John K. White

Catholic University of America | CUA · Department of Politics

This paper examines the cooperation and influences between Poland and the U.S on their respective dreams, including the influence of the American Dream on Polish Americans and their potential distinctness from those who remain in Poland. Attitudes involving the American Dream that are examined include beliefs about freedom, liberty, democracy, gett...

In the United States, populism has made brief but important appearances throughout history. Populism has a particular appeal to Americans, as the ideas of popular sovereignty and equality of opportunity are highly valued. Whenever inequality becomes a dominant issue or when a class of people is viewed as getting “something for nothing,” populism ca...

Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson laid the foundations for today’s political debates between Democrats and Republicans. Hamilton believed that freedom must be married with a strong central government and especially an energetic president, while Jefferson believed freedom derived from local civic virtues. Throughout history, Democrats and Repu...

Donald Trump’s presidency is likely to become what Stephen Skowronek once labeled as a “disjunctive presidency.” Trump’s election in 2016 and the issue positions he has taken mark the end of the Reagan Era. Just as Jimmy Carter’s one-term signaled the end of the New Deal era begun by Franklin D. Roosevelt, so, too, does Trump’s already troubled pre...

Populism is a means of speaking to voters, a mode of speech that Michael Kazin once called “the populist persuasion.” During times of economic stress and cultural change, populism often becomes a popular means of communication, and has been used by aspirants for the presidency ranging from William Jennings Bryan to Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump....

The "American Dream" means many things to many people, but in general it can be said that it connects the idea of freedom to the opportunity for prosperity and upward social mobility. Sandra L. Hanson and John K. White have joined together with a group of social scientists to explore the attitudes, experiences, and expectations of Latinos in their...

The Grand Old Party-once moderate and even magnanimous-has fallen into a prison of its own making when it comes to presidential politics. Republicans may be having a heyday in the Congress but their prospects for the 2016 presidential election aren't great-and won't improve unless and until they break out of their intellectual and ideological strai...

The American Dream has long been a dominant theme in U.S. culture, one with enduring significance, but these are difficult times for dreamers. The editors of and contributors to The American Dream in the 21st Century examine the American Dream historically, socially, and economically and consider its intersection with politics, religion, race, gend...

THE AMERICAN DREAM remains a vibrant concept that Americans comprehend and defi ne in various ways as relevant to their own life experiences. Th e endurance of this "great epic," as it was once so famously described (Adams 1941, 405), is remarkable, especially given the depressions, recessions, economic contractions, and battles over civil rights,...

Research and reflections on the American demographic shift that led to the election of President Barack Obama

During the past fifty years, presidents have had moments when the public disapproves of their performances. George W. Bush is one of them. Successful presidents have been able to reverse their low standing when they can change the subject. Such was the case for Harry Truman in 1948, Ronald Reagan in 1987, and Bill Clinton in 1995. Truman got back t...

Looking back in recent presidential history, the authors show that Bush appears to defy prior trends with his high approval ratings in the third year. They explain, however, that he is vulnerable in 2004, particularly because he has not created a governing majority for his domestic agenda. The sharpening partisan divide among the electorate, especi...

Patricia Sullivan, Days of Hope: Race and Democracy in the New Deal Era (Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1996, $39.95 cloth, $17.95 paper). Pp. 335. ISBN 0 8078 2260 4, 0 8078 4564 7. - - Volume 31 Issue 3 - JOHN WHITE

Shortly before his death in 1971 E. E. Schattschneider said, “I suppose the most important thing I have done in my field is that I have talked longer and harder and more persistently and enthusiastically about political parties than anyone else alive.” Schattschneider's claim is not boastful, but factual. Exactly fifty years ago he completed Party...

Was Ronald Reagan a great President? How do we know? This essay examines the standards of presidential greatness used by historians and political scientists over the years, measuring Reagan's presidency against them and them against the Reagan presidency.

For several generations of readers, Samuel Lubell served as a vivid chronicler and analyst of the complex and varied currents of the American electoral scene. The first of Lubell's books, The Future of American Politics , was his most famous and went through several revised and updated editions, the last in 1965. When the book first appeared in the...

Electoral candidates tend to avoid issues that involve challenges to established values. But in the absence of a strong party organization capable of mitigating cultural divisions, troublesome issues, such as abortion and the death penalty, may be introduced into the campaign to the party's detriment. Professor White analyzes the 1978 Democratic pr...