Neighborhood Councils as Antidote to Minority Political Marginalization?

In many of America’s major cities, a sense of hopelessness and cynicism discourages political participation, especially by members of minority groups.  Disengagement, in turn, undermines accountability and facilitates corruption, which exacerbates public cynicism. 

How can the vicious circle be broken?  In a new paper on SSRN, Matt Parlow argues that neighborhood councils — “new substructures of local government that aim to involve citizens in the decision- and policy-making processes” — have the potential to raise the engagement level of minority citizens with local government.  He uses Detroit to illustate the problems of local government corruption and minority political marginalization in American cities, while pointing to Los Angeles as an example of a city that has had some recent success with neighborhood councils. 

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How Women Lawyers Avoid the Likeability v. Competence Trap

In a series of recent papers, Andrea Schneider has explored the “likeabilty v. competence” trap that seems to confront many women in leadership and professional positions.  In her view, the trap is typefied by media coverage of Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin in the 2008 election.  Clinton was commonly portrayed as competent, but unlikeable, and Palin the reverse.

Now, Andrea has a new paper that discusses some of her own empirical research showing that women lawyers seem largely to avoid the trap, at least in negotiation settings.  She and her coauthors consider why this might be and how women lawyers might avoid the trap in other settings. 

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New Issues of Marquette Law Review

Two recently published issues of the Marquette Law Review are now available at the Law Review’s website.  Issue 3 of Volume 93 features a lead article by Carol Necole Brown on racial discrimination in the home mortgage market.  Issue 4 features papers presented at the Law School’s Legacies of Lincoln Conference, as well as Joshua Dressler’s Barrock Lecture on feminist critiques of self-defense law.  The full tables of contents appear after the jump.  Congratulations to the editors! 

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