Winter 2021 Political Science Post

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1THE SYAHIM MAG 

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The year 2020 was exhausting, 

with a global pandemic, a divisive U.S. 

presidential election, and race riots 

across the country. But as a result, many 

rediscovered the beauty of simple things 

like the outdoors, hiking, biking and smaller 

things at home, and also of gratitude, 

giving thanks and of lightening a troubled 

world. The BYU Department of Political 

Science also issued an important statement 

on race after the tragic loss of an African 

American citizen—George Floyd— 

resulted in a national outcry. In this issue, 

we reiterate the Poli Sci statement on race, 

and discuss the scholarship of Professor 

Dan Nielson, especially on Africa and on 

poverty. We hope that 2021 will be a better 

year with positive change. 

FOREWORD 

WINTER 2021 

The Political Science Department 

Publisher: 

Sven Wilson, Chair 

Editor: 

J. Matthew Clarke 

Graphic Designer: 

Sydney Freeman 

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THE SYAHIM MAG 

CONTENTS 

WINTER 2021 

FOREWORD 1 

AFRICA, POVERTY, AND GLOBAL SHELL 

GAMES 3 

EVENTS AND PROGRAMS 4 

STATEMENT REGARDING RACE AND 

INCLUSION 6 

POLITICAL SCIENCE SPEAKERS 8 

POLITICAL PHILOSOPHER 10 

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHTS 12 

STUDENT SPOTLIGHTS 13 

FACULTY IN THE NEWS 14 

FACULTY SPOTLIGHT 19 

BYU POLITICAL SCIENCE FACULTY 

AWARDS 2020 22 

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 23 

FACULTY QUOTE 24 

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The BYU Department of Political Science, consistent with the aims of a 

BYU education, intends to foster “Lifelong Learning and Service.” 

We hope to provide our alumni with intelligent, thoughtful and 

sophisticated analysis of important issues, and to act as a catalyst for 

service in our communities, neighborhoods, nations and the world.

Professor Daniel Nielson on Africa, Poverty, and 

Global Shell Games 

In December 2009, Thai special-forces seized a cargo plane at Bangkok Airport. The manifest 

claimed the airplane carried drilling equipment intended for oil exploration. Instead, 35 tons of 

weapons crammed the hold – arms that included rocket launchers and anti-aircraft missiles. The 

weapons originated in North Korea and were bound for Iran, mocking the United Nations arms 

embargo that targeted two of the three “Axes of Evil”. This is how the book “Global Shell Games: 

Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime and Terrorism,” by BYU Political Science Professor 

Daniel L. Nielson and his colleagues, Michael G. Findley and J. C. Sharman, begins. 

Law enforcement officials traced the arms shipment to an obscure Chinese national, Lu Zhang, 

who was a recent immigrant to New Zealand. The 28-year-old woman served as the sole director of 

SP Trading, the company that hired the plane and apparently engineered this arms trade. In fact, Lu 

directed scores of other companies. 

But, apparently, Lu Zhang had no idea that she was a notorious arms trader and international 

financial criminal until officials contacted her. Rather, she had worked as a short-order cook at a Burger 

King in Auckland. Representative of the GT Group, a shady incorporation service specializing in 

setting up companies for others, had hired Lu as a patsy. To supplement her income, for fifteen dollars 

each time she signed the documents they placed in front of her. The genius of this scheme meant that 

any corporations set up by the GT Group could not be traced beyond Lu Zhang. 

Shell Companies are significant, as this example illustrates, because they cannot be traced back 

to their real owners, and are widely held to be one of the most common means for laundering money, 

giving and receiving bribes, busting sanctions, evading taxes, and financing terrorism. For example, a 

tiny home in Cheyenne, Wyoming houses more than 2,000 shell companies that could be used for both 

legitimate and illegitimate purposes. This book attempts to look through the “corporate veil” and goes 

a long way to remedying a fundamental, pervasive problem with worldwide corporate entity law. Dan 

Nielson and his colleagues sent out more than 7,400 email solicitations to nearly 3,800 corporate service 

providers (CSPs) that make and sell shell companies in 181 countries. They wanted to test whether 

international rules are actually effective in mandating identity documents from their customers. This 

study also hopes to provoke governments to greater efforts in enforcing corporate transparency. 

Thank you, Professor Nielson, for a fascinating, relevant, timely read. 

(Continued on page 20) 

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Durham Lecture 2020: Neylan McBaine 

CEO Better Days 2020 

February 13, 2020, 250 KMBL, 11am 

Utah Women Led the Nation in the 1870’s and beyond, as they were the first to vote under the new 

suffrage laws that were emerging in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This became a whole movement of 

Utah women to help lead the nation. As we recognize our distinguished history, we need to put out a 

different narrative to the national media about Women in Utah. 

The year 2020 was the 150th anniversary of Utah women’s first votes: on February 12, 1870, a Utah 

Act gave Utah women the right to vote. On February 14, 1870, Seraph Young went to the polls and 

cast the first vote by a women in the nation—the first ballot cast under a suffrage law, in Salt Lake 

City’s municipal election. Other states had limited targeted voting for a few land owning women, but 

not generally. The suffrage movement had been fomenting for decades. The year 2020 was also the 

100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. constitution, on August 18. 

1920, granting Women’s Suffrage 

No one understood what was happening in Utah in the 1870s, a state that was trying to become part 

of the Union. The New York Times suggested that Utah women should vote, and that the Mormons 

would suffer because Utah women would vote against the state and polygamy. That didn’t happen. The 

original reason for enfranchising women in Utah was hoping they would vote against the state. But the 

Utah women did not cooperate, and did not vote out polygamous leaders. They started forming protest 

groups across the state: “Indignation meetings,” which involved 30% of the territorial population in 

support of polygamy and the right to practice their religion. The Eastern Media hated polygamy. 

Eastern newspapers published lots of cartoons, and debated a lot of laws to criminalize polygamy. In 

1887, the Edmonds Tucker Act disenfranchised anyone who was polygamous. Soon, the Relief Society 

started calling themselves suffrage organizations. 

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Susan B. Anthony, the prominent American social reformer and women’s rights activist, came to Utah 

on multiple occasions to help Utah women in the late 1800s.

Susan despised marriage, but she championed the Utah suffragist movement. LDS women Emma B. 

Wells, Sarah Kimball, Dina Young, and Martha Hughes Cannon, were Utah leaders and they worked 

together with prominent national leaders. 

Emmaline B. Wells, Neylan’s hero, edited the Woman’s Exponent, a semi-official publication of the 

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that began in 1872, and expanded its mission much 

farther beyond Church membership. She wrote thousands of editorials. She traveled to London and 

the target audience became women all over the world. 

In 1896 when Utah was granted statehood, 107 men came together to approve a new constitution 

for the new state, and men granted women the right to vote again in the state constitution. After the 

new Utah constitution was established, Utah women went to Washington, DC to testify that women 

would not abandon family, husbands, and children when they got the right to vote. Women mobilized 

to get men on their side, and in 1896 the state of Utah achieved Utah Constitution Article 4, Section 1 

which grants women the right to vote in Utah. We are still living under that statute. 

In 1896, Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon ran as the first Female State Senator, running against her 

husband. She won. She was the fourth wife of Angus Cannon. But, in 1899, she had to go into exile 

after she got pregnant. If you were a polygamous wife in 1899, you were disenfranchised and she went 

to Wales to hide out for a while. Children of polygamous marriages were declared bastards at the 

time. Chaos reigned for a period in the late 1800s. Martha Hughes Cannon’s statue is in the National 

Capitol now. 

DURHAM LECTURE WITH 

NEYLAN MCBRIDE 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 

On the 80th birthday of Susan B. Anthony, in 1900, 

Emma Wells gave Susan a bolt of black silk that 

became a dress and is now in her museum home in 

Rochester, New York. 

In 1920, Emmaline Wells, 96 years old, lived to see the 

19th amendment, which prohibited U.S. governments 

from denying the right to vote on the basis of sex, 

ratified on August 18, 1920. She was also the Relief 

Society president at the time. Susan B. Anthony had 

already died. In 1870, Emma Wells was the sixth 

wife of Daniel Wells, Salt Lake City mayor, and she 

probably voted in the 1870 vote, but we do not know. 

It was remarkable that she was alive to see the 19th 

amendment pass in 1920. 

As a Utah suffragist, Emmeline B. Wells met four U.S. 

Presidents. In 1919, President Woodrow Wilson got 

off the train in Salt Lake City and went to Hotel Utah, 

and met with 95 year old Emmeline Wells; she was the 

most famous woman in Utah and famous all over the 

country. 

Seraph Young, photo published in the Deseret Evening News March 1902 

The history of women and politics in Utah is very rich and we should be proud of it. A cartoon from 

1915 illustrates the power of the women in Western States, especial in Utah, to influence the eastern 

establishment. 

Thank you Neylan McBaine for your enlightening presentation and for your continued work for 

women in Utah and in the nation and world. 

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MY SOUND 

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STATEMENT 

REGARDING RACE 

AND INCLUSION 

In June 2020, the BYU Political Science Department issued a statement regarding 

race and inclusion, and posted it on our social media, that we reiterate here. 

“We believe that governments were instituted of God for the benefit of man; and 

that he holds men accountable for their acts in relation to them, both in making 

laws and administering them, for the good and safety of society.” Doctrine and 

Covenants 134:1 

ISSUE 

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9 

MY SOUND 

“Like many of you, we are devastated by George Floyd’s death---the latest 

tragedy in a long history of police violence against Black citizens. The subsequent 

protests ask us to confront America’s longstanding racial divisions and related 

political challenges. As political scientists, educators, and members of the Church 

of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we feel a professional and spiritual obligation 

to condem racism in all its forms and to advocate for justice, healing, love, and 

peace. We recognize the special burdens that our Black students carry and remind 

the Political Science community of our covenants to bear those burdens “that 

they may be light.” (Mosiah 18:8) 

“While acknowledging our many imperfections, the Political Science Department 

strives to help students fulfill their civic responsibilities by providing the education 

necessary for informed political participation. Our faculty have compiled a list 

of resources from various church, campus, and civic leaders to help you fight for 

racial justice and bring us closer to a Zion community. We encourage you to study 

these resources because if we do not listen carefully to those we wish to support, 

we may be “tempted to serve in a way that we want to serve and not necessarily 

in the way that is needed at the moment” (Linda K. Burton, First Observe, Then 

Serve, October 2012 General Conference). 

We are proud to have so many active, engaged, and civically minded students in 

the department and on campus, and we are grateful that so many of you “have no 

more disposition” to contribute to the evil of racism. We hope you will now act on 

that desire by committing “to do good continually” (Mosiah 3:2) 

Enter to learn, go forth to serve! 

THE POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT 


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THE ACADEMIC COUNCIL 

ON THE UNITED NATIONS 

SYSTEM 

EVENTS AND 

PROGRAMS 

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Professor Kendall Stiles is Co-editor in 

Chief of the ACUNS journal “Global 

Governance,” and on June 24-27, 2020, 

ACUNS (the Academic Counsel to the 

United Nations System) held its 33rd 

Annual Meeting of ACUNS, which was 

scheduled to occur in London, but instead, 

became its first completely virtual annual 

meeting. BYU Political Science is involved 

with ACUNS because it is hosting the 

ACUNS journal, Global Governance, 

under the direction of Professor Stiles, 

and Managing Editor Matthew Clarke, 

until 2023. 

The 2020 annual gathering this year was 

in a time of great global uncertainty and 

crisis. Not since the founding of the UN 

system, in the midst of World War II, 

has the world been confronted with such 

a profound threat to global and human 

security. Then, it was the preeminent 

challenge of nationalist populism bent 

on restoring some image of past glory 

through making their nations great again 

and hegemonic domination. Now, in the 

contexts of such similar movements, “we 

the peoples” are confronted with the dual 

challenges of the resurgent rise of neonationalism 

and the profound implications 

of a truly unprecedented (in modern 

times) global health, humanitarian, and 

human security crisis. 

The Annual Meeting Theme, “The 

UN@75: The future of Partnership 

and Multilateralism,” did not, when 

designated, envision the catastrophic 

emergency in which the world is now 

encapsulated. But, nonetheless, it could 

not be more apropos. 

700 participants joined the Zoom 

meetings, from all over the world, during 

the three day conference. This was the 

highest attendance in ACUNS history, 

and a testament to the reach of virtual 

meetings, which circumvent the necessity 

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of travel. In previous years, the ACUNS members have had to 

travel to South Korean, Italy, South Africa, Turkey, New York 

City, and England, but this year, everyone participated from 

the comfort of their own homes. Both Ken Stiles, Co-Editor in 

Chief of the journal, and Matthew Clarke, Managing Editor 

of the Global Governance journal, participated in the virtual 

meetings. Ken conducted one of the discussion groups. 

A highlight of the ACUNS annual meeting this year was 

the talk by Mr. Nikhil Seth, who joined UNITAR (United 

Nations Institute for Training and Research) as its Executive 

Director on Oct 1, 2015. During his term UNITAR has grown 

significantly in the number of beneficiaries of its services and 

its work has been aligned to the pillars of the 2030 Agenda and 

the SDGs. The focus of its work has shifted to benefit the most 

distressed countries especially in Africa. 

Also presenting a powerful lecture was Gro Harlem 

Brundtland, a medical doctor, who was Norway’s first woman 

Prime Minister, serving a total of ten years as head of 

government between 1981 and 1996. She chaired the World 

Commission on Environment and Development – known as 

the Brundtland Commission – which articulated the principle 

of sustainable development for the first time at a global level. 

She was Director-General of the World Health Organization 

from 1998 to 2003, UN Special Envoy for Climate Change 

from 2007 to 2010 and, from 2011 to 2012, was a member of 

the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Sustainability 

Panel. Since 2018, Gro Harlem Brundtland has served as a 

co-chair of the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an 

independent monitoring and accountability body to ensure 

preparedness for global health crises.

Eitan Hersh 

Eitan Hersh, author of Politics is for Power: How to Move Beyond Political 

Hobbyism, Take Action, and Make Real Change, and Assistant Professor of 

Civic Studies from the Department of Political Science at Tufts' Tisch 

College, spoke on Thursday, October 15, at 11am via Zoom. The Office 

of Civic Engagement hosted the event and the lecture lasted about an 

hour and was well attended. Dr. Hersh from Tufts spoke on his book, 

Politics is for Power, published in January 2020: He reiterated the main 

message of the book, a condemnation of political hobbyism, which is 

like treating politics as entertainment, and the book is a call to arms for 

well-meaning, well-informed citizens who consume political news but 

do not take political action. Hersh suggests that normal citizens should 

be spending the same number of hours building political organizations, 

implementing a long-term vision for our city or town, and getting to know 

our neighbors, whose votes will be needed for solving hard problems, as 

they do tweeting and posting about political gossip. It was a fascinating 

discussion. Thank you, Dr. Hersh. 

Theda Skocpol 

Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and 

Sociology at Harvard University and a past president of the American 

Political Science Association, spoke on Thursday, February 27, at 11 

am in 3224 WSC on “Upending American Politics: Polarizing Parties, 

Ideological Elites, and Citizen Activists from the Tea Party to the Anti- 

Trump Resistance.” discussion. 

BY DARREN HAWKINS 

AT THE FFHSS ANNUAL 

CONFERENCE 

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POLITICAL SCIENCE 

SPEAKERS 

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Elizabeth Harmer Dionne 

Elizabeth Harmer Dionne, Lawyer at the Massachusetts Advocates for 

Children (MAC), spoke for the Department Lecture Series in November 

2020. She studied English Literature at Wellesley College, studied 

law at Stanford University, and studied American political science at 

Boston College. She spoke about her work at MAC and has said that it 

is impossible to overstate the impact that Massachusetts Advocates for 

Children has had on educational opportunity for children with disabilities 

or other special needs. MAC's founders were among those who did 

ground-breaking research about children excluded from school, which 

led to the adoption of the landmark Massachusetts special education law. 

Federal special education law borrowed liberally from the Massachusetts 

example. For the past five years, she has worked as a pro bono attorney 

for MAC, representing low-income, special-needs clients (frequently 

immigrants), so she has seen first-hand the work that they do in advocating 

for policies and programs that benefit vulnerable children. 

Other Speakers who met for our Public Affairs Career Lecture Series Fall Semester, 2020, include: 

Jeff Flake, Former US Senator of Arizona; Cody Stewart, Senior Vice President for NES Consulting; 

David Barlow, US District Judge of the District of Utah; Alex Thompson, Political Journalist at Politico; 

Tomicah Tillemann, Founder and Director at New America Think Tank; Emily and Aaron Sherinian, 

Global Portfolio Management at FHI 360 & Global Communications VP; Jeff Shumway, Managing 

Director at Social Finance, Inc; Aubriana Wolferts, Data Analyst at the IMF, Former Economic 

Consultant at Analysis Group; Ally Isom, Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer at Attostat, Inc; Erin 

Dyal, Foreign Service Office at the US Department of State; Emily O’Loughlin, Principal at Mckinsey, 

Management Consulting Firm. 


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ISSUE 

31 

Adam Smith (5 June 1723 – 17 July 1790) was a Scottish economist, 

philosopher, and author as well as a moral philosopher, a pioneer of 

political economy, and a key figure during the Scottish Enlightenment, 

also known as ''The Father of Economics'' or ''The Father of 

Capitalism''. Smith wrote two classic works, The Theory of Moral 

Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the 

Wealth of Nations (1776). The latter, often abbreviated as The Wealth 

of Nations, is considered his magnum opus and the first modern work 

of economics. In his work, Adam Smith introduced his theory of 

absolute advantage. 

Smith studied social philosophy at the University of Glasgow and 

at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was one of the first students 

to benefit from scholarships set up by fellow Scot John Snell. After 

graduating, he delivered a successful series of public lectures at the 

University of Edinburgh, leading him to collaborate with David Hume 

during the Scottish Enlightenment. Smith obtained a professorship at 

Glasgow, teaching moral philosophy and during this time, wrote and 

published The Theory of Moral Sentiments. In his later life, he took a 

tutoring position that allowed him to travel throughout Europe, where 

he met other intellectual leaders of his day. 

ADAM SMITH 

POLITICAL 

PHILOSOPHER 

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Smith laid the foundations of classical free market economic and 

political theory. The Wealth of Nations was a precursor to the 

modern academic discipline of economics. In this and other works, he 

developed the concept of division of labour and expounded upon how 

rational self-interest and competition can lead to economic prosperity. 

Smith was controversial in his own day and his general approach and 

writing style were often satirised by writers such as Horace Walpole 

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Smith; see also, The Wealth of Nations.. 

11 

THE SYAHIM MAG

ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT 

Kim Meihua Roy, MASIA’ 19 

Kim Meihua Roy, a 2017 graduate of BYU Political Science, 

is a class of 2020 recipent of the Presidential Management 

Fellowship (PMF) program, the U.S. federal government’s 

flagship leadership development program for advanced 

degree holders. Kim graduated Summa Cum Laude from 

BYU with a BA in Political Science in 2017. She received 

an MA in Asian Studies from Georgetown University in 2018 

and is currently a contractor in the Bureau of East Asian 

and Pacific Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Kim 

credits mentorship from Eric Hyer and Joel Selway and the 

Washington Seminar program for stoking her interest in U.S.- 

Asia relations and public service. 

The Honolulu native attended Brigham Young University, 

which offered a semester-long program that allowed her to intern at the East-West Center in 

Washington. It was during this experience that Roy “fell in love with the District.” ”Living in the 

hub of American and international politics, surrounded by intellectual and cosmopolitan people, 

excited me,” Kim says. “I resolved to work in Washington and realized that I needed a master’s 

degree to be competitive in the international relations job market.” Georgetown University Asian 

Studies has been instrumental in advancing Roy’s professional goals. She spent the summer of 

2018 interning at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, and since graduating this past December has been 

working at the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs at the State Department. 

Lauren Gull Olsen 

Congratulations to BYU International Relations and Political 

Science graduate Lauren Olsen, the G. Kevin Jones Sigma 

Writing Award winner for 2020, 1st prize winner, who wrote 

the article: “Uneven Influence: Why Female Representation 

Affects Some Migration Policies But Not Others”. She 

received a $1000.00 award, and wrote a powerful article on 

women influencing imigration policies. She graduated Cum 

Laude in August, 2019 and now lives in Falmouth, Maine 

with her husband, James Olsen. She is from Draper, Utah 

. 

Lauren’s article concluded that female representation 

has a significant impact on the restrictiveness of certain 

dimensions of immigration policy, particularly those that 

are considered care issues, such as family reunification and asylum and refugee policy. She found 

that women’s perspective makes a difference in shaping immigration policy, and she believes that 

policymakers concerned with the effectiveness of their policies need to consider how the female 

influence is affecting those policies. Her analysis has added to the current literature on gender and 

immigration and has provided insight into what areas need more investigation. 

Haley Van Oberek 

Haley Van Overbeck: Received a BA in IR and a Minor in 

Poli Sci’s International Development, and then studied at the 

McCourt School of Public Policy, at Georgetown University. 

She lives in Arlington, VA, and is from Farmington, Utah. 

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Annie Jarman 

BYU Poli Sci Student Annie Jarman 

participated in the Pi Sigma Alpha National 

Student Research Conference, in Washington, 

DC, February 15, 2020, at George Washington 

University. 

She represented the department and the 

school in the best manner possible. Sean 

Twombly, Pi Sigma Alpha national executive, 

was pleased the department at BYU has 

developed a tradition of sending a student to 

this conference and hopes that when Annie 

has settled back into a regular schedule she 

will write something about his experience that 

can be shared within the department (newsletter or social media) and the institution as a whole. 

We were also lucky to have former conference participants and BYU alum Haley VanOverbeck 

return for the conference this year and sit on one of our professional development panels. Haley 

is an MPP student at Georgetown now. In 2020 the Conference had 126 student presenters 

from 58 institutions. With student guests, faculty advisors, and family we had more than 200 

individuals take part. The diversity of research projects and student backgrounds made for a 

fantastic weekend. On Sunday they added a half day of Professional Development panels that 

provided students with great access to near-peers and senior DC insiders. 

ISSUE 

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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT 

15 

MY SOUND 

Olivia DeMordaunt 

Olivia DeMordaunt, BYU Political Science 

senior, working at the BYU Maxwell Center 

as a student assistant, loves candles, is an avid 

podcast listener, and a champion of the frozen 

food selection at Trader Joe’s. 

Abby Woodfield 

Abby Woodfield is the Advertising Executive for 

the student chapter of BYU PAS and is majoring 

in: Political Science Degree: BA Additional 

Major: Psychology MINOR European Studies. 

She grew up in Provo, Utah and went to 

Timpview High School. 


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FACULTY IN THE NEWS 

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11TH,2020 

MICHAEL BARBER WITH AAAS 

Michael Barber, from BYU Political Science, and John Holbein, from the University of 

Virginia, authored an article in the 

AAAS, American Association for 

the Advancement of Science: Do 

Republicans or Democrats benefit from 

mail-in voting? 

It turns out, neither: Three decades 

of voting history reveals vote-by-mail 

does not give either party an edge. 

In the United States, the coronavirus 

crisis has thrust a typically wonky 

debate—the effectiveness of mail-in 

voting—into the political spotlight. 

Republicans, led by President 

Donald Trump, this week again 

warned that expanding the use of 

mail-in ballots could give Democrats an edge in the November elections. Now, two independent 

studies suggest there’s little historical evidence to support that fear. But scientists warn that by 

making vote by mail a partisan issue, Republicans could lose mail-in votes and benefit Democrats 

in the midst of a caustic and pandemic-marred election season. 

Since 2000, a handful of states have switched almost exclusively to voting by mail, including 

Oregon, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Hawaii. Most researchers studied the moves to see 

whether they led to an increase in voter participation; largely unexplored, says Brigham Young 

University political scientist Michael Barber, was whether universal mail-in voting benefited one 

party or the other. As the 2020 U.S. elections showed, and as the pandemic persisted, many 

states considered a mandatory vote-by-mail system as a safe alternative to in-person voting. But 

policymakers were fiercely divided: Would vote-by-mail favor the Democrats, mobilizing leftleaning 

voters who ordinarily avoid or miss the polls? 

According to a new BYU study, probably not. Published in the journal Science Advances, the 

research looked at voting patterns in areas that have historically implemented vote-by-mail for 

federal elections. The study found that while vote-by-mail did increase overall voter turnout by 

about 2 to 3 percentage points, it did not change the outcome of races. 

“We were surprised at how consistent our results were,” said BYU political science professor 

Michael Barber, a co-author of the paper. 

“We ran dozens of analyses and every single time we found no impact in partisan vote shares. 

So whether you’re advocating for vote-by-mail because you think it’s going to be really good for 

your party or advocating against it because you think it’s going to be bad for your party, you’re 

probably wasting your time.” 

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1ST,2020 

CHRIS KREWSON IN WASHINGTON POST'S MONKEY CAGE 

Professor Chris Krewson’s piece was recently published in the Washington Post’s Monkey Cage: 

Turbulent confirmation hearings don’t change how Americans view the Supreme Court: Our

surveys also find that 

public opinion toward 

the court is divided 

by race and gender. 

By Christopher N. 

Krewson and Jean R. 

Schroedel, Oct. 1, 2020 

Even before President 

Trump nominated 

Judge Amy Coney 

Barrett to the Supreme 

Court, Senate 

Republicans had set an 

aggressive timeline for 

voting on the nominee 

before the upcoming elections. All sides expected tumultuous confirmation hearings in the 

Senate and a close confirmation vote for the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat. Senate 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) predicted that “the American people are about to 

witness an astonishing parade of misrepresentations about the past, misstatements about the 

present and more threats against our institutions.” 

ISSUE 


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17 

Do turbulent Senate confirmation hearings and controversial nominees affect public opinion 

of the court itself ? Some believe they do. “We’re here to determine,” Sen. Christopher A. 

Coons (D-Del.) suggested to Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh in 2018, “whether your 

confirmation would compromise or undermine the legitimacy of the court itself.” Our research 

suggests that the answer is no: Senate hearings, even on controversial or unpopular nominees, 

do not affect public respect for the Supreme Court. But we did find a stubborn racial and 

gender gap in respect for the court, which may be even more significant than partisanship. 

Americans are not happy with the Senate confirmation process. Asked to evaluate it by 

indicating whether they felt satisfied, unsatisfied, or neither satisfied nor unsatisfied with the 

Senate confirmation process, 35 percent of respondents were satisfied with it, while 40 percent 

were not satisfied. Neither were they happy with Brett Kavanaugh. A strong plurality of 

individuals rated Kavanaugh between zero and 10 on a 100-point “feeling thermometer,” with 

zero indicating extreme coldness toward the judge. 

But that didn’t affect their feelings about the Supreme Court. Most people marked their feelings 

as around 56 on the same 100-point 

thermometer, with few people 

choosing extreme values. 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 

27TH,2020 

KIRK HAWKINS IN THE DESERET NEWS 

BYU Political Science professor Kirk 

Hawkins was recently featured in the 

Deseret News: By Jennifer Graham 

@grahamtoday, Oct 27, 2020, in 

an article entitled: “Election 2020: 

Donald Trump, populism and what 


15


happens after the election?” 

Kirk Hawkins is the director of Team Populism, based at Brigham Young University. It’s an 

international consortium of scholars who study populism, its leaders and its language around 

the world. The group has identified three markers of populist speech: a worldview that depicts 

a battle between good and evil, a romanticized vision of ordinary people, and depiction of a 

corrupt establishment that works against the needs of ordinary people. ‘For the people, by the 

people’ is an American value. So why do so many scholars think populism is dangerous? 

Populism, loosely defined, is a construct of politics in which ordinary citizens battle an 

entrenched, and often seen as corrupt, leadership of elites. The term originated late in the 19th 

century when struggling farmers in the South and Midwest formed the People’s Party as an 

alternative to Republicans and Democrats. 

The fledgling party, which came to be known as the Populist Party, did not survive. But the 

narrative of the common man and woman versus the elite remains powerful today, and Trump 

invoked populist imagery in his 2017 inauguration speech when he said, “Today we are not 

merely transferring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another — 

but we are transferring power from 

Washington, D.C., and giving it 

back to you, the American people.” 

“We the people,” however, do not all 

agree that populism is a good thing. 

From its earliest days, populism has 

been derided in editorial cartoons 

as a sort of governance by rube. 

Imagery associated with populism 

is rich with pitchforks and mobs, 

or, as Thomas Frank, author of 

“The People, No,” a history of 

anti-populism, put it, “the people 

as a great, rampaging beast.”More 

recently, one political scientist has 

likened populism to a chronic 

disease that society must guard 

against, even though even some 

critics concede that populism can 

attract disenfranchised people into 

the democratic process, renew 

enthusiasm for civic life and even 

result in beneficial policies. 

18 

16 

Is Trump a populist? 

When Hawkins and his colleagues 

analyzed Trump’s speeches 

leading up to the election in 2016, 

they found a difference between 

his prepared speeches and his 

impromptu remarks: The prepared 

speeches were classically populist, his casual remarks dramatically less so. This led Hawkins to 

conclude that Trump’s aides, especially Steve Bannon, were more populist than the candidate 

himself. He calls the president a "half populist."

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28TH,2020 

SVEN WILSON IN THE ARMED FORCES & SOCIETY 


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19 

BYU professor & chair of the Department of Political Science, Sven Wilson recently published 

a paper in the journal Armed Forces & Society, called “How does military service affect male 

veterans’ civic participation?” It showed that military service has historically predicted greater 

civic involvement later in life. 

Wilson and coauthor William Ruger of the Charles Koch Institute also published “Military 

Service, Combat Experience, and Civic Participation,” which examines the relationship between 

military service, combat experience, and civic engagement. The researchers stated the goal of 

their study: “We wanted to see whether veterans, especially those with combat experience, are 

more or less active in their communities.” 

Wilson and Ruger looked at data from the National Survey of Families and Households from 

1987–88 and found that veterans are more engaged civically than other men across all the major 

wars of the 20th century.The researchers analyzed responses from 2,185 men aged 30–69 who 

were divided into three groups: nonveterans, noncombat veterans, and combat veterans. The 

respondents indicated their civic participation from a list of 15 kinds of organizations. 

Using data from the national survey, the researchers found that the likelihood and intensity of 

group participation is higher among veterans than other men and that combat veterans have the 

highest level of participation. Wilson and Ruger found that combat veterans were just as likely to 

participate as noncombat veterans in service, youth and sports groups. 

Christie Allen for BYU news reported that, “According to survey data, male veterans who served 

in World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War were significantly more likely than male 

nonveterans to join civic groups. They also on average joined 21% more groups and had a 19% 

higher rate of participation than nonveterans, even when researchers controlled for veterans’ 

increased educational opportunities, which are known to boost civic activity." 

Read the full article by Christie Allen on BYU news. 


17

18FACULTY IN THE NEWS 

20 

WEDNESDAY, MAY 19TH, 2020 

JOEL SELWAY ON WASHINGTON POST "MONKEY CAGE" 

Joel Selway appeared in a Washington Post “Monkey Cage” on May 19, 2020 with his article entitled: 

“Which kinds of democracies respond more effectively to a pandemic? When citizens vote for parties 

rather than individuals, countries gain better health systems.” He wrote that: Germany, South Korea, 

New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Israel have been championed as countries that implemented an 

effective response to covid-19. What do these success cases have in common? They share similar electoral 

rules. These countries have political systems that use proportional representation electoral rules — they 

assign legislative seats to political parties based on the proportion of the overall vote parties win. For 

example, in Germany, the Free Democratic Party won 10.7 percent of the vote in 2017, which gave the 

party 80 seats in the Germany’s 709-seat legislature. 

SATURDAY, APRIL 11TH, 2020 

JESSICA PREECE AND CHRIS KARPOWITZ IN BYU MAGAZINE 

Jessica Preece and Chris Karpowitz are highlighted in a BYU Magazine article entitled: “When Women 

Don’t [Do] Speak.” The BYU Magazine, Spring 2020 article highlights groundbreaking BYU Research 

showing what it takes for a woman to truly by heard. They offer Seven Ways to Elevate Women’s Voices: 

First, Men, Listen Up; Second, Women, Speak Up!; Third, Positive Support Matters; Fourth, Change 

the Rules; Fifth, Watch out for Stereotypes; Sixth, Leaders Take Note; and Seventh, Teach a Better Way. 

TUESDAY, JUNE 23RD, 2020 

ON TOP OF MIND 

Eric Hyer: June 23, 2020: Professor Hyer took time and clearly explained what’s happening on the 

India/China border and why the dispute continues. China and India – the world’s two most populous 

countries, both of them with nuclear weapons – are in a tense standoff along the border they share. A 

week ago, fighting broke out between Chinese and Indian soldiers. This was reportedly hand-to-hand 

combat with rocks, metal rods and wooden clubs. Twenty Indian soldiers died. China has not said how 

many casualties it suffered. This is the first time their border dispute has turned deadly in forty years. 

Listen here: https://tinyurl.com/y4bvguy7 

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 2020 

ON TOP OF MIND 

Quin Mecham was on Top of Mind and they actually had a little more time than usual 

Listen here: https://tinyurl.com/y3txsgyn 

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2020 

GUEST LECTURE ON "STRATEGIC CULTURE AND NUCLEAR DETERRENCE" 

Dr. Kerry Kartchner, from BYU Political Science, spoke at October 29, 2020, Guest lecture on 

“Strategic Culture and Nuclear Deterrence” to class at US Military Academy (West Point) (via MS 

Teams); November 2, 2020, Panel Chair, “Lessons of Cold War Deterrence”, US Strategic Command 

Virtual Deterrence Symposium, “Dynamics of Great Power Conflict and Implications for Deterrence”; 

November 3, 2020, Guest lecture on “Ballistic Missile Defense” to class on international affairs at the 

University of Southern California.

Ethan Busby 

Ethan Busby is Assistant Professor of American 

Politics, and joined BYU Political Science 

over the summer of 2020. Ethan is a political 

psychologist specializing in extremism, 

public opinion, racial and ethnic politics, and 

quantitative methods. More specifically, his work 

explores what extremism is and what encourages 

and discourages extremism. He considers both 

a general approach to extremism and several 

specific kinds – including racial extremism, 

partisan extremism, and populism. His research 

on extremism relies on various methods, using 

lab experiments, quasi-experiments, survey 

experiments, text-as-data, surveys, and big data 

from Google and Twitter. Ethan received his 

Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern 

University, 2018, an M.A. in Political Science 

from Northwestern University, 2015, and a B.A. 

in Political Science from Brigham Young University, 2013. 

FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS 

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31 

21 

Ethan’s family lived in various places growing up, including New York State until he was 9. 

His dad was a professor who moved from New York back to Utah. Then his father took a 

job in Lubbock, Texas. Each place was 5-6 years. Ethan went to High school in Springville, 

Utah. His parents still live in Mapleton. He started studying acting in college, and just 

sort of changed what he wanted. He studied people and why they do the things they do. 

He liked politics, and liked talking about politics, and went with it. BYU Political Science 

faculty members Kelly Patterson, and David Magleby helped him along the way. He began 

wondering why things were going on in the world, why were people thinking a certain way, 

and what they were thinking. 

On Extremism 

Ethan’s interest in extremism came from the fact that he knows different environments— 

times in big cities and times in rural Indiana as a missionary. He kept running into people 

on his mission that made no sense to him, and he noticed that other people couldn’t 

understand him, mostly immigrant groups. We all make sense to ourselves, he noted, but we 

don’t necessarily make sense to each other. Partisanship, racial and ethnic division, creates 

all kinds of extremism. One of the things that we see now is that people are willing to 

overlook extremism when they agree with it: Lots of political, racial and ethnic extremism. 

Currently, we seem to be quick to call something extremism, and not to call what we believe 

as extremism. Ethan wonders what a white person can do about white extremism. As a 

religious person, what can we do about religious extremism? What, as republicans and 

democrats, can we do about partisan extremism? We have to make the first move and be 

willing to do something. It’s not easy, but is the most promising way to begin. 

His wife and he have two children, and he is sleep deprived now. They met at Northwestern, 

she is a social scientist. Before BYU he was at Clemson teaching Poli Sci. Current colleagues 

were influential: Chris Karpowitz, Dan Nielson. Nice to have them be colleagues. He lives in 

Orem helping with Grandmother now, who is aging. 


19

FACULTY SPOTLIGHTS 

Professor Dan Nielson 

Professor Dan Nielson was born in Germany, where his 

father was stationed in the U.S. Military, and he grew 

up in Kaysville, Utah. He served a mission in Portugal, 

which was still, at the time, recovering from being the last 

fascist country in Europe, following World War II. It had 

also just lost wars in Angola and Mozambique. 

Dan remembers having fierce discussions with one of his 

missionary companions about which system was better, 

Autocracy or Democracy. While Autocracy can perhaps 

claim efficiency in channeling the will of the government, 

Democracy can claim a more informed population, with 

greater coordination, transparency and general freedom. 

One city where Dan served, named Leiria, was where he 

came face to face with a topic that would be central to 

his scholarly life: poverty, its causes and possible solutions. Some of the immigrants there in 

Portugal from Angola and Mozambique were very poor, but worked very hard, and were kind. 

He wanted to know, from that point on, how the problem of poverty could be solved. After 

his mission, he studied political science at BYU and received his PHD in international affairs 

from University of California – San Diego in 1997, and has specialized in institutions like 

the World Bank, US Aid, and the African Development Bank—entities that are designed to 

alleviate poverty and be instrumental in third world economic development. 

On Africa and Poverty 

Dan has studied, particularly, the African Continental Free Trade Area (ACFTA), 

with 55 member countries of the African Union, representing 1.3 billion people, in an 

attempt to help 30 million people out of extreme poverty, and 68 million people out of 

moderate poverty. The ACFTA has helped remove tariffs and remove barriers to free 

communication among the African countries. It creates a continent-wide market for goods 

and services, helping to reshape the African economy. Dan has noted that once policy 

makers in each country make the decision to open up their economies, with free trade, 

people rise out of poverty. He has found the poverty relief works on a massive scale, and 

that countries like Uganda and Rwanda have experienced dynamic growth as a result, 

through regional trade. He has also noted that extreme poverty is going away (less than 

$1.90 a day in income) and that over the next 30 years, it will probably be gone. One 

of his intriguing studies found that if you give a poor woman a phone in Tanzania, her 

income will increase by 20% through mobile banking and business transactions. Phones 

have a high rate of return. He has also noted that world population is not exploding as 

expected and that it will probably peak out at 9-11 billion people (not the 30 billion that 

people have predicted), and that hunger is almost entirely political: we have enough food 

for everyone, we just need to distribute it efficiently 

22 

20 

Dan’s experience at BYU as a Professor of Political Science over the past 25 years, has been 

aided through Professors David Magleby, Ladd Hollister, Lamond Tullis and Donna Lee 

Bowen. Dan met his wife on a blind date to Homecoming at BYU, and they ate at the Brick 

Oven Restaurant on a group date. Later, they took a class by Professor Donna Lee Bowen on 

religion and politics. They have three grown children, Katie, Abby and Rob. Katie is in her 

4th year in a doctorate in psychology at Northwestern; Abby is studying filmmaking, and Rob 

is at BYU in Biology. Dan helped found AID DATA, which analyzes data relating to poverty 

and economic distribution, and which is housed at the College of William and Mary in 

Williamsburg, Virginia and was funded by a federal grant of $8 million.

ISSUE 

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THE SYAHIM MAG

BYU POLITICAL SCIENCE 

FACULTY AWARDS 2020 

College of Family, Home and Social Sciences Faculty Awards 

The College awards encourage and acknowledge outstanding 

scholars, teachers, and university citizens who show promise, 

effort, accomplishment, significant contributions, or other values of 

excellence in their professional pursuits. 

Martin B. Hickman Scholar 

Kelly Patterson, Political Science 

Kelly Patterson is a distinguished scholar of American elections who has focused on political parties and 

voter behavior. After graduating from BYU, he received his PhD from Columbia University. He is a recipient 

of numerous awards and fellowships, including the Karl G. Maeser Excellence in Teaching Award. Professor 

Patterson has served as chair of his department and as associate dean of the college. He is a much loved 

teacher and has taught widely in American politics and in American Heritage. His prolific scholarship 

includes numerous articles and the book Political Parties and the Maintenance of Liberal Democracy. 

David O. McKay Grant 

Chris Karpowitz, Political Science 

Jessica Preece, Political Science 

24 

22 

Early Career Teaching Award 

Josh Gubler, Political Science 

FHSS Young Scholar 

Mike Barber, Political Science 

Michael Barber received his PhD from Princeton University in 2014. Since then he has published numerous 

research articles that have appeared in the highest profile journals in the discipline. Within the broad area 

of American politics, he has focused on the connection between representatives and their constituents, 

particularly in a context with increasing partisanship and polarization. His recent work has emphasized 

how campaign contributions are influencing representatives in Congress and state legislators, and his work 

on ideology and partisanship in the Trump era has garnered significant academic and public recognition. 

Barber’s teaching focus is on Congress and political methodology. 

Mollie & Karl Butler Young Scholar, FHSS College Award 2020 

Adam Brown, Political Science 

Mary Lou Fulton Professorship 

Daniel Nielson, Political Science 

Daniel Nielson received his PhD from the University of California – San Diego. His scholarship focuses on 

international development, foreign aid, and international organizations. He is co-author of Global Shell 

Games: Experiments in Transnational Relations, Crime and Terrorism and co-editor of Delegation and 

Agency in International Organizations, both published by Cambridge University Press, and he has published 

in numerous prestigious outlets including Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Science 

Advances. He has led major research mentoring activities, including international field experiments, that have 

involved hundreds of BYU students. He is co-founder of AidData, a preeminent development data source. 

FHSS Citizenship Award 

Darren Hawkins, Political Science 

Professor Darren Hawkins received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has been on 

the faculty of BYU since 1998. He is an accomplished scholar of international relations, with a focus on 

international organizations, human rights and development. Between 2007-2014, Hawkins was department 

chair, and he served a three-year term on the university’s Rank and Status committee. He is currently director 

of the Global Politics Lab at BYU, and he is devoted to providing faculty with better resources to promote 

student mental health. He has directed numerous students doing field experiments on public lands usage and 

international development. 

University Professorships & Fellowships 

General Education Professorship, Jeremy Pope Political Science

JAPANESE DEMOCRACY AND 

LESSONS FOR THE UNITED STATES 

EIGHT COUNTERINTUITIVE LESSONS BY RAY CHRISTENSEN 

This book presents a collection of lessons on how best to run elections and 

politics, using examples from the Japanese experience and showing how 

elections operate in a non-Western democracy. Featuring extensive data 

and evidence from both Japan and the United States, the themes covered 

include one-party rule, ballot security and voting procedures, election 

regulations, malapportionment and gerrymandering, court interventions, 

voter attachments, and distortions of the public will by election rules. In 

so doing, the analysis challenges conventional wisdom in both Japan and 

the United States, highlighting surprising and counterintuitive findings 

from decades of observation. This book also explicitly compares Japan 

to other, similarly situated democracies. Japan is therefore not treated as 

a standalone case but, rather, the lessons from Japan are contextualized 

for greater understanding and can be used to inform discussions about 

comparative elections and democracy. 

GLOBAL SHELL GAMES 

EXPERIMENTS IN TRANSNATIONAL RELATIONS, CRIME AND TERRORISM BY DANIEL NIELSON 

Every year a staggering number of unidentified shell corporations succeed 

in hiding perpetrators of terrorist financing, corruption and illegal arms 

trades, but the degree to which firms flout global identification standards 

remains unknown. Adopting a unique, experimental methodology, Global 

Shell Games attempts to unveil the sordid world of anonymous shell 

corporations. Posing as twenty-one different international consultants, the 

authors approached nearly 4,000 services in over 180 countries to discover 

just how easy it is to form an untraceable company. Combining rigorous 

quantitative analysis, qualitative investigation of responses and lurid news 

reports, this book makes a significant research contribution to compliance 

with international law and international crime and terrorism whilst offering 

a novel, new approach to the field of political science research. Global Shell 

Games is an invaluable resource for scholars of international relations, 

and a fascinating, accessible read for anyone interested in learning about 

worldwide criminal practice in corporate finance. 

ISSUE 

31 

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 

25 

THE ECONOMIC ROOTS OF ANTI- 

IMMIGRANT PREJUDICE IN THE 

GLOBAL SOUTH: EVIDENCE FROM 

SOUTH AFRICA 

BY DANIEL L. NIELSON, ADAM S. HARRIS, MICHAEL G. FINDLEY 

Most research in developed countries on prejudice toward foreign-born 

minorities suggests that cultural rather than economic threat motivates 

xenophobia. In this study, we seek to reliably measure anti-immigrant 

prejudice and examine possible determinants of prejudice and prejudicebased 

voting behavior. Through a list experiment conducted on a random 

sample of South Africans (N = 1,088), we investigate the predictive power 

of economic threat theory in explaining prejudice toward immigrants in 

South Africa. The results show that significant prejudice toward immigrants 

exists among South Africans and that such prejudice is higher among the 

unemployed, but these sentiments do not seem to influence vote choice. The 

evidence suggests that the determinants of anti-immigrant sentiments due to 

South-South migration are distinct from South-North migration. 


23

FACULTY QUOTE 

by 

Donna Lee Bowen 

“Belief is often difficult to obtain, gained through years of learning, prayer, fasting, 

and experiences that confirm a fledgling faith. . . For Abish, [The Lamanite servant to 

Lamoni’s queen in the Book of Mormon, Alma 19] faith and conversion came from 

the teachings of her father following his experience with a remarkable vision. She 

had nursed her testimony in secret for years, holding tenaciously to the teachings of 

the gospel although no one else in her community shared her faith. . . [This account 

teaches us that] a person’s standing in the community, high office, or great wealth bear 

little relationship to her faith, gospel knowledge, or ability to serve the Lord. From [this 

woman] we learn that without faith in the Lord and his teachings, the mighty and the 

ordinary are barred from the light and understanding of the gospel. With faith and 

knowledge of the gospel, all of us can serve God; and by so doing, we can more fully 

recognize and respond to the truth.” 

26 

24 

“Ordinary People in the Book of Mormon”, 

by Camille S. Williams and Donna Lee Bowen 

(BYU Professor Emeritus of Political Science)

ISSUE 

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THE SYAHIM MAG

28

Winter 2021 Political Science Post

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