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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Message Or Messenger? The Limits Of Moral Leadership, Renan Levine, Laura B. Stephenson
Message Or Messenger? The Limits Of Moral Leadership, Renan Levine, Laura B. Stephenson
Renan Levine
Media coverage of policies sometimes includes quotes from opinion leaders, including clergy and politicians. In an experiment implemented on campuses in two countries, we test the impact of a religious leader and a political leader by seeing how opinions change when these leaders frame their comments using a material or ethical terms. We find that changing the identity of the messenger alters what considerations factor into our subjects’ deliberations about stem-cell research and government spending cuts to pay off the government debt. However, the efficacy of the leader does not depend on the content of the message. Instead, the messenger …
Why Are There So Many Parties? Understanding Changes In The Canadian Federal Party System, James Farney, Renan Levine
Why Are There So Many Parties? Understanding Changes In The Canadian Federal Party System, James Farney, Renan Levine
Renan Levine
At least three parties have contested every Canadian federal election since 1925. Yet, the existing comparative literature fails to explain why Canada has so many parties compared to other countries or recent changes in the party system. We can accommodate changes in the Canadian party system by focusing on the institutional incentives that lead to new, non-centrist, parties forming and attracting votes. These incentives exist both when the winner of an election is widely expected and when there is a chance of a minority government. These incentives are reinforced by voters’ lack of clarity over which two parties are competitive …
Canadian Voting Behaviour In Comparative Perspective, James Farney, Renan Levine
Canadian Voting Behaviour In Comparative Perspective, James Farney, Renan Levine
Renan Levine
The existing comparative literature on voting behaviour and elections does not always succeed in including Canada in parsimonious theories about elections around the world. Of the four, long-term influences on the vote such as regional identities and cultures (or their apparent lack of influence) have received the most attention in Canada (see Kanji 2002 and Gidengail 1993 for reviews). Scholars seeking to understand particular elections in Canada have also long emphasized election-specific short-term influences on the vote as much of the historic competition between the Liberals and the Progressive Conservatives seem to revolve around questions of who would best lead …