By Kenyamarie Mahone The issue of telecommunications surveillance has become a marker of political freedoms in the 21st century. With increasing technological capacities in the Department of Defense, and the growing role of technology in everyday American life–Americans have become wary of surveillance and its many forms. This has become especially true in the wake of Edward Snowden’s...
Rachel Oda (PO ’20) Guest Contributor The right to privacy, properly understood, is not a shaky cluster of rights, but rather a single, fundamental right that forms the basis of our autonomy. It is a right to one’s person and to control one’s person. I argue it serves as the cornerstone of our Constitution because it provides the basis for many other individual rights, such as the right to...
Elias Van Emmerick (PO ’21) Wealth and income inequality have been oft-cited issues in the runup to the 2020 Presidential election. The United States consistently ranks near the top of all developed countries in both metrics, and inequality has generally trended upwards for multiple decades. Amongst news of historically low unemployment and all-time highs in the stock market, the U.S...
Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) The United States is currently the only developed country that does not have universal health coverage. While the Affordable Care Act provided access to healthcare for millions of people that would have otherwise been unaffordable, nearly 13 percent of the American population, ages 18 to 65, are still uninsured. Beyond extending coverage to all American citizens, a...
Lindsey Mattila (CMC ’17) In my last blog post, Reducing Healthcare Costs Through Pharmaceutical Policy, I analyzed the pharmaceutical industry and explained why it is the most promising healthcare sector to improve in order to decrease rising health care costs. To put a stop to rising costs, which are predicted to rise even more dramatically with the aging Baby Boomers, more will need to...
David Menefee-Libey is Professor of Politics at Pomona College, where he has taught since 1989. He was awarded the Wig Distinguished Teaching Award five times, as well as chaired the Politics Department and served as Coordinator of the Program in Public Policy Analysis. His teaching and research have recently turned toward understanding the interdependence of the public and private...
