Colorado Political Science Review
Welcome to CPSR
Welcome to the Colorado Political Science Review! CPSR is a student-written and student-edited journal bringing political science perspectives to important issues of the day. The opinions and perspectives in the CPSR are those of the individual authors. We seek to generate thoughtful discussion and analysis rooted in social science theory and supported by research and data. The CPSR is housed in the Political Science Department at the University of Colorado Boulder and is supported by the American Politics Research Lab and the LeRoy Keller Center for the Study of the First Amendment.
CPSR Spring 2026 Edition
Fragmentation to Coordination: Zambia and the Rise of the G20 Common Framework
In recent years, sovereign debt crises in developing countries have become more complex as countries are no longer just borrowing from a single institution, but from several sources, including private bondholders, China, other states, and international financial markets. This has resulted in a fragmented creditor system that makes restructuring repayments for developing countries difficult. When the government was suddenly unable to keep up with its payment schedule due to falling copper prices and the pand...
State-Level Criminal Justice Reform: How Colorado Legislatures Shape Public Safety Policy
Research QuestionHow do state legislatures shape criminal justice policy outcomes, and what institutional factors influence reform?Current ConsiderationsSpend enough time around a state capitol and one lesson becomes obvious: the biggest criminal justice battles are not always the loudest ones. Headlines usually focus on whether lawmakers are being 鈥渢ough鈥 or 鈥渟oft鈥 on crime. Still, many of the most consequential choices happen in appropriations bills, oversight hearings, sunset reviews, and reporting requi...
The Decline of Political Discourse in the Digital Age
It鈥檚 no secret that social media is changing the way we communicate with our politicians. From the official Democrats account on TikTok posting Zohran Mamdani mukbangs to President Trump tweeting and calling Kim Jong-un short and fat, political communication via social media has become increasingly widespread and unserious (Democrats on TikTok 2026.; Donald J. Trump [@realDonaldTrump] 2017). Historically, the most common form of nationwide addresses were the annual State of the Union addresses, weekly addre...
Abusers in Office: The Mechanisms that Give the Accused a Place in Politics
America is a land of opportunity where the poor can become rich, the voiceless can speak out, and the abusers can rise to the highest political office in the country. Today, at least 147 lawmakers across 44 states have been accused of some sort of sexual harassment, assault, or misconduct, including the President of the United States, pointing to a far too pervasive issue within the U.S. political system: abusers in office (Volmert et al., 2025). It is a pattern sustained by partisan bias, weak punishment, ...
ICE to Income: How Increased Enforcement is 鈥淔reezing鈥 Our Economy
IntroductionOn July 4th, 2025, Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) was given $75 billion under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), making history as the largest funded law enforcement agency in the U.S. The intention of this massive funding was to allow the Trump Administration to conduct the largest mass deportation campaign in history. Based on this alone, the administration assumed such a hefty investment would pay off in the long-run, benefitting many areas of the structure of the United State...
The 鈥淐loud鈥 Isn鈥檛 Weightless: Data Centers and Resource Politics in Colorado
Since OpenAI's ChatGPT launched in November 2022, generative artificial intelligence, particularly large language models (LLMs), have become widely demanded across the globe, in what is termed the "AI Boom" (HISTORY.com Editors, 2025). As of July 2025, the widely popular ChatGPT received over 2.5 billion queries per day, with roughly 10% of the world's adult population using the platform (Adams, 2025). OpenAI represents only a part of the much broader AI market, alongside companies such as Google, Microsoft...
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Faculty and Staff Advisors
Letter to the Editor
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How to be involved
Would you like to be a member of CPSR?
Please email janet.donavan@colorado.edu or madeline.mader@colorado.edu听