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President Trump is often at odds with the conservative establishment over a range of issues, not least of which is foreign policy. Yet it remains unclear whether supporting “Trumpism” is commensurate with coherent foreign policy views that are distinct from conventionally conservative positions. We evaluate whether the foreign policy views of Trump’s supporters, both in the voting public and among activists, differ from those of other Republicans. We use the 2016 ANES to examine Republican primary voters and the new 2016 State Convention Delegate Study to assess Republican activists. In doing so, we reveal systematic differences in foreign policy preferences between Trump supporters and more establishment conservatives. We demonstrate that the status-threat model need not be confined to domestic politics. Indeed, it may be extended to explain foreign policy preferences on the political right, that of Trump’s supporters in the present case. In doing so, we also find evidence that status threat may well be the source of fracture in the Republican Party.

Elected representatives have more means of public-facing communication at their disposal than ever before. Several studies examine how representatives use individual mediums, but we lack a baseline understanding of legislators’ relative use patterns across platforms. Using a novel data set of the four most widely used forms of written, constituent-facing communication (press releases, e-newsletters, Facebook posts, and Twitter tweets) by members of the US House of Representatives in the 114th (2015–2017), 115th (2017–2019), and 116th (2019–2021) Congresses, we generate a baseline understanding of how representatives communicate across mediums. Our analyses show that institutional, legislator, and district characteristics correspond with differential use of mediums. These findings underscore why medium choice matters, clarifying how a researcher's choice of mediums might amplify the voices of certain legislators and dampen those of others. In addition, they provide guidance to other researchers on how to select the medium(s) that best correspond with different research aims.

As professors, we seek not only to impart knowledge about issues and concepts in American politics but also to engage and inspire students to become more knowledgeable and more active in politics. This article explains how a student-run exit poll conducted on Election Day 2016 accomplished both goals. Seven faculty members from four universities pooled our students and carried out an exit poll in the District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, and Ohio. By the time the polls closed, our students had spoken to more than 2,300 respondents, providing a memorable experience and creating a shared dataset that served as the centerpiece for many final class projects. Through this project, students gained hands-on experience in survey design, sampling, research ethics, polling, and data analysis.

The contemporary Republican Party has been the site of asymmetric partisan entrenchment and factional infighting. We test whether factional pressure from a far-right faction (the Tea Party) exacerbated the party's rightward movement with a granular analysis of Republican factionalism at the congressional district level. We develop a measure of local factionalism using novel datasets of activist presence and primary contests. Then, we conduct a difference-in-differences analysis to assess whether local factionalism in the Tea Party era heightened Republican partisanship and legislative extremism at the district level. We find that districts that experienced factional pressure moved rightward on both measures. These findings help clarify how the Tea Party captured the Republican Party and support a focus on the role of party factions in fomenting partisan conflict.

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex lifelong neurodevelopmental disorders, characterized by difficulties in social communication and stereotyped behaviours. Due to the increasing number of children with ASD, it is important to continue developing interventions as well as invent new ones. Human-robot interaction can contribute to better outcomes for these children. There are several robots such as Nao, Kaspar, ZENO, Probo, ZECA, etc. which are used in autism interventions. Many mobile and web applications are in constant growth, too. They target skills such as collaboration, social skills, language skills, social competence, and communication. Aim: To explore the usability of the humanoid robot Kaspar and a complementary app in interventions of children with ASD. Sample: 20 children with ASD, aged between 23 and 76 months old. Method: As an added intervention for this group of children, we used the robot Kaspar and its complementary app. Kaspar is a child-sized humanoid robot that uses bodily expressions, facial expressions, gestures, and pre-recorded speech to interact with a human. Results: This intervention achieved certain positive shifts in eight of the eleven measured developmental domains, such as communication functions and means, turn taking, imitation, language skills, play, attention and daily life skills. The three categories that had inconsiderable improvement are vocalization and speech, cause and effect and coping skills. Conclusion: Based on the measurements before and after the use of Kaspar and its complementary app, there is improvement, primarily in the domains of language, imitation and communication skills and attention.

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