Dynamic Democracy

Public Opinion, Elections, and Policymaking in the American States

AvDevin Caughey,Christopher Warshaw

Inbunden, Engelska, 2022

Del i serien Chicago Studies in American Politics

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Beskrivning

A new perspective on policy responsiveness in American government. Scholars of American politics have long been skeptical of ordinary citizens’ capacity to influence, let alone control, their governments. Drawing on over eight decades of state-level evidence on public opinion, elections, and policymaking, Devin Caughey and Christopher Warshaw pose a powerful challenge to this pessimistic view. Their research reveals that although American democracy cannot be taken for granted, state policymaking is far more responsive to citizens’ demands than skeptics claim. Although governments respond sluggishly in the short term, over the long term, electoral incentives induce state parties and politicians—and ultimately policymaking—to adapt to voters’ preferences. The authors take an empirical and theoretical approach that allows them to assess democracy as a dynamic process. Their evidence across states and over time gives them new leverage to assess relevant outcomes and trends, including the evolution of mass partisanship, mass ideology, and the relationship between partisanship and ideology since the mid-twentieth century; the nationalization of state-level politics; the mechanisms through which voters hold incumbents accountable; the performance of moderate candidates relative to extreme candidates; and the quality of state-level democracy today relative to state-level democracy in other periods.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2022-11-23
Mått:152 x 229 x 18 mm
Vikt:227 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Serie:Chicago Studies in American Politics
Antal sidor:248
Förlag:The University of Chicago Press
ISBN:9780226822204

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Devin Caughey is associate professor of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of The Unsolid South. Christopher Warshaw is associate professor of political science at George Washington University.

Recensioner i media

Named one of "The Best Scholarly Books of 2022":"It is easy to be pessimistic about American democracy. Elected officials appear far more interested in scoring partisan points than crafting policy that represents their constituents...Dynamic Democracy presents a powerful, data-drenched rejoinder to this line of thinking. The authors argue that, at the state level, policy has been surprisingly reflective of public preferences. Slowly but surely, as voters’ preferences change, so too have the policies of the states in which they live. In the typically staid field of quantitative American politics, Caughey and Warshaw have written a book that speaks to urgent concerns about the state of our democracy."

Innehållsförteckning

1. Introduction1.1 Plan of the Book2 Measurement: Public Opinion and State Policy2.1 The Challenge of Measurement2.2 Data and Measures2.2.1 Policy and Survey Data2.2.2 Measures of State Policy and Mass Preferences2.3 Summary2.A Technical Appendix on Measurement Models2.A.1 Issue-Specific Opinion2.A.2 Ideological Summarization2.A.3 Commonalities among the Ideological Models3 Preferences: Partisanship and Ideology in State Publics3.1 Partisan and Ideological Trends in the States3.1.1 Partisanship3.1.2 Ideology3.1.3 Evolution and Stability3.2 The Alignment of Ideology and Partisanship3.3 The Ideological Nationalization of Partisanship3.4 Summary4 Policies: The Outputs of State Government4.1 Trends in State Policy Ideology4.2 Policy, Preferences, and Party5 Parties: The Policy Effects of Party Control5.1 Theoretical Framework5.2 Policy Effects of Party Control5.3 Regression Discontinuity Estimates5.4 Dynamic Panel Estimates5.5 How Much Does Party Control Matter?5.6 Summary6 Elections: Selection, Incentives, and Feedback6.1 Selection and Incentives6.2 National Tides and Partisanship6.3 Partisan Selection6.4 Candidate Positioning and Electoral Success6.5 Collective Accountability and Negative Feedback6.5.1 Electoral Feedback6.6 Summary7 Responsiveness: The Public’s Influence on State Policies7.1 Operationalizing Responsiveness7.2 Position Responsiveness7.3 Policy Responsiveness7.3.1 Heterogeneity: Era and Region7.3.2 Mechanisms: Turnover versus Adaptation7.3.3 Cumulative Responsiveness7.4 Summary8 Proximity: The Match between Preferences and Policies8.1 Data on Policy-Specific Representation8.2 Policy Bias8.3 Policy Proximity8.3.1 The Dynamics of Policy Proximity8.4 Summary9 Deficits: Gaps in American Democracy9.1 The Jim Crow South9.1.1 Racial Disparities in Representation9.2 Legislative Malapportionment9.3 Partisan Gerrymandering9.4 Summary10 Reforms: Improving American Democracy10.1 Background on Institutional Reforms10.1.1 Citizen Governance10.1.2 Voting10.1.3 Money in Politics10.1.4 Labor Unions10.2 The Effects of Institutional Reforms10.3 Summary11 Conclusion11.1 Normative Implications11.2 Prospects for Reform11.3 Whither State Politics?11.4 Implications for Future ResearchAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex