Special Issue - Trump: Causes and Consequences

No matter where you stand on Donald Trump and his presidency, it is difficult to deny that he has inaugurated a period of uncertainty, flux, and potentially revolutionary change in American and global politics.  When he descended an escalator in the Trump Tower to announce his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, few saw Trump as more than an interesting sideshow and a future footnote to the history of American politics.  Yet he defeated a broad field of Republican contenders, including prominent governors and senators, and pulled out a last minute victory over Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton, despite a preponderance of polls that saw her ahead in the run-up to the vote.  We seek to devote a full issue of Perspectives on Politics to thinking in depth about the causes of the Trump victory and the potential consequences of his presidency.

We encourage papers from a range of perspectives, subfields, and approaches within the discipline, and collaboration between authors who practice political science from different subfields and differing points of view. Among the many topics that potential submissions might address are the following:

• What has changed in American politics such that a political outsider like Trump could win?  Was it the impact of globalization, the great recession, a renewed salience of old issues of identity (race, gender, sexuality, rural vs. urban), or the emergence of a new tribalism in America?

• What was the impact of new social media on the election?  Were Trump and his campaign team intuitively or purposefully more cognizant of new possibilities and better able to capitalize on them?

• Was the Trump victory something exceptionally American, or is it another example of a new global tendency?  What is the relationship of Trump to other right-populists such as Vladimir Putin, Recep Tayip Erdoğan, Rodrigo Duterte, Viktor Orbán, Andrej Babiš and Jarosław Kaczyński?

• Is talk about Russian intervention in Trump’s election credible?  How was it accomplished and what lessons should we learn to secure the integrity of our voting process?

• Does Trump’s victory signify a realignment of the American party system?

• What does Trump mean for the future of conservativism?

• What is the impact of Trump on the global economy and political system?

• What does Trump mean for the institutions and norms that guide American politics?

• What does Trump mean for the future of American democracy and American global leadership?

Submission Deadline

Authors must submit papers for consideration by March 15, 2018.

Questions

Please direct questions about this Special Issue to perspectives@apsanet.org.  Please do not propose papers to the editors or write directly to them with questions.  This compromises blind review. You will know on the basis of in-house review within two weeks if your paper has been rejected without external review.

Submission Guidelines

Length: manuscripts must not exceed 12000 words, including notes and references.
 
Style, Format, References, and Endnotes: Please refer to the style guide for Perspectives. As explained in the “Instructions for Authors,” tables, figures, and appendix materials may be included within manuscripts or uploaded as separate files.
 
Submission instructions: Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the online manuscript processing system called Editorial Manager. First-time users should register and create a profile. Returning users may log in and continue using their existing profile, and may update their user information at any time.  Please be sure to indicate that your submission is for this special issue through Editorial Manager.
 
Submissions must include a 200-word abstract, keywords (for indexing), and a brief author's biographical note (100 words or less) at the time of initial submission.
 
Review of Submissions

Articles submitted for consideration in this Special Issue will undergo Perspectives’ standard review process.

The first step in this process is a blind, in-house assessment by the editorial staff to determine whether the submission is of sufficient quality and an appropriate fit for both the journal and the Special Issue. Every article submitted will be read and reviewed by the editor-in-chief or associate editor.  This process will usually be completed in the week following submission.
 
The second step is peer review. Those submissions that fall within the thematic focus for this Special Issue and clear the internal review process will be sent out for external review according to a standard double-blind referee process. We typically seek four reviews, and select a diverse group of scholarly referees capable of approaching a manuscript from a range of pertinent disciplinary perspectives. We expect that reviewers will return their reports within four to six weeks.
 
Finally, based on referee reports and their own careful readings of the article, the editor-in-chief and/or the associate editor will then decide whether to accept a submission, reject it, or offer the author(s) the opportunity to revise and resubmit the manuscript. Authors will have access to all reviewer reports, and will receive a letter from the editors clearly explaining their decision.

About Perspectives on Politics

Perspectives on Politics seeks to provide a space for broad and synthetic discussion within the political science profession and between the profession and the wider scholarly and reading publics. Such discussion necessarily draws on and contributes to the scholarship published in the more specialized journals that dominate our discipline. At the same time, Perspectives seeks to promote a complementary form of inclusive public discussion and synergistic understanding within the profession that is essential to advancing research and promoting scholarly community.

Perspectives seeks to nurture a political science public sphere, promoting scholarly topics, ideas, and innovations, linking scholarly authors and readers, and promoting broad reflexive discussion among political scientists about the work that we do and why this work matters.

CELEBRITIES AND POLITICS 

Celebrity and fame permeate political life. In the United States and internationally, well-known celebrities advocate for humanitarian causes and even run for political office; elected officials are often renowned for their personal style and social media presence; and the multi-national media and consumer products industries use famous people to increase profits and shape political discourse (to name just some examples). Given that the study of politics is centrally concerned with power, this Special Section aims to examine the power and politics of "celebrity." We therefore invite scholars to submit theoretical and empirical pieces that build on existing celebrity/celebrities and politics research or break new ground to explore the power of "celebrity" and interrogate the forces that produce and maintain it. 

The list of possible paper topics for this Special Section might include, but is not limited to: 

• Theorizing the link between fame and political discourse and processes 
• The "celebritization" of the political sphere in historical perspective 
• The politics of celebrity in the sports and/or entertainment industries 
• Celebrities' impact on public opinion and voting behavior 
• Social movements and the mobilization of celebrity/celebrities 
• Methodological approaches to/challenges for celebrity research in political science

Editorial Information 

Michael Bernhard, Editor-in-Chief 
Daniel I. O'Neill, Associate Editor 
and 
Samantha Majic, Guest Editor 

Submission Deadline: May 15th, 2018  

Questions 

Please direct questions about this Special Section to our editorial staff at perspectives@apsanet.org. 

Submission Guidelines 

Length: manuscripts must not exceed 10,000 words, including notes and references.

Style, Format, References, and Endnotes: Please refer to the style guide for Perspectives. As explained in the "Instructions for Authors," tables, figures, and appendix materials may be included within manuscripts or uploaded as separate files.

Submission Instructions: Manuscripts must be submitted electronically through the online manuscript processing system called Editorial Manager. First-time users should register and create a profile. Returning users may log in and continue using their existing profile, and may update their user information at any time. Please be sure to indicate that your submission is for this Special Section through Editorial Manager. 

Submissions will include a 200-word abstract, keywords (for indexing), and a brief author's biographical note (100 words or less) at the time of initial submission. 

Review of Submissions 

Articles submitted for consideration in this Special Section will undergo Perspectives' standard review process. The first step in this process is a blind, in-house assessment by the editorial staff to determine whether the submission is of sufficient quality and an appropriate fit for both the journal and the Special Section. Every article submitted will be read and reviewed by the editor-in-chief or associate editor and the guest editor. The second step is peer review. Those submissions that fall within the thematic focus for this Special Section and clear the internal review process will be sent out for external review according to a standard double-blind referee process. We typically seek four reviews, and select a diverse group of scholarly reviewers capable of approaching a manuscript from a range of pertinent scholarly perspectives. We expect that reviewers will return their reports within four to six weeks. Finally, based on referee reports and their own careful readings of the article, the editor-in-chief, the associate editor, and guest editor will then decide whether to accept a submission, reject it, or offer the author(s) the opportunity to revise and resubmit the manuscript. Authors will have access to all reviewer reports, and will receive a letter from the editors clearly explaining their decision. 

About Perspectives on Politics 

Perspectives on Politics seeks to provide a space for broad and synthetic discussion within the political science profession and between the profession and the broader scholarly and reading publics. Such discussion necessarily draws on and contributes to the scholarship published in the more specialized journals that dominate our discipline. At the same time, Perspectives seeks to promote a complementary form of broad public discussion and synergistic understanding within the profession that is essential to advancing research and promoting scholarly community. Perspectives seeks to nurture a political science public sphere, publicizing important scholarly topics, ideas, and innovations, linking scholarly authors and readers, and promoting broad reflexive discussion among political scientists about the work that we do and why this work matters.