Category Archives: theory

“One Person, No Votes: Unopposed Candidate Statutes and the State of Election Law”

April 18, 2017, 7:33 amtheory, votingRick Hasen

Noah Lindell has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Wisconsin Law Review). Here is the abstract: In thirty-six states and the District of Columbia, state laws allow candidates running unopposed for certain offices to be “declared elected” without appearing on… Continue reading

“The liberal failure of political reform”

September 13, 2016, 7:10 amtheoryRick Hasen

Matt Grossman and David Hopkins for Vox.

“Abdication and Federalism”

August 18, 2016, 7:45 amtheoryRick Hasen

Justin Weinstein-Tull has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Columbia Law Review). Here is the abstract: States abdicate many of their federal responsibilities to local governments. They do not monitor local compliance with those laws; they disclaim responsibility for the… Continue reading

“The Boundary Problem and the Changing Case Against Deference in Election Law Cases: Lessons from Local Government Law”

June 22, 2016, 7:17 amtheoryRick Hasen

David Schleicher has posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: This essay for the 2016 AALS Section on Election Law Program, “Election Law at the Local Level,” applies lessons from local government law to election law problems. Both… Continue reading

“Federalism and State Democracy”

March 2, 2016, 5:15 pmtheory, votingRick Hasen

David Schleicher has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming, Texas Law Review). Here is the abstract: When scholars, judges and politicians talk about federalism, they frequently praise the qualities of state and local democracy. State and local governments, it is… Continue reading

“The Value of the Right to Vote”

January 27, 2016, 10:26 amtheory, votingRick Hasen

Stephan Tontrup and Rebecca Morton have posted this draft on SSRN. Here is the abstract: We conducted a mixed lab and field experiment during a naturally occurring election. We offered subjects the opportunity to relinquish their voting rights for money.… Continue reading

“Democracy for GrownUps”

November 9, 2015, 7:46 amtheoryRick Hasen

I have written this review of Bruce Cain’s Democracy More or Less for the New Rambler Review. It begins: Modern American democracy is often messy, increasingly polarized, sometimes stupefying, and surprisingly decentralized. Our Congress functions (or doesn’t) mainly along party… Continue reading

Today’s Must Read: Mann and Dionne, “The Futility of Nostalgia and the Romanticism of the New Political Realists”

June 17, 2015, 8:24 amcampaign finance, Plutocrats United, theoryRick Hasen

Tom Mann and EJ Dionne take on Rauch, Pildes, Cain, LaRaja and Persily. This is a very important contribution to a key debate about the reform project. It is the best explanation of the ironic romanticism in the anti-reform camp. … Continue reading

“Ritual and Rhythm in Electoral Systems: A Comparative Legal Account”

March 23, 2015, 8:04 pmtheory, votingRick Hasen

The great Graeme Orr has written this new book. Here is the description: ‘Why do we vote in schools?’ ‘What is the social meaning of secret balloting?’ ‘What is lost if we vote by mail or computers rather than… Continue reading

“Political Powerlessness”

March 23, 2015, 3:51 pmtheoryRick Hasen

Nick Stephanopoulos has posted this draft on SSRN (forthcoming NYU Law Review). Here is the abstract: There is a hole at the heart of equal protection law. According to long-established doctrine, one of the factors that determines whether a group… Continue reading

The Political Safeguards of Horizontal Federalism

March 20, 2015, 10:03 amelection law and constitutional law, guest blogging election law scholarship, political parties, political polarization, theory, Uncategorizedfederalism, PoliticsHeather Gerken

Over at Balkinization, I’ve been blogging (here, here, here, and here) about the benefits associated with spillovers, which occur when one state’s policies affect citizens of another state. Most of those arguments have to do… Continue reading