Showing papers on "Voting behavior published in 2009"

Does the Media Matter? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effect of Newspapers on Voting Behavior and Political Opinions

Abstract: There is substantial evidence that media sources have identifiable political slants, but there has been relatively little study until recently of the effects on political views and behaviors of media bias or access. This paper reports the results of a natural field experiment to measure the effect of exposure to newspapers on political behavior and opinion. The Washington DC area is served by two major newspapers, the Washington Times and the Washington Post. We randomly assigned individuals either to receive a free subscription to the Washington Post, to receive a free subscription to the Washington Times, or to a control group. We then conducted a public opinion survey after the 2005 Virginia gubernatorial election. We find that those assigned to the Post treatment group were eight percentage points more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor than those assigned to the control group. We find similar but weaker evidence of shifts in public opinion on specific issues and attitudes.

The Nature of Political Ideology in the Contemporary Electorate

Abstract: Given the increasingly polarized nature of American poli- tics, renewed attention has been focused on the ideological nature of the mass public. Using Bayesian Item Response Theory (IRT), we examine the contemporary contours of policy attitudes as they relate to ideo- logical identity and we consider the implications for the way scholars conceptualize, measure, and use political ideology in empirical research. Although political rhetoric today is clearly organized by a single ideolog- ical dimension, we find that the belief systems of the mass public remain multidimensional, with many in the electorate holding liberal preferences on one dimension and conservative preferences on another. These cross- pressured individuals tend to self-identify as moderate (or say "Don't Know") in response to the standard liberal-conservative scale, thereby jeopardizing the validity of this commonly used measure. Our analysis further shows that failing to account for the multidimensional nature of ideological preferences can produce inaccurate predictions about the voting behavior of the American public.

Putting the Political Back into Political Economy by Bringing the State Back in yet Again

Abstract: Dominant theoretical approaches in political economy today, whether they posit convergence to neoliberal capitalism, binary divergence of capitalisms, or tripartite differentiation of financial governance, downplay the importance of state action. Their methodological approaches, rational choice and historical institutionalism, tend to reinforce their substantive theories either by disaggregating the state into its historical institutional components or by focusing on the strategic actions of its rational actors. This article argues that by not taking state action seriously, they are unable to explain the differences in degree and kind of countries' neoliberal reforms. For this, it is necessary to bring the state back in and to put the political back into political economy not just in terms of political economic institutions but also in terms of policies, polity, and politics. To explore the political in all its variety, however, the article demonstrates that at least one more methodological approach, discursive institutionalism, is also needed. This approach, by taking the role of ideas and discourse seriously, brings political actors as sentient beings back in. This in turn also enables the author to explain the dynamics of neoliberal reform in political economy.

Does Gerrymandering Cause Polarization

Abstract: Both pundits and scholars have blamed increasing levels of partisan conflict and polarization in Congress on the effects of partisan gerrymandering. We assess whether there is a strong causal relationship between congressional districting and polarization. We find very little evidence for such a link. First, we show that congressional polarization is primarily a function of the differences in how Democrats and Republicans represent the same districts rather than a function of which districts each party represents or the distribution of constituency preferences. Second, we conduct simulations to gauge the level of polarization under various “neutral” districting procedures. We find that the actual levels of polarization are not much higher than those produced by the simulations. We do find that gerrymandering has increased the Republican seat share in the House; however, this increase is not an important source of polarization. C ontemporary politics in the United States is historically distinctive in at least two respects. The first is the ever-increasing polarization of political elites. As McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal (2006) have documented, partisan differences in congressional voting behavior have grown dramatically to levels not seen since the early twentieth century. The second distinction is the historically low levels of competition in congressional elections. This is especially true of the House of Representatives, where 99% of incumbents standing for reelection were successful in the 2002 and 2004 elections. In the swing to the Democrats in 2006, no individual Democrats were defeated and even 89% of standing Republicans were reelected. Given the conjunction of these two patterns, it seems natural to draw a link; namely, the increased polarization of Congress is a direct result of the increasing ease of reelection. Presumably in an era of declining competition politicians no longer feel the need to reach out to moderate and independent voters. Instead politicians are free to pander to their base. Politicians who do not pander may face primary challenges by ideologically purer candidates. Istherealinkbetweenincreasedpolarizationanddecliningcompetition?Scholarshaveyettoestablishacom

After enlargement: voting patterns in the sixth European Parliament

Abstract: We examined how voting behavior in the European Parliament changed after the European Union added ten new member-states in 2004. Using roll-call votes, we compared voting behavior in the first half of the Sixth European Parliament (July 2004-December 2006) with voting behavior in the previous Parliament (1999–2004). We looked at party cohesion, coalition formation, and the spatial map of voting by members of the European Parliament. We found stable levels of party cohesion and interparty coalitions that formed mainly around the left-right dimension. Ideological distance between parties was the strongest predictor of coalition preferences. Overall, the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 did not change the way politics works inside the European Parliament. We also looked at the specific case of the controversial Services Directive and found that ideology remained the main predictor of voting behavior, although nationality also played a role.

Persistence in Political Participation

Abstract: This paper uses discontinuities imposed by voting-age restrictions to identify the effect of past eligibility on subsequent participation decisions and partisan identification. It compares participation decisions and partisan affiliations of individuals who turned 18 just before past elections with those who turned 18 just after. It presents three main findings. First, past presidential election eligibility increases the probability of subsequent participation. For example, the point estimates indicate that 2000 presidential election eligibility increased participation in the 2004 presidential election by 3.0–4.5 percent, which suggests that voting in the 2000 presidential election increased 2004 participation by about 5 percentage points. Second, past presidential election eligibility affects partisan identification. Third, these effects continue to persist for several election cycles after a voter first becomes eligible.

The political brand: A consumer perspective

Abstract: As there is not universal acceptance of political parties as brands, the paper justifies and theoretically supports considering them as such. It then uses a cognitive psychology perspective to explain in detail how consumers learn about political brands. From this, the interaction between the leader, the party and its policies is considered as a means by which political brand image forms in consumer memory. This is followed by an analysis of the potential benefits proffered by political brands to voters. These benefits, it is postulated, motivate consumers to learn about, interact with and eventually help decide upon a political brand. Finally, the paper considers the future of political brands, in particular through the prism of postmodern consumer behaviour.

Full Participation: A Comparative Study of Compulsory Voting

Abstract: Full participation is the first book-length study of compulsory voting to be published in the English language About a quarter of all democracies in the contemporary world legally oblige their citizens to vote, making this an important aspect of electoral systems in many settings Moreover, numerous commentators and policy-makers in voluntary voting states are coming to see mandatory attendance at the polls as an attractive option in the context of declining turnout Yet, we know relatively little about this practice beyond its effects on rates of electoral participation; there has been a dearth of systematic examination of the way in which compulsory voting shapes attitudes, behaviour and outcomes of the political processThis volume seeks to fill that gap by providing a comprehensive description, analysis and evaluation of compulsory voting as it is practiced throughout the world Specifically, the study systematically examines the history of the institution, the normative arguments for and against it, and the influence it has on a range of political phenomena These include electoral campaigns, political attitudes, electoral integrity and legitimacy, policy outcomes and turnout The book also considers the feasibility of introducing compulsory voting in a contemporary democracy, as well as variations on the institution designed to broaden its appeal Full participation will be of interest to a wide range of readers, from ordinary citizens who take an interest in public affairs to political commentators, policy-makers and academic researchers

Political Settlements: Issues paper

Abstract: Why do similar sets of formal institutions often have such divergent outcomes? An analysis of political settlements goes some way to answering this question by bringing into focus the contending interests that exist within any state, which constrain and facilitate institutional and developmental change. It provides a framework to analyse how the state is linked to society and what lies behind the formal representation of politics in a state. The political settlement and the elite bargains from which it emerges are central to patterns of state fragility and resilience. The role of political organisation within the political settlement is crucial to both the stability of the settlement and the direction in which it evolves over time. The elite bargains that may lead to the establishment of what might be considered a resilient political settlement may also act as a barrier to progressive developmental change. Analysis of political settlements suggests that state-building is far from a set of technical formulas, but is a highly political process. Creating capacity within a state to consolidate and expand taxation is fundamentally determined by the shape of the political settlement underlying the state. This is true as well for the development of service delivery or any other function of the state. This analytical framework provides a window for donors to grasp the politics of a place in order to design more effective interventions.

Political partisanship influences perception of biracial candidates' skin tone

Abstract: People tend to view members of their own political group more positively than members of a competing political group. In this article, we demonstrate that political partisanship influences people's visual representations of a biracial political candidate's skin tone. In three studies, participants rated the representativeness of photographs of a hypothetical (Study 1) or real (Barack Obama; Studies 2 and 3) biracial political candidate. Unbeknownst to participants, some of the photographs had been altered to make the candidate's skin tone either lighter or darker than it was in the original photograph. Participants whose partisanship matched that of the candidate they were evaluating consistently rated the lightened photographs as more representative of the candidate than the darkened photographs, whereas participants whose partisanship did not match that of the candidate showed the opposite pattern. For evaluations of Barack Obama, the extent to which people rated lightened photographs as representative of him was positively correlated with their stated voting intentions and reported voting behavior in the 2008 Presidential election. This effect persisted when controlling for political ideology and racial attitudes. These results suggest that people's visual representations of others are related to their own preexisting beliefs and to the decisions they make in a consequential context.

Comparing Cosponsorship and Roll-Call Ideal Points

Abstract: We use bill cosponsorship and roll-call vote data to compare legislators’ revealed preferences in the U.S. House of Representatives and the Argentine Chamber of Deputies. We estimate ideal points from bill cosponsorship data using principal-component analysis on an agreement matrix that included information on all bills introduced in the U.S. House (1973–2000) and Argentine Chamber (1983–2002). The ideal-point estimates of legislators’ revealed preferences based on cosponsorship data strongly correlate with similar estimates derived from roll-call vote data. Also, cosponsorship activity in the U.S. House has lower dimensionality than cosponsorship has in the Argentine Chamber. We explain this lower discrimination as a function of individual- and district-level factors in both countries. The comparative analysis of legislative voting behavior has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in the last decade (Carey 2006; Morgenstern 2004; Sieberer 2006). New statistical techniques and the greater availability of data now allow researchers to map legislative coalitions, explore party discipline, and explain political realignments in multiparty systems (see, for examples, Aleman and Saiegh 2007; Amorim Neto, Cox, and McCubbins 2003; Clinton, Jackman, and Rivers 2004; Desposato 2005; Haspel, Remington, and Smith 1998; Hix, Noury, and Roland 2006; Hug and Schulz 2007; Jones and Hwang 2005a; Londregan 2000; Morgenstern 2004; Poole 2005; and Rosenthal and Voeten 2004). Efforts to understand voting behavior in legislatures across Europe and Latin America not only expand our knowledge about lawmaking and legislative parties, but also promise to shed new light on the forces that shape legislators’ preferences within different institutional contexts.

Does Grassroots Lobbying Work? A Field Experiment Measuring the Effects of an e-Mail Lobbying Campaign on Legislative Behavior

Abstract: There are few reliable estimates of the effect of grassroots lobbying on legislative behavior. The analysis in this article circumvents methodological problems that plague existing studies by randomly assigning legislators to be contacted by a grassroots e-mail lobbying campaign. The experiment was conducted in the context of a grassroots lobbying campaign through cooperation with a coalition of groups lobbying a state legislature. The results show that grassroots lobbying by e-mail has a substantial influence on legislative voting behavior. The article concludes with a number of possible extensions of the study's design to other forms of lobbying and other problems in political science.

Partisanship, Voting, and the Dopamine D2 Receptor Gene

Abstract: Previous studies have found that both political orientations (Alford, Funk, and Hibbing 2005) and voting behavior (Fowler, Baker, and Dawes 2008; Fowler and Dawes 2008) are significantly heritable. In this article we study genetic variation in another important political behavior: partisan attachment. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with the A2 allele of the D2 dopamine receptor gene are significantly more likely to identify as a partisan than those with the A1 allele. Further, we find that this gene's association with partisanship also mediates an indirect association between the A2 allele and voter turnout. These results are the first to identify a specific gene that may be partly responsible for the tendency to join political groups, and they may help to explain correlation in parent and child partisanship and the persistence of partisan behavior over time.

Towards a modern gender gap in Europe?: A comparative analysis of voting behavior in 12 countries

Abstract: This article examines electoral gender differences in Western Europe. It describes the electoral gender gap in a longitudinal cross-national design (1974–2000, 12 countries) with EuroBarometer data. The analysis shows that gender differences in voting in Europe follow a similar movement to what has been described for the USA. Women tended to vote more for conservative parties in the 1970s, while in the new millennium they have given higher support to left parties. The speed of this development differs cross-nationally and not all countries reached the state of a modern gender gap (where women lean left). At the national level the driving force for the emergence of a modern gender gap is mainly increased levels of female labor participation. At the individual level structural variables explain traditional gender differences in voting, but fail to account for the gender gap in recent years.

Thinking about Political Psychology

Abstract: Introduction James H Kuklinski Part I Defining Political Psychology: 1 The contours of political psychology: situating research on political information processing John L Sullivan, Wendy M Rahn and Thomas Rudolph Part II Theory and Research: 2 Who can persuade whom? Implications from the nexus of psychology and rational choice theory Arthur Lupia 3 Expanding the envelope: citizenship, contextual methodologies, and comparative political psychology Pamela Johnston Conover and Donald D Searing 4 The challenges of political psychology: lessons to be learned from research on attitude perception Jon A Krosnick Part III The Psychology-Political Nexus: 5 Political psychology and political science John L Sullivan, Wendy M Rahn and Thomas Rudolph 6 Is political psychology sufficiently psychological? Distinguishing political psychology from psychological political science Jon A Krosnick 7 Political psychology, political behavior, and politics: questions of aggregation, causal distance, and taste Robert C Luskin Part IV Political Psychology and Aggregate Opinion: 8 The micro foundations of mood James A Stimson 9 From denial to extenuation (and finally beyond): political sophistication and citizen performance Robert C Luskin 10 Political psychology and the micro-macro gap in politics

The unmet potential of interdisciplinary research: Political psychological approaches to voting and public opinion

Abstract: Since its founding, political science has embraced interdisciplinary research. Yet there exist few, if any, systematic assessments of the success of these endeavors. We assess what is often seen as a paradigm of interdisciplinary collaboration: political psychological research on voting and public opinion. Surprisingly, we find little evidence of true interdisciplinary work; instead, we uncover misused concepts and scant evidence of conceptual or disciplinary integration. We conclude with suggestions for how to improve interdisciplinary research on voting and public opinion, and more generally.

Are Female House Members Still More Liberal in a Polarized Era? The Conditional Nature of the Relationship Between Descriptive and Substantive Representation

Abstract: Some past studies looking at the voting behavior of women in Congress have shown that they tend to be more liberal than their male colleagues and are more likely to support issues of importance to women. Yet many of these analyses were conducted prior to the entrance of a number of conservative women into the U.S. House over the past few election cycles. Focusing on roll-call voting data over 13 Congresses, this study demonstrates that women in the House are more divided along partisan and ideological lines than at any point over the past two decades, even more ideologically distant than their male colleagues. It presents evidence that over the entirety of this period after controlling for other relevant factors, the effect of gender on roll-call ideology was stronger for Republican women than for Democratic women. However, in the 108th and 109th Congresses they were virtually ideologically indistinguishable from their male Republican colleagues. A similar pattern has materialized when the analysis is str...

The Real Swing Voter's Curse

Abstract: A central idea in political economy is that vot ers who are not ideologically attached to a politi cal party, so-called “swing voters,” attract policy favors and redistribution because they become the focus of electoral competition. In many parts of the world, however, politicians do not just use carrots to win elections, they also use sticks— coercion and violence. In this paper, we show that expanding the “policy space” to incorporate this can completely overturn the predictions of the standard model. The reason for this is simple. With all groups of voters at play, political competition does indeed lead to a chase for the sup

Modeling Problems in the Voter Identification—Voter Turnout Debate

Abstract: 85 IN APRIL 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana’s controversial voter identification (ID) law. Adopted in 2005, the law requires voters to show a current, government-issued photo identification. Opponents worry voter identification rules will place an undue burden on the voting rights of elderly, low income, and minority voters, disputing the need for the rules. Nevertheless, over the last five years, stricter voter identification requirements have been adopted on party line votes in more than a dozen states. Stimulated by the pressing policy debate, recent scientific research on the turnout question suggests that the most stringent rules will have harmful effects. However, the complexity of electoral laws and voting behavior together with the likely marginal effect of photo ID rules makes statistical outcomes quite sensitive to research designs. We see problems with existing designs that rely on individual, self-reported voting records from the Current Population Survey. Our article evaluates this research and disputes the strength of the statistical arguments used to support findings of an observable negative effect on turnout from voter ID laws. Alternatively, we adjust the models using state samples and difference-indifferences techniques and reanalyze the CPS data for the 2002 and 2006 midterm elections. While we do not conclude that voter ID rules have no effect on turnout, our data and tools are not up to the task of making a compelling statistical argument for an effect.

Has Television Personalized Voting Behavior

Abstract: Scholars and political observers have suggested that television has “personalized” voting behavior in American presidential elections by encouraging citizens to cast ballots on the basis of candidate image and personality. Though an oft-heard assertion, little solid evidence exists that this is true, and the reinvigoration of partisanship and the persistence of ideological conflict suggest personalization may be less pervasive than supposed. In this paper, I use National Election Studies data to examine whether voters are more concerned with candidates’ personal characteristics now than they were at the outset of the television era. I find, however, that voters are no more likely today to mention candidate personality as a reason for their vote choice than they were in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, while personality affects voting behavior, its influence on candidate choice is not significantly larger than it was a half-century ago. The results are not contingent on exposure to television or political awareness and are insensitive to different measures of perceptions of candidate image. The findings are consistent with the resurgence of partisan voting in American elections and suggest that some concerns about TV’s effects on political judgment are exaggerated.

Political Ambition and Legislative Behavior in the European Parliament

Abstract: Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) typically follow one of two career paths, either advancing within the European Parliament itself or returning to higher offices in their home states. We argue that these different ambitions condition legislative behavior. Specifically, MEPs seeking domestic careers defect from group leadership votes more frequently and oppose legislation that expands the purview of supranational institutions. We show how individual, domestic-party, and national-level variables shape the careers available to MEPs and, in turn, their voting choices. To test the argument, we analyze MEPs’ roll-call voting behavior in the 5th session of the EP (1999–2004) using a random effects model that captures idiosyncrasies in voting behavior across both individual MEPs and specific roll-call votes.

Is There a Secret Ballot? Ballot Secrecy Perceptions and their Implications for Voting Behavior

Abstract: A secret ballot is implemented to free voters to choose candidates without fear of economic or social repercussions, but the extent to which the secrecy achieves this goal depends on whether people believe their choices are kept secret, rather than whether they actually are. Findings from a nationally representative sample show that large proportions of the U.S. population have doubts about the secrecy of the ballot. Approximately 25% of all respondents and approximately half of non-White and less educated respondents do not believe their ballot choices are kept secret. Even larger proportions (almost 70%) report regularly, voluntarily sharing their vote choices with others. In sum, we find that few people view their vote choices as truly secret. We also show that beliefs about ballot secrecy help predict which candidate a citizen votes for and whether a voter turns out. Our results suggest that, despite the formal secrecy of the ballot, citizens' vote choices should be analyzed as something other than purely private acts.

Does government ideology influence political alignment with the U.S.? An empirical analysis of voting in the UN General Assembly

Abstract: This paper examines whether government ideology has influenced political alignment with the U.S. in voting in the UN General Assembly. I analyze a dataset of UN General Assembly voting behavior of 21 OECD countries over the 1984–2005 period employing two alternative indices of government ideology. The results suggest that government ideology has had a strong influence on voting alignment with the U.S.: leftwing governments were less sympathetic to US positions. The ideology-induced effect was stronger when the US President was a Republican. This finding contrasts with the declining electoral cohesion in OECD countries. The distinctly different alignments of leftist and rightwing governments with the U.S. reflect deeper sources of ideological association than would be predicted if the issues were solely those of economic policy on a left–right spectrum.

Crisis, charisma, values, and voting behavior in the 2004 presidential election

Abstract: This study extends Pillai and Williams [1998, Pillai, R, Williams, EA, Lowe, KB, & Jung, DI (2003) Personality, transformational leadership, trust, and the 2000 US presidential vote The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 161–192] and examines leadership in the context of the 2004 US presidential election Data were collected at two time periods from respondents in three locations across two major regions of the US Our results indicate that respondents' perception of crisis was related to charismatic leadership in the negative direction for the incumbent George W Bush and in the positive direction for the challenger John Kerry For Bush and Kerry the relationship between crisis and voting behavior was mediated by charismatic leadership For Bush, decisiveness was related to charismatic leadership, which in turn predicted voting behavior For Kerry, decisiveness and charismatic leadership predicted voting behavior Implications of the findings for leadership research, in particular with respect to an incumbent and the challenger to an incumbent leader, are discussed

Beyond Membership: A Sense of Community and Political Behavior

Abstract: Why does community matter for political participation? In this paper, I consider how community psychology, particularly “sense of community” can be used to address questions of political behavior. Individuals’ perceptions about their significance in a given community can have meaningful effects on the way in which communities influence politics. Using a unique survey instrument designed to capture individual’s perceptions of community connectedness and political behavior across five contexts (workplace, church, associations, neighborhood, and circle of friends (i.e., an informal network) I analyze data from 822 respondents and examine how sense of community influences two types of political behavior: voting in local elections and political discussion. The empirical analyses presented demonstrate that sense of community contributes to explaining voting and discussion, even after controlling for demographic, personality, and other political factors.

Terrorist Threat, Leadership, and the Vote: Evidence from Three Experiments

Abstract: From 9/11 in the U.S. to train, subway, and airport bombings elsewhere, individuals frequently must make political decisions in the shadow of terrorist attacks. To date, few studies have examined how times of terror threat influence voters’ decision-making processes. Using data generated from three experiments we show that, in times of terrorist threat (compared to good times), individuals weight leadership more heavily in the voting booth. Our results also shed light on how much weight is given to other determinants of the vote (issues and partisanship) across these two conditions.

Does government ideology influence political alignment with the U.S.? An empirical analysis of voting in the UN General Assembly

Abstract: This paper examines whether government ideology has influenced political alignment with the U.S. in voting in the UN General Assembly. I analyze a dataset of UN General Assembly voting behavior of 21 OECD countries over the 1984-2005 period employing two alternative indices of government ideology. The results suggest that government ideology has had a strong influence on voting alignment with the U.S.: Leftwing governments were less sympathetic to US positions. The ideology-induced effect was stronger when the US President was a Republican. This finding contrasts with the declining electoral cohesion in OECD countries. The distinctly different alignments of leftist and rightwing governments with the U.S. reflect deeper sources of ideological association than would be predicted if the issues were solely those of economic policy on a left-right spectrum.

It Feels Like We're Thinking: The Rationalizing Voter and Electoral Democracy

Abstract: The familiar image of rational electoral choice has voters weighing the competing candidates’ strengths and weaknesses, calculating comparative distances in issue space, and assessing the president’s management of foreign a¤airs and the national economy. Indeed, once or twice in a lifetime, a national or personal crisis does induce political thought. But most of the time, the voters adopt issue positions, adjust their candidate perceptions, and invent facts to rationalize decisions they have already made. The implications of this distinction— between genuine thinking and its day–to–day counterfeit— strike at the roots of both positive and normative theories of electoral democracy. The primary use of party is to create public opinion. — Philip C. Friese (1856, 7) Cognitive Consistency, Partisan Inference, and Issue Perceptions1 The rise of scholarly interest in “issue voting”in the 1960s and ‘70s prompted concern about the implications of partisan inference for statistical analyses of the relationship between issue positions and vote choices. The spatial theory of voting (Downs 1957; Enelow and Hinich 1984) cast “issue proximity”as both the primary determinant of voters’choices and the primary focus of candidates’campaign strategies. The proliferation of issue scales in the Michigan (later, National Election Study) surveys provided ample raw material for naive regressions of vote choices on “issue proximities” calculated by comparing respondents’ own positions on these issue scales with the positions they attributed to the competing candidates or parties. The ambiguity inherent in empirical relationships of this sort was clear to scholars of voting behavior by the early 1970s. Brody and Page (1972) outlined three distinct interpretations of the positive correlation between “issue proximity”and vote choice. The …rst, “Policy Oriented Evaluation,”corresponds to the conventional interpretation of issue voting –prospective voters observe the candidates’policy positions, compare them to their own policy preferences, and choose a candidate accordingly. The second, “Persuasion,” involves prospective voters altering their own issue positions to bring them into conformity with the issue positions of the candidate or party they favor. The third, “Projection,” involves prospective voters convincing themselves that the candidate or party they favor has issue positions similar to their We wish to thank the Department of Politics and the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University for research support. Colleagues in the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, both faculty and students, provided helpful advice and criticism. Markus Prior let us see some of his unpublished …ndings from experiments. We also thank Toby Cook and Dorothy McMurtery for helping us think about how personal life– histories a¤ect political views.

The Political Psychology of Democratic Citizenship

Abstract: 1. Introduction: Normative Conceptions of Democratic Citizenship and Evolving Empirical Research Part I: Civic Knowledge 2. The Psychology of Civic Learning 3. What Knowledge is of Most Worth? Part II: Persuasion processes and interventions in contemporary democracies 4. Shallow cues with deep effects: Trait judgments from faces and voting decisions 5. Taking the Political Environment Seriously: Strategic Political Rhetoric and Citizen Decision-Making 6. The Role of Persuasion Strategies in Motivating Individual and Collective Action Part III: Group identity 7. Social Identity and Citizenship in a Pluralistic Society 8. The politics of recognition: A social psychological perspective Part IV: Hate crimes and tolerance 9. Diverging Ideological Viewpoints on Pathways to More Harmonious Intergroup Relations 10. Tolerance and the Contact Hypothesis: A Field Experiment 11. Racial Stereotyping and Political Attitudes: The View from Political Science Part V: Technology and mass media 12. Collective identity and the mass media 13. Social Identity and Representations of Society and Politics in The News Part VI: Commentaries 14. Experimental Social Psychology, Broader Contexts, and the Politics of Multiculturalism 15. Political Psychology: The Promise of (and Impediments to) Synergistic Interdisciplinary Scholarship 16. What has Political Psychology to offer regarding Democratic Citizenship?