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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On Opportunity

A good friend of mine once told me that hitting the ball into the sand trap on the golf course should be looked at in one way, and one way only: an opportunity — an opportunity to get better at something that you may not excel at, but nonetheless must be able to master to become great.

Opportunities abound.  Everyone, regardless of profession, has opportunities to do something in this world that is important.  The problem as I see it, is that all too often people are too afraid to see the opportunities in front of them. They figure their ball went into the bunker,  and they have no way to get out.

As practitioners of the law, we have a very unique opportunity to help people.

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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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