The Conversation

Legislative inaction and dissatisfaction with one-party control lead to more issues going directly to voters in ballot initiatives, with 60% of them in six states

Written by Thom Reilly, Professor & Co-Director, Center for an Independent and Sustainable Democracy, School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University

A home in rural Bingham, Maine, displays signs protesting a Quebec-to-New England hydropower corridor that voters rejected in a referendum vote. AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Recent polls show Americans are increasingly dissatisfied with their system of representative democracy, in which they choose candidates to represent their interests once in...

How safe are your solar eclipse glasses? Cheap fakes from online marketplaces pose a threat, supply-chain experts say

Written by Yao "Henry" Jin, Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, Miami University

Don't trust. Verify.Andrew Holt/The Image Bank via Getty Images

Americans from Maine to Texas are set for a rare treat on April 8, 2024, when a total solar eclipse will be visible across much of the U.S.

In ancient times, eclipse-viewers thought they were watching the Sun be eaten by wolves, a dragon or a demon.

Of course, we now know that the Sun...

New studies suggest millions with mild cognitive impairment go undiagnosed, often until it’s too late

Written by Soeren Mattke, Director of the USC Dornsife Brain Health Observatory, University of Southern California

Mild cognitive impairment can be an early sign of Alzheimer's disease or other dementias.ivanastar/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Mild cognitive impairment – an early stage of dementia – is widely underdiagnosed in people 65 and older. That is the key takeaway of two recent studies from our team.

In the first study, we used Medicare data...

California is wrestling with electricity prices – here’s how to design a system that covers the cost of fixing the grid while keeping prices fair

Written by Yihsu Chen, Professor of Technology Management in Sustainability, University of California, Santa Cruz

As more homes like these in Folsom, Calif., add solar power, electricity pricing becomes more complicated.AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Small-scale solar power, also known as rooftop or distributed solar, has grown considerably in the U.S. over the past decade. It provides electricity without emitting air pollutants or climate-warming greenhouse gases,...

What Article 23 means for the future of Hong Kong and its once vibrant pro-democracy movement

Written by Michael C. Davis, Professor of Law and International Affairs, O.P. Jindal Global University

Lawmakers in Hong Kong passed new security legislation on March 19, 2024, handing authorities in the semi-autonomous city-state further power to clamp down on dissent.

The law, under Article 23, has been decades in the making but was resisted for a long time by protesters who feared the legislation’s effect on civil liberties in Hong Kong, a...

‘He just vanished’ − missing activists highlight Tajikistan’s disturbing use of enforced disappearances

Written by Steve Swerdlow, Associate Professor of the Practice of Political Science and International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

“He just vanished; left his apartment for a meeting and disappeared. We’ve checked all the police stations, jails, the hospital and migration centers. We don’t know what to do.”

These were the words Tajik opposition leader Suhrob Zafar uttered to me in late February 2023, days after Nasimjon Sharipov, his colleague in the po...

A century ago, one state tried to close religious schools − a far cry from today, with controversial plans in place for the nation’s first faith-based charter school

Written by Charles J. Russo, Joseph Panzer Chair in Education and Research Professor of Law, University of Dayton

A Catholic schoolroom in the U.S. around 1930.Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Almost 100 years ago, a group of nuns joined a suit against the state of Oregon – and made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Their cause? Keeping Catholic schools open. In 1922, voters approved an initiative requiring almost...

Biden cannot easily make Roe v. Wade federal law, but he could still make it easier to get an abortion

Written by Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of Virginia

A protester marks the Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision anniversary outside the Supreme Court building on June 23, 2023. Associated Press/Nathan Howard

President Joe Biden promised during his State of the Union address on March 7, 2024, that he would make the right to get an abortion a federal law.

“If you, the American...

40 years ago, the Supreme Court broke the NCAA’s lock on TV revenue, reshaping college sports to this day

Written by Jared Bahir Browsh, Assistant Teaching Professor of Critical Sports Studies, University of Colorado Boulder

A cameraman films the Ohio State Buckeyes before a 2018 game.Michael Allio/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

The Pac-12 is likely to be competing in its last March Madness, as realignment has pushed 10 of its schools to other conferences. What led the most decorated conference in the NCAA to dissolve so quickly?

This surprising development arguably...

Nixon declared Americans deserved to know ‘whether their president is a crook’ – Trump says the opposite

Written by Spencer Goidel, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Auburn University

Richard Nixon and Donald Trump may seem similar, but they have key differences.Official White House portraits, CC BY-ND

One of the four criminal trials of Donald Trump was slated to start in the next few days, but has been delayed on procedural grounds. There was a time when it appeared possible all of his trials could happen before the November...