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Articles 1 - 4 of 4
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
The Social Utility Of Informal Institutions: Caucuses As Networks In The 110th United States House Of Representatives, Jennifer N. Victor, Nils Ringe
The Social Utility Of Informal Institutions: Caucuses As Networks In The 110th United States House Of Representatives, Jennifer N. Victor, Nils Ringe
Working Papers
This paper challenges the existing state-of-knowledge about legislative caucuses by arguing that the caucus system reflects and reinforces formal organizing institutions, such as parties and committees, rather than counterbalancing them. We argue that legislators engage in the caucus system in order to maximize the social utility of their relationships. Using a social network framework, we develop and test hypotheses that seek to ascertain the types of legislators that benefit most from the caucus network. We collect data on the complete population of caucuses and their members from the first session of the 110th U.S. House of Representatives and conduct social …
Social Networks And Correct Voting, Scott D. Mcclurg, Anand E. Sokhey
Social Networks And Correct Voting, Scott D. Mcclurg, Anand E. Sokhey
Working Papers
Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voting behavior. However, recent work concerning the nexus between deliberation and democratic practice--particularly in the American context--has re-focused attention on the normative consequences of socially-driven political behavior. Among the most common criticisms of interpersonal networks are that most people have very insular social circles, and that when they do not they are unlikely to engage in politics. In this paper we provide evidence that such pessimistic assessments are unwarranted, though for somewhat unexpected reasons. Using data from the American Component of the 1992 Cross-National Election Project and the …
The Effect Of Presidential Campaigning: The 2002 And 2004 Midterm Senate Elections, Scott D. Mcclurg, Jessica Bryan
The Effect Of Presidential Campaigning: The 2002 And 2004 Midterm Senate Elections, Scott D. Mcclurg, Jessica Bryan
Working Papers
Many scholars address the indirect effects presidents have on midterm election results by examining the “midterm loss” phenomenon, presidential coattails, negative voting, and the “referendum” thesis. However, very little research investigates the direct effect that presidential campaigning has on congressional candidates prospects for victory. This study adds to this growing literature by exploring presidential campaigning in the 2002 and 2006 U.S. Senate midterm elections. Our investigation makes two important contributions to previous research. First, we explicitly model the strategic decisions presidents make in visiting states in order to get a better estimate of presidential impact that accounts for selection bias. …
The Coevolution Of Networks And Political Attitudes, David Lazer, Brian Rubineau, Carol Chetkovich, Nancy Katz, Michael Neblo
The Coevolution Of Networks And Political Attitudes, David Lazer, Brian Rubineau, Carol Chetkovich, Nancy Katz, Michael Neblo
Working Papers
How do attitudes and social affiliations co-evolve? A long stream of research has focused on the relationship between attitudes and social affiliations. However, in most of this research the causal relationship between views and affiliations is difficult to discern definitively: Do people influence each other’s views so that they converge over time or do they primarily affiliate (by choice or happenstance) with those of similar views? Here we use longitudinal attitudinal and whole network data collected at critical times (notably, at the inception of the system) to identify robustly the determinants of attitudes and affiliations. We find significant conformity tendencies: …