The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior

by Leighley, Jan E.; Edwards III, George C.

• ISBN13: 9780199235476
• ISBN10: 0199235473
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-04-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This Handbook offers comprehensive coverage of the various theoretical approaches to the study of American elections and political behavior. The chapters are thoughtful and creative, providing broad overviews of intellectual developments and challenges, as well as incisive commentary on the accomplishments of, and challenges facing, scholars of American politics. Substantively, the Handbook includes chapters focusing on various approaches and issues in research design, political participation, vote choice, presidential and non-presidential elections, and issues, interests and elites as influences on individuals' political behavior. Each of the chapters offers a working research bibliography, as well as retrospective evaluations of research and discussions of fruitful paths for future research. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics is an eight-volume set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the current state of scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III

Author Biography

Jan E. Leighley, Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, has published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and American Politics Quarterly, among others. Her two books include Strength in Numbers? The Political Mobilization of Racial and Ethnic Minorities, published by Princeton University Press, and Mass Media and Politics: A Social Science Perspective. She served as editor (with Kim Quaile Hill) of the American Journal of Political Science, a leading general journal in political science, from 2000-2004 and has served on two advisory panels at the National Science Foundation.

Table of Contents

Part One: Introduction
1. Introduction, Jan E. Leighley
Part Two: Research Design
2. The State of Survey Research as a Research Tool in American Politics, Lonna Rae Atkeson
3. Optimizing Survey Questionnaire Design in Political Science: Insights from Psychology, Josh Pasek and Jon A. Krosnick
4. Laboratory Experiments in American Political Behavior, Kim L. Fridkin and Patrick J. Kenney
5. Field Experiments and the Study of Political Behavior, Tiffany C. Davenport, Alan S. Gerber, and Donald P. Green
6. Formal Modeling, Strategic Behavior, and the Study of American Elections, John H. Aldrich and Arthur Lupia
Part Three: Participation
7. Why Is American Turnout So Low, and Why Should We Care?, Michael D. Martinez
8. American Voter Turnout in Historical Perspective, Michael P. McDonald
9. Expanding the Possibilities: Reconceptualizing Political Participation as a Tool Box, Fredrick Harris and Daniel Gillion
10. Voter Registration: Turnout, Representation, and Reform, Robert D. Brown
11. Early, Absentee, and Mail-In Voting, Robert M. Stein and Greg Vonnahme
12. Digital Democracy: How Politics Online is Changing Electoral Participation, Karen Mossberger and Caroline J. Tolbert
13. Voting Technology, R. Michael Alvarez and Thad E. Hall
Part Four: Vote Choice
14. The Study of Electoral Behavior, Larry M. Bartels
15. The American Voter, William G. Jacoby
16. Politics, Expertise and Interdependence within Electorates, T.K. Ahn, Robert Huckfeldt, Alexander K. Mayer, and John B. Ryan
17. Constructing the Vote: Media Effects in a Constructionist Model, Maria Armoudian and Ann N. Crigler
18. Campaign Effects on Vote Choice, D. Sunshine Hillygus
19. Forecasting U.S. Presidential Elections, Thomas Holbrook
Part Five: Interests, Self- and Otherwise
20. Economics, Elections and Voting Behavior, Suzanna Linn, Jonathan Nagler, and Marco A. Morales
21. Latinos and Political Behavior: Defining Community to Examine Critical Complexities, John A. Garcia
22. Organizing American Politics, Organizing Gender, Kira Sanbonmatsu
23. Gauging the God Gap: Religion and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections, John C. Green
Part Six: Elections Other than Presidential
24. Local and National Forces in Congressional Elections, Barry C. Burden and Amber Wichowsky
25. The Study of Local Elections in American Politics, Melissa J. Marschall
26. Studying State Judicial Races in a Transformed Electoral Environment, Laura Langer, Meghan Leonard, and Andrea Polk
27. Primary Elections, Barbara Norrander
28. Direct Democracy in the United States, Shaun Bowler and Todd Donovan
Part Seven: Elites and Institutions
29. Voters in Context: The Politics of Citizen Behavior, Walter J. Stone and Matthew K. Buttice
30. Getting Up Off the Canvass: Rethinking the Study of Mobilization, Kenneth M. Goldstein and Matthew Holleque
31. Parties, Elections and Democratic Politics, John H. Aldrich and John D. Griffin
32. Organized Interests: Evolution and Influence, Peter L. Francia
33. Money and American Elections, Lynda W. Powell and Clyde Wilcox
34. Redistricting, Bernard Grofman and Thomas L. Brunell
35. American Electoral Practices in Comparative Perspective, Mark N. Franklin and Till Weber
Part Eight: Reflections
36. On Participation: Individuals, Dynamic Categories and the Context of Power, Jane Junn
37. Studying American Elections, Paul R. Abramson, John H. Aldrich, and David W. Rohde
38. In Search of Representation Theory, Patricia A. Hurley and Kim Quaile Hill