Theda Skocpol

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MERRI OK

infiltrated? steven teles

Opinion: "Trump Made the Swamp Worse. Here’s How to Drain It.," Steven M. Teles (with Brink Lindsey), New York Times, October 26, 2017.

Opinion: "Even the Intellectual Left is Drawn to Conspiracy Theories about the Right. Resist Them.," Steven M. Teles (with Henry Farrell), Vox, July 14, 2017.

Our Mission and Approach

The Scholars Strategy Network (SSN) is a national membership organization made up of college- and university-based researchers interested in improving policy and strengthening democracy. Founded in 2011 by Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, SSN has grown into a network of over 2,000 researchers in 47 states. SSN members organize themselves into local chapters across the United States, working to advance the use of research wherever policy decisions are made - from city halls to state legislatures to Washington.

To foster a nationwide culture where research regularly informs policy at every level, scholars must build strong, sustained relationships with policymakers, civic intermediaries, and journalists.

To do this, SSN:

Teaches public engagement best practices, with an emphasis on relationship building
Emphasizes the value of providing practical support to policy actors
Organizes scholars into chapters, cohorts, and issue-specific working groups
Helps scholars translate academic jargon into clear and compelling language for the media

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AN 7 25

After just six months into his second term, President Donald Trump has already left a significant mark on American society and severely crippled the ability of institutions like Congress and the courts to check him. But some experts say democracy is still far from over and maintain that Trump is still vulnerable.

On Tuesday, New York Times columnist Thomas B. Edsall detailed the various ways Trump has eroded traditional democratic checks and balances, wielded the executive branch's power against his political opponents, fired government employees who aren't fully on board with his agenda and demoralized the opposition. University of Toronto political scientist Lucan Way — along with Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt acknowledged that "the cost of opposing the government" has risen significantly under Trump, meaning that the United States may have very well "crossed the line into authoritarianism" under Trump.

However, one of the various academics and experts Edsall interviewed emphasized that Americans who believe in democracy still have many tools at its disposal.

Harvard professor of government and sociology Theda Skocpol told Edsall that Trump had created a new governing system called "competitive sycophancy," in which various interests attempt to curry favor with the administration through flattery and manipulation. He also described it using the phrase "patrimonial corruption."

IFrame Content

"Thanks to the fawning of the GOP and of most elite-run U.S. institutions, he already basically has this system in place," Skocpol said. "One part of it that is a possible route to pure coercive authoritarianism is the new ICE-centered private army run without limits by Stephen Miller — and there will be constant efforts to push that into a centralizing and terrifying threat against all political opposition."

However, Skocpol noted that Trump critics have an adherent advantage due to the "sheer inefficiency and incompetence" of top administration officials. He also stressed that Trump's actions now are likely to harm both him and his party in the long run.

"Trump owns it all now; that is the silver lining in all of this," he said. "Let him get all the blame for the messes that will unfold, let his childish efforts to shift blame look more and more desperate, silly and weak. Weak is the key."

Click here to read Edsall's full column in the Times, or by clicking this link (subscription required).

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Email: justin.farrell@yale.edu.

http://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-tipping-point-2170296371.html?page=2

Work from Yale, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, continues a trend of defining the culpability of the so-called Climate Change Counter Movement (CCCM) in obfuscating climate science. This work looked at 164 organizations identified in other academic literature as being involved in the CCCM between 1993-2013 and included 40,785 pieces of textual content and more than 39 million words. Two main findings emerged: Organizations with corporate funding were more likely to have distributed content meant to polarize the climate change issue; and corporate funding influences the actual thematic content of these polarization efforts, confirming previous work showing the CCCM to be at the root of climate change politics and discourse.

Corporate funding and ideological polarization about climate change

Justin Farrell1 School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT 06511 Edited by Theda Skocpol, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, and approved October 12, 2015 (received for review May 13, 2015)

Making Sense of the Koch Network

Theda Skocpol, Harvard University

In recent years, two multibillionaire brothers, David and Charles Koch, have become major players on the political right, inspiring journalists and public interest researchers to comb through publicly recorded donations to depict a vast Koch network – as, for example, in the widely distributed “Maze of Money” chart created by OpenSecrets for the 2012 election cycle. In the current legal environment donations are often secret, so this approach necessarily misses money flows. Ironically, it also includes too many groups, ranging from longstanding conservative giants that get modest Koch donations to short-term fronts set up to write checks for attack ads.

An Evolving Political Strategy

Using information from SourceWatch and journalists, my research group on “The Shifting U.S. Political Terrain” focuses on enduring organizations created and directly controlled by the Kochs and their closest associates. Donations are not the key, because the Kochs have always collected resources from other donors, as they now do on a huge scale at twice-a-year “Koch Seminars.”

The chart in this brief arrays core Koch political organizations chronologically and functionally. Groups could be added and classifications debated, but the chart features the most important organizations and offers a coherent picture of the evolution of an overarching political strategy.

The earliest and most enduring organizations – especially the Cato Foundation, the Mercatus Center housed at George Mason University, and the Charles G. Koch Foundation – aim to shape political ideas and world views. Taking ultra-free-market ideas seriously, the Kochs fund libertarian intellectuals and mount seminars for donors, operatives, and young people.
From the 1980s and 1990s, Koch advocacy organizations engaged major policy battles about energy and climate regulations, taxes, and government’s role in social security and health care.
From themid-2000s, the Koch network turned to mobilizing activists and contacting voters for elections and policy battles. The key move was building a centrally directed nationwide federation, Americans for Prosperity – which had paid directors and staff in 15 states by 2007, and expanded by 2015 to 34 states encompassing 80% of the U.S. population. Themis/i360 was launched to collect and analyze real-time voter data; and specialized organizations manage outreach to key constituencies such as young people and military veterans. The most important of these is theLibre Initiative, working to attract Hispanic support in electoral swing states.

By now, the Koch network parallels, rivals, and leverages the Republican Party itself, both nationally and in most states. The aim is not merely to elect or appoint conservative Republicans, but also to prod them into carrying through an overarching agenda – to hobble the U.S. public sector by slashing taxes, removing regulations, and eliminating or privatizing social spending on health, education, and social security.

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http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/skocpol_captrade_report_january_2013_0.pdf

NAMING THE PROBLEM:

What It Will Take to

Counter Extremism and

Engage Americans in the Fi

ght against Global Warming

Theda Skocpol

Harvard University

January 2013

CONTENTS

Making Sense of the Cap and Trade Failure

Beyond Easy Answers

          Did the Economic Downturn Do It?

          Did Obama Fail to Lead?

An Anatomy of Two Reform Campaigns

          A Regulated Market Approach to Health Reform

          Harnessing Market Forces to Mitigate Global Warming

          New Investments in Coalition-

Building and Political Capabilities

          HCAN on the Left Edge of the Possible

Climate Reformers Invest in

Insider Bargains and Media Ads

Outflanked by Extremists

          The Roots of GOP Opposition

Climate Change Denial

          The Pivotal Battle for Public Opinion in 2006 and 2007

          The Tea Party Seals the Deal

What Can Be Learned?

          Environmentalists Diagnose the Causes of Death

          Where Should Philanthropic Money Go?

The Politics Next Time

          Yearning for an Easy Way

          New Kinds of Insider Deals?

          Are Market Forces Enough?

          What Kind of Politics?

          Using Policy Goals to Build a Broader Coalition

The Challenge Named

2003

http://scholar.harvard.edu/thedaskocpol/publications/diminished-democracy-membership-management-american-civic-life

Pundits and social observers have voiced alarm each year as fewer Americans involve themselves in voluntary groups that meet regularly. Thousands of nonprofit groups have been launched in recent times, but most are run by professionals who lobby Congress or deliver social services to clients. What will happen to U.S. democracy if participatory groups and social movements wither, while civic involvement becomes one more occupation rather than every citizen's right and duty? In Diminished Democracy, Theda Skocpol shows that this decline in public involvement has not always been the case in this country-and how, by understanding the causes of this change, we might reverse it.

http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/scholar/theda-skocpol

Director of the Scholars Strategy Network; Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, Harvard University

CGIS Knafel K416

1737 Cambridge Street

Cambridge, MA 02138

skocpol@fas.harvard.edu

(617) 496-0966

Areas of Expertise & Civic Involvements

Skocpol’s research focuses on health reform, social policy, and civic engagement amidst the shifting inequalities in American democracy. Current projects include tracking the implementation of health reform in the U.S. states; analyzing the dynamics of local Tea Party groups; and probing how the Democratic Party has handled – and mishandled – political battles over taxes and public revenues. Skocpol speaks regularly to community groups and writes for blogs and public-interest magazines. She has met with groups of Congressional Democrats and attended White House sessions that included the president during the Clinton years.

Briefs

Making Sense of the Koch Network

SSN Basic Facts, October 2015

Conservative and Progressive Trans-State Policy Networks

http://www.scholarsstrategynetwork.org/sites/default/files/ssn-visual-hertel-fernandez-and-skocpol-on-trans-state-policy-networks.pdf

right wins

Co-Authored with Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

SSN Visual, October 2015

Theda Skocpol

Our Mission and Approach

Briefs

Making Sense of the Koch Network

Conservative and Progressive Trans-State Policy Networks

How Mobilized Small Businesses - Real and Disguised - Tilt the Partisan Playing Field on Tax Cuts

Why U.S. Conservatives Shape Legislation across the Fifty States Much More Effectively than Liberals

The GOP Civil War over Medicaid Expansion in the States

Why U.S. Conservatives Shape Legislation across the Fifty States Much More Effectively than Liberals

Why a Supreme Court Decision to Restrict Health Reform Subsidies Would Backfire on Republicans

Why Congressional Budget Office Reports are the Best Evidence of Congressional Intent about Health Subsidies

How Health Reform Makes the Job Market More Flexible and Unleashes Entrepreneurs

Debunking Myths about Medicaid - And Its Expansion

The Best Way to See That Affordable Care is Moving Ahead

A Field Guide to the Politics of ObamaCare Implementation

Albert Hirschman - A Life of Courage and Creativity in the Service of Progressive Possibility

Why Now is the Time to Build a Broad Citizen Movement for Green Energy Dividends

What Americans Really Think about Health Reform

What Does Health Reform Do for Americans?

The Tea Party Lives On - And Pulls Republicans to the Right

What the Ryan Budget Means for Missouri Families

The Truth about the Individual Mandate in Health Reform

The Ryan Budget and Michigan: A Few Win, but Millions Lose

The High Stakes for Health Care in Election 2012

Social Security is in Good Shape – And Does Not Drive the Deficit

Making Sense of the Tea Party