Open research questions in American Constitutional Law and Politics
681 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 8,611 American Constitutional Law and Politics papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.
What the literature leaves open
This Note reveals that appointment discretion is the crucial, but understudied, flipside of the removal-power coin and is essential for presidential administration.
This binary distinction, however, does not account for or explain the existence of other premodern notions of incorporation that withstand reconciliation with either theory.
Despite the richness and availability of manuals on rhetorical theory, and the well-established educational system of declamation, the application of dissuasio in Roman civic oratory has received limited attention in ancient treatises on rhetorical argument and, consequently, is understudied by historians of ancient Roman rhetoric.
A Note on Dissuasio : A Neglected Type of Counterargument in Roman Deliberative Rhetoric · 2025 · DOIDespite her compelling oratory and numerous speeches on the slave trade, her name remains unknown, and she is recorded only as the ‘Fair Orator’.
‘An Absurd Rage for Public Speaking’: An Abolitionist Fair Orator in the London Debating Societies, 1788–1791 · 2024 · DOIThis economic consideration presents an important limitation to the universaliza- tion thesis, and it provides an important distinction between contemporary rhetorical approaches to public argument and social change and more traditional, or idealist approaches. The rhetorical approach says that universalization is strictly limited by the demographic and other characteristics of the audience to whom it is addressed (Habermas, 1979; Luhmann, 1982). Ultimately, then, the social or moral progress of a people, achieved in large measure through public discourse, is bound and limited by the material conditions of the people themselves.
Virtuous persons conduct themselves then in keeping with Mill’s principle against harm, the idea enunciated in On Liberty that “the sole ends for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self-protection.
3 Whether examples of the same phenomenon can be found elsewhere in Britain remains to be investigated.
The paper identifies the challenge of understanding the role of spirituality in public life. It highlights the need to challenge the dominant narrative of secularization and Enlightenment liberalism. The paper seeks to address the challenge of modeling an approach to intellectual history that treats spirituality as a mode of political reasoning.
Future research could build on the paper's findings to study the role of spirituality in other historical and contemporary contexts. It could explore the implications of the paper's approach for our understanding of democratic theory and practice.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of Mill's views on the origins of justice. It argues that the role of empathy in understanding justice has not been fully explored.
The paper identifies a gap in the understanding of the relationship between the Puritans' collective utopian mission and their democratic practices. The study notes that prior work has often overlooked the eschatological motivations that shaped Puritan governance.
Elizabeth Ellis Miller’s Liturgy of Change: Rhetorics of the Civil Rights Mass Meeting examines a central but understudied rhetorical event of the civil rights movement: the mass meeting at which organizers, citizens, and even civil rights detractors gathered to learn more about civic issues in the local community, engage in rhetorical performance, and determine plans for participating in future acts of resistance.
Liturgy of Change: Rhetorics of the Civil Rights Mass Meeting, by Elizabeth Ellis Miller · 2026 · DOIThe PBC has been viewed as a disappointment. The PBC's role in providing an alternative to official celebrations has been overlooked.
Making Protest Patriotic Again: The Peoples Bicentennial Commission and America’s 200th Anniversary in 1976 · 2026 · DOIHe said his role in the PBC was limited to a seat on the Illinois chapter’s steering committee. ”75 There were other mitigating factors, including that the locus of bicentennial activity was not limited to the District but was decentralized to include places such as Philadelphia, where President Ford traveled to deliver Independence Day remarks.
Making Protest Patriotic Again: The Peoples Bicentennial Commission and America’s 200th Anniversary in 1976 · 2026 · DOIThe paper identifies a gap in the existing literature, which has obscured the considerable insights that Penn's story can provide contemporary political scientists about the promises and pitfalls of theorizing toleration in colonial contexts. The paper argues that existing accounts of Penn's life and thought have been lopsided and have failed to provide a nuanced understanding of the historical context of his thought. The paper claims that a deeper understanding of Penn's political theory of toleration can provide valuable insights for contemporary political theory and practice.
Future research could explore the implications of Greene's views on the relationship between reason and faith. Further study could examine the reception of Locke's ideas on the relationship between faith and reason at other institutions.
‘Reason is but a Dim Light in Comparison with Revelation’: Robert Greene, Revelation and John Locke · 2025 · DOIThe gap in current research is the lack of understanding of Greene's position on Locke's views. The paper identifies a need for a better understanding of Greene's criticism of Locke's views.
‘Reason is but a Dim Light in Comparison with Revelation’: Robert Greene, Revelation and John Locke · 2025 · DOIEAL children may face difficulties in learning due to unfamiliarity with topics and cultural references in texts and limited vocabulary knowledge. Teachers struggle with distinguishing between SEN and EAL.
The Black Atlantic at Thirty: Implications for the Canon and for Publication and Instruction · 2024 · DOIThe study identifies a gap in the understanding of EAL children's needs. It argues that an ecological perspective is necessary to understand EAL children's needs, but this perspective is lacking in current research.
The Black Atlantic at Thirty: Implications for the Canon and for Publication and Instruction · 2024 · DOIAmerican Enlightenments does not strive after one answer to the question, what was the American Enlightenment? In fact, Winterer often determines that there was “no consensus” (143).
2 [End Page 21] Although much of Veracini’s scholarship has revolved around Palestinian-Israeli relations, it should come as no surprise that his settler colonial analyses have found their way into film: over the last fifteen years the once little known field has flourished to the point that it now dominates journals, conferences, and publications spanning numerous fields.
I Remember You: Postironic Belief and Settler Colonialism in Stephen Graham Jones's Ledfeather · 2016 · DOIHowever, few scholars have explored the aftermath of Hamilton’s death, leaving the July 15, 1804 funeral procession through the New York City’s streets to the Trinity Church graveyard understudied.
Remembering Alexander Hamilton: The Political Impact of Street Theatre in the Early Republic · 2014 · DOIQuotes from Gordon’s public speeches constitute good evidence, but how do we know that annotations to a hymnal were actually made by Bogle or that these annotations were of particular significance to him? Bogle left no theological writings and there is much about Bogle’s beliefs and motivations that will forever remain unknown.
The Cross and the Machete: Native Baptists of Jamaica - Identity, Ministry and Legacy (review) · 2012 · DOILittle known about the now celebrated 1912 Bread and Roses strike is that prominent Progressive-era reformers condemned the strikers as “uncivil” and “violent.
Mary Astell's neglected critique of Shaftesbury's Letter Concerning Enthusiasm (1708) rejects his vision of religious tolerance because it is insufficiently committed to the ideals of reason and rational-critical public debate.
Most-cited papers in American Constitutional Law and Politics
- On the Emancipation of PLS-SEM: A Commentary on Rigdon (2012) · Long Range Planning · 2014 · 599 citations
- Democracy and the “Washington consensus” · World Development · 1993 · 398 citations
- National identity and the 'other' · Ethnic and Racial Studies · 1998 · 307 citations
- Racial Orders in American Political Development · American Political Science Review · 2005 · 288 citations
- “The Most We Can Hope For...”: Human Rights and the Politics of Fatalism · South Atlantic Quarterly · 2004 · 286 citations
- Beyond Tocqueville, Myrdal, and Hartz: The Multiple Traditions in America · American Political Science Review · 1993 · 285 citations
- The Past in the Future: History and the Politics of Identity · American Anthropologist · 1992 · 232 citations
- What Is Liberalism? · Political Theory · 2014 · 223 citations
- Ideology and United States History Textbooks · Harvard Educational Review · 1979 · 216 citations
- I. Liberalism and the Art of Separation · Political Theory · 1984 · 212 citations
Most recent work
- Against Abolitionism · New left review · 2026
- Our Heroes, Your Villains: How Americans Polarize Around Historical Figures · Sociological Quarterly · 2026
- Saving Enlightenment: Jefferson’s Bible, Douglass’s Faith, and the Work of the Spirit · Modern Intellectual History · 2026
- Alexander Hamilton, Tench Coxe, and the Diversity of Talents: A Neglected Argument in Early American Protectionist Thought · History of Economics Review · 2026
- The Many Faces of Benjamin Rush · Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026
- The APS and the Pursuit of Happiness · Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026
- Tiktok v. Garland and the First Amendment Anticanon · The Supreme Court Review · 2026
- The Foundations of English Anti-Democratic Thought c.1630s–1880s: Historiography, Method and History · History of Political Thought · 2026
- The Concept of Individualism in American Historical Communities · Communal Societies · 2026
- Review of Shaking the Faith: Women, Family, and Mary Marshall Dyer’s Anti-Shaker Campaign, 1815-1867 · Communal Societies · 2026
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