Curt Nichols
Associate Professor of Political Science
Education
Ph.D., University of Texas
M.A., Georgia State University
B.S., The United States Military Academy at West Point
Curriculum Vitae
Curt Nichols specializes in American politics, with an interest in both political institutions and political development. His current book-length research project is located at this intersection. It focuses on the U.S. Constitution as mainspring of the American governing cycle, a phenomenon which provides periodic opportunities for presidents to exercise rejuvenating leadership. The study highlights the importance of both structuring institutions and well-directed agency. It further explores the promise and pitfalls of politics in the American constitutional order, and helps locate today’s politics within the recurrent tides of the governing cycle. He will be on research leave at the University of Missouri, Columbia where he will join the Forum on Constitutional Democracy as a 2014-2015 Kinder Research Fellow.
Baylor in Barbados
Courses at Baylor
PSC 2302 American Constitutional Development
PSC 3330 The American Presidency
PSC 4350 Political Parties
PSC 5321 Seminar in Public Law: Judicial Politics
PSC 5330 American Political Development
Selected Publications
"Congressional Attacks on the Supreme Court: A Mechanism to Maintain, Build, and Consolidate," Law and Social Inquiry. Vol. 41 No 1(2016): 100-125.
"Executive Behavior and the Influence of Religious Factors: Evidence from Gubernatorial State of the State Addresses, 2000-2013," Politics, Groups, and Identities. Vol. 41 No 1: 47-62, (2016).
"Reagan Reorders the Political Regime: A Historical-Institutional Approach to Analysis of Change,"Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 45, No 4 (2015): 703-726.
"Public Opinion and the Military: A Multivariate Exploration of Attitudes in Texas," Politics and Military Sociology: An Annual Review. Vol 43, No 1 (2015): 75-105.
"Modern Reconstructive Presidential Leadership: Reordering Institutions in a Constrained Environment," The Forum: A Journal of Applied Politics in Contemporary Society. Vol. 12, No 2 (2014): 281-304.
"Court-Curbing via Attempt to Amend the Constitution: An Update of Congressional Attacks on the Supreme Court from 1955–1984", with David Bridge and Adam Carrington Justice System Journal , Vol. 35, No. 4 (2014): 331-343.
"Military Family Attitudes toward Senior Civilian Leaders in the United States,"Armed Forces & Society, Vol. 39 No. 1 (2012): 53-57.
"The Presidential Rankings Game: Critical Review and Some New Discoveries,"Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 42, No. 2 (2012): 275-299.
"The Presidency and the Political Order: In Context," Polity, Vol. 43, No. 4 (2011): 513-532.
"Exploiting the Opportunity for Reconstructive Leadership: Presidential Responses to Enervated Political Regimes," with Adam S. Myers, American Politics Research, Vol. 38, No. 5 (2010): 806-841.
