Base and Superstructure

Alienation, autonomy, and ideology

Category: Elections (Page 13 of 18)

These are posts on elections from the blog Base and Superstructure. Topics include international elections, American elections, and local Iowa elections. There’s a particular focus on describing and explaining leftist electoral results.

More Data on College Students and Local Elections

December 14, 2019 /

A little over a year ago, I wrote on the topic of college students and local elections. I included some data from local elections in Iowa City, specifically our city council elections in 2017 and 2018. The data provide support for the idea that college students don’t vote in local elections, and I argued the reason for this is that local elections don’t speak to their issues and material interests. In effect, they’ve got nothing at stake.

But this was just from a couple of data points. To compound the difficulties, one of the two data points was a primary for a special election. We’ve got more data now. This time from the November 2019 city council general election in Iowa City.

Let’s take a look!

Continue reading

electability allende

The Electability Dilemma

November 11, 2019 /

Let’s start with an argument. It’s a general argument about electability, but that’s no fun. Instead, I’ll use the more provocative case of Bernie Sanders. The motivating claim is that electability stands in tension with systemic change. Or, to put it differently, that not being a threat to the capitalist system is a prerequisite to attaining electability. Replace ‘Bernie Sanders’ with any other candidate and it works roughly the same. With other candidates, it’s usually so obvious it approaches triviality.

Here’s the argument.

1. Either Bernie Sanders is electable or he isn’t.
2. If Bernie Sanders is electable, his presidency isn’t a threat to capitalism.
3. If Bernie Sanders isn’t electable, his presidency isn’t a threat to capitalism.
4. Therefore, a Bernie Sanders presidency isn’t a threat to capitalism.

Continue reading

« Older posts Newer posts »

© 2025 Base and Superstructure

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑