Research Library

The 2010 Census data indicates that more than one-third of the Houston metropolitan region is Hispanic; however, the creation of a second Hispanic-majority district is unlikely. Political science fellow Mark P. Jones offers four reasons why redistricting will not yield a new Hispanic-majority district.

On Jan. 11 the Texas House of Representatives will elect a new Texas House speaker. Political science fellow Mark Jones compares prospective candidates along an ideological liberal-conservative spectrum.

This blog post examines how the Republican wave that swept Texas in November has altered the composition of the Democratic electoral base.

In 2003 and 2009, the Texas House of Representatives had a Republican majority and a Republican speaker. In this blog post, political science fellow Mark P. Jones presents critical distinctions between the 2003 and 2009 House leadership.

Latin America recently experienced a new wave of nationalization in the hydrocarbon sector with tax increases and the participation and control of the state. There is considerable variation in the specific policies that Latin American countries implemented, however.

In this blog post, political science fellow Mark P. Jones documents the widening ideological gap between members of the Democratic and Republican delegations in the Texas House of Representatives over the past four decades.

To access the full opinion piece, download the PDF on the left-hand sidebar.

Climate change expert answers questions…

This paper investigates the relative performance of enterprises backed by government-sponsored venture capitalists and private venture capitalists.

The political institutions that established Venezuela's democracy in the 1960s were deliberately set up to generate a cooperative equilibrium with low stakes of power. The recent political reforms, increasing the stakes of power, have stimulated a complete breakdown in cooperation and a highly polarized political system.

Women’s empowerment is a multi-dimensional process of achieving basic capabilities, legal rights, and participation in key social, economic, political and cultural domains. This paper offers a set of 44 indicators for measuring women's empowerment.