of need satisfaction that are universal and deeply ingrained in the human psyche. However, in a high-powered survey experiment, 14 of 15 preregistered analytical tests did not yield the expected evidence for the basic tenet that previous need-related experiences with politics affect the quality and quantity of future activities in the political domain. Showcasing a stepwise approach to engage with null results in hypothesis-driven research, post hoc analyses solidify the null findings, which call into question the validity of the presented theory and the previous evidence on which it was built. This study thus enhances our understanding of what does and does not underlie intrinsic motivation for political engagement.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"19-39"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2020.18","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38960545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Political ideology and diurnal associations <i>A dual-process motivated social cognition account</i>.","authors":"Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.4","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.4","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Social scientists have begun to uncover links between sleep and political attitudes and behaviors. This registered report considers how diurnal morning-night associations relate to political ideology using data from the Attitudes, Identities, and Individual Differences Study, a large-scale online data collection effort. Measures encompass perceived cultural attitudes and social pressures regarding diurnal preferences and explicit and implicit measures of both morning-night attitudes and morning-night self-concepts. Together, the analyses demonstrate a relationship between morning orientation and conservatism for explicit morning-night self-concepts and, to a lesser extent, explicit morning-night attitudes. This relationship is not present for implicit associations, and associations with perceived cultural attitudes and social pressure are also largely absent. This study reinforces the notion that morningness and eveningness as explicit identities are associated with political ideology.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"56-71"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2021.4","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38951287","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Christopher D Wirz, Emily L Howell, Dominique Brossard, Michael A Xenos, Dietram A Scheufele
{"title":"The state of GMOs on social media <i>An analysis of state-level variables and discourse on Twitter in the United States</i>.","authors":"Christopher D Wirz, Emily L Howell, Dominique Brossard, Michael A Xenos, Dietram A Scheufele","doi":"10.1017/pls.2020.15","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2020.15","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>This study analyzes the relationship between state-level variables and Twitter discourse on genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Using geographically identified tweets related to GMOs, we examined how the sentiments expressed about GMOs related to education levels, news coverage, proportion of rural and urban counties, state-level political ideology, amount of GMO-related legislation introduced, and agricultural dependence of each U.S. state. State-level characteristics predominantly did not predict the sentiment of the discourse. Instead, the topics of tweets predicted the majority of variance in tweet sentiment at the state level. The topics that tweets within a state focused on were related to state-level characteristics in some cases.</p>","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"40-55"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2020.15","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"38951285","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"PLS volume 40 Issue 1 Cover and Back matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.8","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.8","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"b1 - b4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2021.8","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"57057225","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"PLS volume 40 issue 2 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.27","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"f1 - f4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"57057021","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"PLS volume 40 Issue 1 Cover and Front matter","authors":"","doi":"10.1017/pls.2021.7","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2021.7","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":35901,"journal":{"name":"Politics and the Life Sciences","volume":"40 1","pages":"f1 - f4"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1017/pls.2021.7","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"57057187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}