Experts in the News

Topic
Los Angeles Times

Thousands of JFK assassination documents are released, though Trump orders some to be kept secret for now

To experts like Hughes, who studies the presidency, the records when they are released are likely to reveal juicy tidbits about American history that are unlikely to have much to do with the assassination itself. “The main thing I get out of these documents is great information about covert operations during the Kennedy administration,” Hughes said. “These covert operations were to overthrow and assassinate Fidel Castro of Cuba. They weren’t to overthrow and assassinate the president of the United States.”
Ken Hughes
Vox EU

Populists at the polls: Economic factors in the 1896 presidential election

The 1896 US presidential election has acquired new resonance in the wake of the 2016 electoral victory of Donald Trump and in light of the up-surge in populism more generally (e.g. Guiso et al. 2017, Dustman et al. 2017). To face off against a Republican establishment candidate, William McKinley, the Democrats nominated a political outsider, William Jennings Bryan. In doing so they sought to capitalise on the ‘populist revolt’ of farmers and workers, who blamed their economic plight on wealthy businessmen, railroad monopolies, Eastern bankers, and distant politicians.
David Leblang
NPR

Among China's New Leaders, The One Person Missing Is A Clear Successor To Xi Jinping

"Xi Jinping has started his second term by announcing a new era in Chinese politics, and evidently part of the new era is to leave open the question of successors," says University of Virginia political scientist Brantly Womack. "No one on the new Politburo is young enough to meet the age requirement for successor," Womack notes. "Does this mean that Xi plans to break precedent and take a third term himself?"
Brantly Womack