INDEPENDENT, SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH
ON POLITICS AND SOCIETY
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From the CPS Blog
‘On the Roof of Himmler’s Guesthouse’
‘On the Roof of Himmler’s Guesthouse’ – The Untold Story of a German Refugee Turned US Soldier
A special exhibition opening June 19 at the Wannsee Conference Memorial and Educational Site on the outskirts of Berlin centers on the story of Fritz Traugott, a German Jewish refugee who returned to Europe as an American soldier. Read more on the CPS blog.
The American Century is Over
“Trump’s use of tariffs undermines both multilateralism and a rule-based order.” James D. Morrow writes on trade and the demise of the liberal international order. Read more from the CPS blog.
In Michigan, conspiracy thinking can be rooted in real historic harm
Government suspicion is not simply a product of misinformation—it is often a rational response to systemic failures and historical violence. CPS Next Generation Scholar Franshelly Martinez-Ortiz writes on the case of Michigan: More from the CPS blog.
Events
This year’s CPS Wednesday seminar series has had an exciting lineup of speakers. Check back for the fall listings!
James Morrow Celebration
CPS will host a celebration of the career of James Morrow on Oct, 10, 2026, in room 6050.
Miller-Converse Lecture 2026
James Druckman will give the 2026 Miller-Converse Lecture from the Center for Political Studies, the University of Michigan’s preeminent lecture on American electoral politics. Save the date: April 9, 2026, at ISR-Thompson Room 1430.
The Miller-Converse Lecture
BlueSky Feed
CPS News
Kenneth Lowande winds Neusdtadt Award for Best Book on the American Presidency.
Posted May 21, 2025.
Passing of William Zimmerman, scholar of Russian politics
Posted May 1, 2024
Celebrating 75 years of the American National Election Studies
The American National Election Studies celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2024 with events at MPSA, APSA, and more. The Center for Political Studies blog offers chronicles, comments, and reflections on the project. More from CPS.

Featured Project
World Values Survey
The World Values Survey (WVS) is an international research program devoted to the scientific and academic study of social, political, economic, religious and cultural values of people in the world. The project’s goal is to assess which impact values stability or change over time has on the social, political and economic development of countries and societies.

Featured Publication
Partisan Hostility and American Democracy
For generations, experts argued that American politics needed cohesive parties to function effectively. Now many fear that strong partisan views, particularly hostility to the opposing party, are damaging democracy. Is partisanship as dangerous as we fear it is? To provide an answer, this book offers a nuanced evaluation of when and how partisan animosity matters in today’s highly charged, dynamic political environment, drawing on panel data from some of the most tumultuous years in recent American history, 2019 through 2021. The authors– James N. Druckman, Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov, Matthew Levendusky, and John Barry Ryan– show that partisanship powerfully shapes political behaviors, but its effects are conditional, not constant. Instead, it is most powerful when politicians send clear signals and when an issue is unlikely to bring direct personal consequences. In the absence of these conditions, other factors often dominate decision-making. They argue that while partisan hostility has degraded US politics—for example, politicizing previously non-political issues and undermining compromise—it is not in itself an existential threat. As their research shows, the future of American democracy depends on how politicians, more than ordinary voters, behave.
Read more about the book. (University of Chicago Press: June 2024)