About

James Henson is the director of the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas. His work involves conducting regular, non-partisan, statewide polls of registered voters in Texas, and making the results and data available for public use. His research focuses on public opinion and political behavior in Texas, including issues such as gas prices, war with Iran, and the direction of the country. Henson's contributions include analyzing voter turnout challenges, shifts in political attitudes, and election dynamics within Texas, providing insights into the state's political landscape through polling, data visualization, and educational resources.

Research topics

• Political science
• Sociology
• Philosophy
• Law
• Gender studies

Selected publications

• The Education Cyrus Missed

  Political Research Quarterly · 2022-07-15

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This manuscript contributes to a growing body of scholarship aimed at understanding the intentions of Xenophon in portraying the founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great. While Xenophon initially suggests that Cyrus is wise, a close reading of the work as a whole reveals defects in Cyrus’ moral understanding. Xenophon’s Cyrus largely misses the Persian education in justice. This shapes his development by strengthening his initial instinct to equate justice with the beneficial, rather than with the legal. As he rises to power, he continually insists that justice is good, and he uses his power to try to ensure its goodness. But he never seriously considers the idea that justice might demand a sacrifice of one’s own good, and thus, he never full embraces the beauty of noble self-sacrifice, something that the work as a whole suggests Xenophon saw as an essential element in education.

  PublisherDOI

• Laurie M. Johnson: Honor in America? Tocqueville on American Enlightenment. (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2017. Pp. xxxii, 154.)

  The Review of Politics · 2018-12-17

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• “The Most Common Sickness of Our Time”: Tocqueville on Democratic Restlessness

  The Review of Politics · 2018-01-01 · 4 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract In volume 1 of Democracy in America , Tocqueville argues that the energy unleashed by democracy is one of democracy's greatest benefits. In volume 2, his portrait of democracy turns darker, and he recasts the dynamism of American society as an expression of an underlying restlessness. In this paper, I argue that restlessness ( inquiétude ) is a key element of Tocqueville's mature view of democratic man. Whereas previous scholarship on Tocqueville's view of restlessness either treats the theme instrumentally, by subordinating it to other themes, or seeks to illuminate Tocqueville's debt to other thinkers, this paper examines Tocqueville's treatment of restlessness as an important theme in its own right. Treating this theme in full requires examining his discussions of materialism, envy, democratic morality, and democratic peoples’ experiences of literature and art. Through this examination we see how, in Tocqueville's view, democracy, for all its merits, obstructs the path to human happiness.

  PublisherDOI

• Making Religion Safe for Democracy: Transformation from Hobbes to Tocqueville by J. Judd Owen

  Interpretation A Journal of Bible and Theology · 2016-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Tocqueville on the Modern Moral Situation: Democracy and the Decline of Devotion

  American Political Science Review · 2014-10-17 · 7 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Most scholarship on the moral dimensions of Tocqueville's analysis of democracy focuses on the doctrine of enlightened self-interest. Surprisingly little has been written about his account of the underlying moral shift that makes this doctrine necessary. Drawing principally on Volume II of DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, but also on Tocqueville's letters and notes, I unearth his fascinating and compelling account of why modern democratic man loses his admiration for devotion and embraces self-interest. That account begins from individualism, but also includes democratic man's intellectual and aesthetic tastes, his low estimation of his moral capacities, and weakening religious belief. After examining what Tocqueville saw as the causes of the new moral outlook, I consider what he saw as its most profound implications. Departing from recent trends in Tocqueville scholarship, I argue that is in Tocqueville's account of the modern democratic condition as such that he has the most to offer us today.

  PublisherDOI

• The Pious Sex: Essays on Women and Religion in the History of Political Thought

  2010-01-01

  article
  Publisher

• Aristotle's Account of the Subjection of Women

  The Journal of Politics · 2008-09-11 · 30 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In recent years, several studies have argued that Aristotle saw the associations of the household as voluntary, mutually beneficial, and directed toward lofty aims. These studies have brought out genuine complexities in Aristotle's understanding of the relationship between the public and private spheres. But, in their characterization of Aristotle's view of the household, they miss the mark. While Aristotle discusses marriage and family in other places, he examines the hierarchical aspect of the relationship between men and women most fully in Politics I. Close examination of Politics I reveals that Aristotle thought that the subjection of women in the household was rooted in force.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Rafael Major

  University of North Texas

  16 shared

• Christopher Nadon

  Boston College

  16 shared

• Nasser Behnegar

  Boston College

  16 shared

• Susan D. Collins

  University of Notre Dame

  2 shared

• Robert C. Bartlett

  Boston College

  1 shared

• John W. Danford

  1 shared

• Fred Baumann

  Kenyon College

  1 shared

• J. Judd Owen

  Emory University

  1 shared

Labs

• The Texas Politics ProjectPI

  The Texas Politics Project conducts regular, non-partisan, statewide polls of registered voters in Texas, and makes the results and data available for public use.