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Articles 1 - 30 of 54
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Who Is Interested In Participating In Participatory Budgeting?, David Doherty, Raluca G. Pavel, Madeline Jackson, Dana Garbarski
Who Is Interested In Participating In Participatory Budgeting?, David Doherty, Raluca G. Pavel, Madeline Jackson, Dana Garbarski
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Inequalities in terms of who participates in politics yield policy outcomes that fail to reflect the interests of the broader public. Because these processes fail to engage the full citizenry in political decision-making processes, they are also markers of an anemic civic culture. Advocates of participatory budgeting (PB) – a process implemented at the subnational level in thousands of cities in the United States and beyond that invites residents to participate directly in the process of allocating public resources for local projects – argue that it can alleviate these inequalities. They argue that features of the PB process make it …
“This Forum Is Not A Democracy”: The Role Of Norms And Moderation In Cultivating (Anti)Democratic Incel Identities, Jennifer Forestal
“This Forum Is Not A Democracy”: The Role Of Norms And Moderation In Cultivating (Anti)Democratic Incel Identities, Jennifer Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Incels (short for “involuntarily celibate”) have recently gained notoriety for their aggressive, often violent, misogyny, yet incels were not always an antidemocratic social group. They thus pose a challenge for thinking about democracy and identity in (anonymous) digital environments: how can we create spaces for marginalized social groups while ensuring the resulting identities remain democratic? While many scholars point to technological affordances or corporate content moderation policies as providing some solutions, in this article I propose a more democratic approach. Drawing from incel wikis and archived forum posts from two early incel communities—IncelSupport and LoveShy—I argue that a community's social …
Primary Barriers To Working Class Representation, Sarah A. Treul, Eric Hansen
Primary Barriers To Working Class Representation, Sarah A. Treul, Eric Hansen
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
How do working class candidates perform in primary elections? Working class candidates rarely emerge, but existing evidence suggests workers perform as well as white-collar candidates once on the ballot. However, this evidence comes from studies of general elections. It is unknown whether these findings extend to other types of elections like primaries, where candidates compete without the political and financial backing of a party. We collect and analyze novel data describing the occupational background of all candidates who competed in U.S. House primaries between 2008 and 2016. The results show that working class candidates received an average vote share 24 …
Of Humans, Machines, And Extremism: The Role Of Platforms In Facilitating Undemocratic Cognition, Julia R. Decook, Jennifer Forestal
Of Humans, Machines, And Extremism: The Role Of Platforms In Facilitating Undemocratic Cognition, Julia R. Decook, Jennifer Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The events surrounding the 2020 U.S. election and the January 6 insurrection have challenged scholarly understanding of concepts like collective action, radicalization, and mobilization. In this article, we argue that online far-right radicalization is better understood as a form of distributed cognition, in which the groups’ online environment incentivizes certain patterns of behavior over others. Namely, these platforms organize their users in ways that facilitate a nefarious form of collective intelligence, which is amplified and strengthened by systems of algorithmic curation. In short, these platforms reflect and facilitate undemocratic cognition, fueled by affective networks, contributing to events like the …
White Constituents And Congressional Voting, Eric Hansen
White Constituents And Congressional Voting, Eric Hansen
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Why do some members of Congress vote more on the extremes of their party than others? I argue that lawmakers representing more homogeneously white districts have greater electoral incentive to moderate their voting records, since the two parties compete more for support of white voters than for the support of minority voters. I provide evidence using roll-call votes from the U.S. House and Senate. I find members representing more homogeneously white districts have more moderate voting records, a finding that holds for Democrats and Republicans. I explore two potential mechanisms: legislator responsiveness and electoral punishment. While legislators do not seem …
The Effects Of Partisan Framing On Covid-19 Attitudes: Experimental Evidence From Early And Late Pandemic, Amber Wichowsky, Meghan Condon
The Effects Of Partisan Framing On Covid-19 Attitudes: Experimental Evidence From Early And Late Pandemic, Amber Wichowsky, Meghan Condon
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Political polarization has dominated news coverage of Americans’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this research note, we report findings from two experimental studies, in which we present respondents with news stories about COVID-19 mitigation measures that emphasize partisan difference or accord. The stories present the same numeric facts about public opinion, but highlight either the partisan gap that existed at the time of the study, or the fact that large majorities of both Republicans and Democrats supported the measures at the time. Results from our first study, conducted late April 2020, show that a media frame drawing attention to …
The Impact Of Police Killings On Proximal Voter Turnout, G. Augustin Markarian
The Impact Of Police Killings On Proximal Voter Turnout, G. Augustin Markarian
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
This paper studies how spatial proximity to pre-election police killings affects voter turnout. I argue that incidents of police violence have neighborhood-level effects. Nearby voters are more likely to learn about proximal killings than those further away. If perceived as unjust, police killings teach political lessons that reduce voters’ trust in government and political efficacy. In turn, this impacts voter turnout. Observing the 2016 presidential election, I test this theory using geolocated voter data and a difference-in-differences design with matched groups. I find that pre-election police killings reduce voter turnout by 3 percentage points in the killings’ one-mile radius. Space …
Complexity, Resources And Text Borrowing In State Legislatures, Eric Hansen, Joshua M. Jansa
Complexity, Resources And Text Borrowing In State Legislatures, Eric Hansen, Joshua M. Jansa
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Do states copy or reinvent language from complex policies as they diffuse, and does this depend on legislative resources? We argue that states will more frequently reinvent more complex policies, but that states with high-resource legislatures will reinvent more than their low-resource counterparts for more complex policies. We test the theory using the bill texts from 18 policies that diffused across the 50 states from 1983-2014, measuring reinvention and complexity using text analysis tools. In line with expectations, we find that complex policies are reinvented more than simple policies and that high-resource legislatures reinvent bills more than low-resource legislatures on …
Reevaluating The Substantive Representation Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Americans: A Multiverse Analysis, Joseph Saraceno, Eric Hansen, Sarah Treul
Reevaluating The Substantive Representation Of Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Americans: A Multiverse Analysis, Joseph Saraceno, Eric Hansen, Sarah Treul
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Social scientists are facing a crisis of confidence in quantitative results. Multiverse analysis provides concerned scholars a tool for verifying the robustness of findings. This article introduces political scientists to multiverse analysis through an application. It identifies how differing approaches to data processing led to divergent conclusions about the representation of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Americans in Congress in a 2015 Journal of Politics article. The analysis casts doubt on the original conclusion that the size of the LGB population in a district is significantly associated with the bill sponsorship activity of its representative. More broadly, it demonstrates how …
Inexperienced Or Anti-Establishment? Voter Preferences For Outsider Congressional Candidates, Eric Hansen, Sarah Treul
Inexperienced Or Anti-Establishment? Voter Preferences For Outsider Congressional Candidates, Eric Hansen, Sarah Treul
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Do US voters prefer inexperienced candidates? Candidates who have never held elected office before have had greater success in recent presidential and congressional elections. However, it could be that voters prefer the type of anti-establishment rhetoric that such candidates use more than the lack of experience itself. We conduct a 2x2 factorial experiment that manipulates a fictitious congressional candidate’s experience and rhetoric toward the political system. Results from a nationally representative Qualtrics sample and two follow-up studies from Mechanical Turk show that respondents evaluate the candidate more positively when he uses anti-establishment rhetoric instead of pro-establishment rhetoric. Though the findings …
Educational Attainment And Social Norms Of Voting, Eric Hansen, Andrew Tyner
Educational Attainment And Social Norms Of Voting, Eric Hansen, Andrew Tyner
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Why does the likelihood of voting increase with education in the U.S.? Prominent theories attribute education’s effect to human capital, which affords individuals resources needed to participate, but neglect social motivations. We test a theory of internalized social norms as another contributing factor, providing evidence in three studies. First, we show that highly educated people are more likely to view voting as a civic duty, and that civic duty partially mediates the effect of education on voting. Second, we show education is associated with a higher likelihood of overreporting voting in the 2016 election. Third, we show that educated respondents …
Constructing Digital Democracies: Facebook, Arendt, And The Politics Of Design, Jennifer Forestal
Constructing Digital Democracies: Facebook, Arendt, And The Politics Of Design, Jennifer Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Deliberative democracy requires both equality and difference, with structures that organize a cohesive public while still accommodating the unique perspectives of each participant. While institutions like laws and norms can help to provide this balance, the built environment also plays a role supporting democratic politics—both on- and off-line. In this article, I use the work of Hannah Arendt to articulate two characteristics the built environment needs to support democratic politics: it must (1) serves as a common world, drawing users together and emphasizing their common interests and must also (2) preserve spaces of appearance, accommodating diverse perspectives and …
Beyond Gatekeeping: Propaganda, Democracy, And The Organization Of Digital Publics, Jennifer Forestal
Beyond Gatekeeping: Propaganda, Democracy, And The Organization Of Digital Publics, Jennifer Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
While there is disagreement as to the severity of the digital disinformation problem, scholars and practitioners have largely coalesced around the idea that a new system of safeguards is needed to prevent its spread. By minimizing the role of citizens in managing their own communities, however, I argue that these gatekeeping approaches are undemocratic. To develop a more democratic alternative, I draw from the work of Harold D. Lasswell and John Dewey to argue that we should study the organization of digital publics. For citizens to engage in democratic inquiry, publics must be organized so that they can (1) easily …
The Masked Demos: Associational Anonymity And Democratic Practice, Jennifer Forestal, Menaka Philips
The Masked Demos: Associational Anonymity And Democratic Practice, Jennifer Forestal, Menaka Philips
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The increased use of anonymous digital platforms raises substantive concerns about accountability in digital spaces. However, contemporary evaluations of anonymity focus too narrowly on its protective function: its ability to protect a diversity of speakers and ideas. Drawing on two examples of anonymous political engagements – Publius’s writing of the Federalist Papers and college students’ use of the social media platform Yik Yak – we develop an account of anonymity’s associational function: the processes by which people generate and negotiate collective identities, discussions, and actions in wider publics. As we argue, anonymity’s associational function can (1) generate conditions under which …
The Business Of Peace: Understanding Corporate Contributions To Conflict Management, Molly M. Melin
The Business Of Peace: Understanding Corporate Contributions To Conflict Management, Molly M. Melin
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Do private firms act beyond “business as usual” and proactively build peace? Firms are largely absent from the conflict management literature, despite studies suggesting their importance. What conditions encourage firms to actively prevent or resolve violent conflict? Are such actions interdependent with ongoing international conflict prevention and management efforts? I argue international efforts encourage corporate conflict management-related activities since conflict management interdependencies can decrease the costs of conflict management, while increasing the benefits and success of their efforts. In addition, firms respond to gaps in governance and instability, especially when they are norm entrepreneurs or their reputation is threatened. I …
Teaching The Town Hall: Incorporating Experiential Learning In A Large Introductory Lecture Course, Jennifer Forestal, Jessie K. Finch
Teaching The Town Hall: Incorporating Experiential Learning In A Large Introductory Lecture Course, Jennifer Forestal, Jessie K. Finch
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Experiential learning has been shown to help cultivate habits of effective democratic citizens, but it is often seen as infeasible for large classes. This need not be the case. In this paper, we describe a group project designed to introduce students in a 70-person Introduction to Politics course to the basic political processes of local government. In addition to guidance on how to implement the project, we also discuss survey data from students in the class to compare pre- and post-tests for each semester as well as comparing post-tests across two semesters. We explore how students who were enrolled in …
Civics Across Campus: Designing Effective Extracurricular Programming, Claire Abernathy, Jennifer L. Forestal
Civics Across Campus: Designing Effective Extracurricular Programming, Claire Abernathy, Jennifer L. Forestal
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
This study focuses on examining the role that isolated extracurricular events can play in furthering students’ civic education; these one-time events require fewer resources to implement than courses and therefore provide valuable opportunities for faculty to engage new audiences on their campuses in the work of civic learning. In order to develop more effective civic learning in these isolated extracurricular activities, we follow a two-pronged approach. First, we use survey data to determine the audiences reached by extracurricular civic education events, as well as to assess event attendees’ levels of political knowledge, civic skills, democratic values, and feelings of efficacy. …
Diversity In Party Leadership In State Legislatures, Eric Hansen, Christopher J. Clark
Diversity In Party Leadership In State Legislatures, Eric Hansen, Christopher J. Clark
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Members of historically underrepresented groups—women, African Americans, Latinos, and workers—are serving in American legislatures in increasing numbers. However, legislators wield substantially greater power in the lawmaking process when they hold leadership positions. Incorporation of these groups into leadership positions could indicate fuller political representation, but scholars to date have not assessed how well these groups are represented in leadership. We analyze original data describing the backgrounds of approximately 2,200 leaders in 30 states between 2003 and 2014. The data show that, on average across states, members of these groups are as well represented in state legislative leadership positions as they …
Noncombatant Immunity And The Ethics Of Blockade, Robert Mayer
Noncombatant Immunity And The Ethics Of Blockade, Robert Mayer
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
This paper counters Michael Walzer’s argument against tight blockades. It shows that the interdiction of food shipments need not violate the principle of noncombatant immunity. Whether it is morally permissible to impose a strict blockade depends on the circumstances of the target state. The more self-sufficient a country is, the more acceptable it should be for a belligerent to cut the enemy’s external lines of supply. The Allied blockade of Germany during the First World War illustrates the argument. Fault in this case should be assigned to the German government for the loss of civilian lives.
Hiring Faculty For The Mission Of Private Universities, John P. Pelissero
Hiring Faculty For The Mission Of Private Universities, John P. Pelissero
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
No abstract provided.
What Happens When Insurers Make The Insurance Laws? State Legislative Agendas And The Occupational Makeup Of Government, Eric Hansen, Nicholas Carnes, Virginia Gray
What Happens When Insurers Make The Insurance Laws? State Legislative Agendas And The Occupational Makeup Of Government, Eric Hansen, Nicholas Carnes, Virginia Gray
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Do the occupational backgrounds of politicians affect the government’s agenda? Businesses have long thought so. The first occupational data on state legislators were collected by the Insurance Information Institute, an interest group representing major insurance companies. In this paper, we test one potential motive for these kinds of efforts: the idea that the occupational makeup of governments affects the agendas they pursue, an argument that has been largely neglected in research on politicians’ occupational backgrounds. We focus here on the insurance industry. Using original data, we find that state legislatures with more former insurers consider fewer bills regulating insurance (negative …
Copy And Paste Lawmaking: Legislative Professionalism And Policy Reinvention In The States, Eric Hansen, Joshua M. Jansa, Virginia Gray
Copy And Paste Lawmaking: Legislative Professionalism And Policy Reinvention In The States, Eric Hansen, Joshua M. Jansa, Virginia Gray
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Research on policy reinvention tends to focus on whether policies become more or less comprehensive over time while neglecting to explain copying policy language verbatim. We argue that the extent to which lawmakers reinvent policy depends on the resources available to them. Lawmakers serving in more professional state legislatures have greater capacity to reinvent policies. In contrast, lawmakers serving in less professional settings are more likely to copy policy language. As evidence, we gather bill texts of 12 policies that diffused across the 50 states between 1982 and 2014. Using cosine similarity scores to measure language copying, we find that …
Constitutionalism And Democracy Dataset, Version 1.0, Todd A. Eisenstadt, Carl Levan, Tofigh Maboudi
Constitutionalism And Democracy Dataset, Version 1.0, Todd A. Eisenstadt, Carl Levan, Tofigh Maboudi
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The main objective of the CDD is to quantify the process of constitution-making since 1974. This is the first public release of any data on the process of constitution-making. This release includes data on 144 national constitutions promulgated in 119 countries from 1974 to 2014. The unit of analysis in the data is national constitutions. The data in this release includes only “new” constitutions and does not include suspended, re-installed, amended, or interim constitutions. In this release, only countries with a population larger than 500,000 are included. The authors intend to update the data by including all countries, expanding the …
Jeremiad Or Weapon Of Words?: The Power Of Emotive Language In Supreme Court Dissents, Amanda C. Bryan, Eve M. Ringsmuth
Jeremiad Or Weapon Of Words?: The Power Of Emotive Language In Supreme Court Dissents, Amanda C. Bryan, Eve M. Ringsmuth
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Unable to directly control the policy articulated by the Supreme Court, dissenting justices are faced with the challenge of finding alternative ways to pursue their policy goals. We argue that one strategy available to them is to use their power over the language of a dissenting opinion to increase the media attention paid to a case. Our results show that cases with negative dissents attract more media coverage, which creates a variety of mechanisms through which a dissenter’s policy preferences could be realized, such as inducing Congress to take action, influencing public debate on the issue, and provoking further litigation. …
Escalation In International Conflict Management: A Foreign Policy Perspective, Molly M. Melin
Escalation In International Conflict Management: A Foreign Policy Perspective, Molly M. Melin
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Efforts to resolve interstate disputes are often characterized by repeated engagement and evolving strategies. What explains a state’s decision to continue conflict resolution efforts but escalate their management strategy? Drawing from foreign policy literature, I argue third parties escalate policies both in response to past failures, shifting conflict dynamics, and their relationship with the disputants. Analysis of management efforts from 1946 to 2001 reveals that the changing nature of the conflict, policy failures and relationships between the third party and disputants are integral to understanding the management decision process, but the effects of these factors depend on the management history.
Commitment Problems: Understanding Variation In The Frequency Of International Conflict Management Efforts, Molly M. Melin
Commitment Problems: Understanding Variation In The Frequency Of International Conflict Management Efforts, Molly M. Melin
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Why do some militarized interstate disputes involve multiple third party attempts to resolve the dispute, while others seemingly end before movement towards peace is possible? This paper examines third party commitment to international conflict resolution. I argue that a third party’s commitment reflects strategic interests, barriers to entry and the conflict’s prospects for peace, which encourage third party involvement while having a dampening effect on their commitment. I also explore the role of bias in management onset and third party commitment. Analysis of conflict management in militarized interstate disputes from 1946 to 2001 offers significant support for the hypotheses.
A Discernible Impact? The Influence Of Public Opinion On Eu Policymaking During The Sovereign Debt Crisis, Jennifer R. Boyle, Chris Hasselmann
A Discernible Impact? The Influence Of Public Opinion On Eu Policymaking During The Sovereign Debt Crisis, Jennifer R. Boyle, Chris Hasselmann
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The European sovereign debt crisis provides an excellent opportunity for examining the extent to which public preferences constrain member state preferences for EU policy solutions. We examine the influence of public opinion on austerity, spending, and regulation on member state preferences on 4 major EU solutions to the crisis from 20I0-2011: the initial Greek financial rescue, the creation of the European Stability Mechanism, the reform of the Stability and Growth pact, and enhanced EU financial regulation. Our analysis reveals that prior to elections and/or when there is a degree of fragmentation in the governing party or coalition public opinion constrains …
Public Attitudes And Support For The Eu In The Wake Of The Financial Crisis, Jennifer R. Wozniak, Chris Hasselmann
Public Attitudes And Support For The Eu In The Wake Of The Financial Crisis, Jennifer R. Wozniak, Chris Hasselmann
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
The economic and financial crisis has dominated the political agenda of both the European Union and its respective governments for the past several years. The economic effects, from rising unemployment to negligible growth rates, have been widely documented and explored. The political consequences likewise have been examined in terms of the impact on various national elections, especially in Greece and most recently in Germany. One area in need of attention, however, is the extent to which existing theories and models of support for integration are able to capture the public's changing perception of the EU. Drawing on a series of …
Revisiting The Influence Of Law Clerks On The U.S. Supreme Court’S Agenda-Setting Process, Ryan C. Black, Christina L. Boyd, Amanda C. Bryan
Revisiting The Influence Of Law Clerks On The U.S. Supreme Court’S Agenda-Setting Process, Ryan C. Black, Christina L. Boyd, Amanda C. Bryan
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
Do law clerks influence U.S. Supreme Court Justices’ decisions in the Court’s agenda-setting stage? For those Justices responding to their own law clerks’ cert recommendations, we expect a high degree of agreement between Justice and clerk. For non-employing Justices, however, we anticipate that the likelihood of agreement between clerk and Justice will vary greatly based on the interplay among the ideological compatibility between a Justice and the clerk, the underlying certworthiness of the petition for review, and the clerk’s final recommendation. Relying on a newly collected dataset of petitions making the Court’s discuss list over the 1986 through 1993 Terms, …
Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, Claudio Katz
Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis, Claudio Katz
Political Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works
No abstract provided.