In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and James explore the role of the Senate and the dysfunction we see today with Sean Theriault. Theriault is a Professor at the Department of Government at the University of Texas, Austin and the author of Disruption?: The Senate During the Trump Era (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Do we need the Senate? What has caused gridlock in the Senate? What would the Senate look like during a second Trump term? These are some of the questions Sean, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee and James explore America’s reliance on direct primaries in federal elections with Nick Troiano. Troiano is the Executive Director of Unite America and the author of The Primary Solution: Rescuing Our Democracy from the Fringes (Simon & Schuster, 2024).

What are direct primaries? Why do Americans rely on them? When did they first start using direct primaries in federal elections? And what are the consequences? These are some of the questions Nick, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Lee discusses the history of primary elections and options for reform with Robert Boatright. Boatright is professor of political science at Clark University and the world’s leading expert on the American primary system. He is also the director of research for the National Institute of Civil Discourse at the University of Arizona. His most recent book is Reform and Retrenchment: A Century of Efforts to Fix Primary Elections (Oxford University Press, 2024).

Why did the United States become the only democracy in the world that gives its voters a decisive voice in candidate selection? When did Americans begin using primary elections to select a party’s candidates for office? What is the difference between open and closed primaries? How did primary elections change in the 1960s and 1970s? Did the Democratic and Republican parties sideline reformers and take over primary elections during that period? How do different factions within each party view primary reform? These are some of the questions Robert and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Ari Berman joins Julia and Lee to discuss voting rights in the United States. Berman is Mother Jones’ national voting rights correspondent. He is the author of numerous books, including Minority Rule: The Right-Wing Attack on the Will of the People (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024).

Why is American politics dysfunctional? Is it because the Constitution prevents a majority of Americans from enacting their preferred policies without compromising with a minority of the population? Is the Constitution’s structure incompatible with the nation’s increasing diversification? What are the pros and cons of having voting laws administered at the state and local level? These are some of the questions Ari, Julia, and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Rachel Porter joins Lee to consider the consequences of political amateurs in Congress. Porter is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her research interests include American political institutions and political methodology, with a particular focus on Congress, elite behavior, and methods for computational social science. Most recently, her work has sought to explore and explain the rising success of political amateurs in elections for the U.S. House of Representatives. Before coming to Notre Dame, she earned a Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.A. in Political Science & International Affairs at the University of Georgia.

What is a political amateur? Why have the number of political amateurs in the House of Representatives increased since 2010? Is there a difference between Democratic and Republican amateurs? What role does experience play in governing? And what are the consequences of the decline in careerism for American self-government more broadly? These are some of the questions Rachel and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Jake Grumbach joins Lee and James to consider whether American democracy is in crisis. Grumbach is an associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He studies the political economy of the United States, with interests in democratic institutions, labor, federalism, racial and economic inequality, and statistical methods. And he is the author of Laboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics (Princeton University Press, 2022).

What is the state of American democracy? Are concerns that it is failing overblown? Or are they justified? What is the best standard to evaluate the quality of representation in the United States? How does that standard change based on the different types of democracy? These are some of the questions Jake, Lee, and James ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Congressman John Sarbanes, D-Md., joins Lee to talk about the health of American democracy. Sarbanes has represented Maryland’s third congressional district in the House of Representatives since 2007. He serves on the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and is chair of the Democracy Reform Task Force. Sarbanes was born and raised in Baltimore and has experience working in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

What does it mean to live in a democracy? What is the state of American democracy? Is it a flawed democracy? If so, what can be done to fix it? These are some of the questions Rep. Sarbanes and Lee ask in this week’s episode.

In this week’s episode of Politics In Question, Thomas Schaller and Paul Waldman join Lee and James to discuss the urban-rural divide in American politics. Schaller is a professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Waldman is a journalist and author whose writing has appeared in numerous publications, including MSNBC. Their new book is White Rural Rage: The Threat to American Democracy (Random House, 2024).

Why is Mingo County, West Virginia important? How has the decline of political parties shaped America’s present rural-urban divide? What is rural America? Do rural white Americans all think the same thing? Are rural Americans unique in their frustration with the federal government? Or are people from all walks of life frustrated with their government? These are some of the questions Tom, Paul, Lee, and James ask – and argue about – in this week’s episode.