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.

A large group of developing countries did relatively well during the Great Recession, thanks to the broader room for countercyclical macroeconomic policies, and the world economy will continue to be more dependent on the developing world than any we have known in history.

In this article, the authors compare two different approaches to establishing stem cell policy: a defined policy (U.K.) and a changing policy (U.S.). The U.K. has a clear and precise policy, agreed upon and supported by lawmakers, scientists and the public. By contrast, U.S. federal policy is continuously being updated based on balancing political ideologies and advances in science, and it only regulates federal funding. By investigating these contrasting policy approaches, the authors hope to demonstrate the impact of policy on stem cell research and public opinion.

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

Starting in the 1950s and ever since, Tunisia has implemented gender legislation expanding women's rights in family law. This article documents the two major phases of reforms in favor of women's rights in Tunisia and outlines the conditions that permitted or encouraged the continuity over the last half century.

The significant influence of governors in the national policymaking process in Latin America can potentially generate uncoordinated and contradictory policies.

The authors in this special issue discuss how women's voices are excluded, silenced and marginalized in settings and processes such as war, displacement, democratization, labor market, judicial system, state bureaucracy, nonprofit organizations and national debates on citizenship. They also discover how women found their voices, channeled them, modified them, and gained a measure of empowerment.

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.

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.