The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior

by Leighley, Jan E.

• ISBN13: 9780199604517
• ISBN10: 0199604517
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-24
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior 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 behaviour. 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 are a 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 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

List of Figures	p. ix
List of Tables	p. xi
Abbreviations	p. xii
About the Contributors	p. xiii
Introduction
Introduction	p. 3
Research Design
The State of Survey Research as a Research Tool in American Politics	p. 9
Optimizing Survey Questionnaire Design in Political Science: Insights from Psychology	p. 27
Laboratory Experiments in American Political Behavior	p. 51
Field Experiments and the Study of Political Behavior	p. 69
Formal Modeling, Strategic Behavior, and the Study of American Elections	p. 89
Participation
Why is American Turnout So Low, and Why Should We Care?	p. 107
American Voter Turnout in Historical Perspective	p. 125
Expanding the Possibilities: Reconceptualizing Political Participation as a Toolbox	p. 144
Voter Registration: Turnout, Representation, and Reform	p. 162
Early, Absentee, and Mail-In Voting	p. 182
Digital Democracy: How Politics Online is Changing Electoral Participation	p. 200
Voting Technology	p. 219
Vote Choice
The Study of Electoral Behavior	p. 239
The American Voter	p. 262
Politics, Expertise, and Interdependence within Electorates	p. 278
Constructing the Vote: Media Effects in a Constructionist Model	p. 300
Campaign Effects on Vote Choice	p. 326
Forecasting US Presidential Elections	p. 346
Interests, Self- and Otherwise
Economics, Elections, and Voting Behavior	p. 375
Latinos and Political Behavior: Denning Community to Examine Critical Complexities	p. 397
Organizing American Politics, Organizing Gender	p. 415
Gauging the God Gap: Religion and Voting in US Presidential Elections	p. 433
Elections Other Than Presidential
Local and National Forces in Congressional Elections	p. 453
The Study of Local Elections in American Politics	p. 471
Studying State Judicial Races in a Transformed Electoral Environment	p. 493
Primary Elections	p. 514
Direct Democracy in the United States	p. 531
Elites and Institutions
Voters in Context: The Politics of Citizen Behavior	p. 555
Getting Up Off the Canvass: Rethinking the Study of Mobilization	p. 577
Parties, Elections, and Democratic Politics	p. 595
Organized Interests: Evolution and Influence	p. 611
Money and American Elections	p. 629
Redistricting	p. 649
American Electoral Practices in Comparative Perspective	p. 667
Reflections
On Participation: Individuals, Dynamic Categories, and the Context of Power	p. 687
Studying American Elections	p. 700
In Search of Representation Theory	p. 716
Name Index	p. 741
Su0062ject Index	p. 761
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