Topic
Social Science
A collection of 117 issues
Sort of Sorted but Definitely Cold
By now, students of American Politics have all become accustomed to seeing graphs of DW-NOMINATE scores showing ideological polarization in Congress. Here are the equivalent graphs (we assume two dimensions) at the mass level.
Data are from the 2004 ANES. Social and Cultural Preferences are from Confirmatory Factor Analysis over
On (Modest) Differences In Racial Distribution of Voting Eligible Population and Registered Voters in California
Each election cycle brings renewed concern about differential voter registration rates across demographic groups. In California, for instance, only 62.8% of eligible Latinos are registered to vote, compared to 72.9% of eligible Whites—a gap of over 10 percentage points. Such disparities rightfully worry those committed to democratic
Measuring Partisan Affect Coldly
Outside of the variety of ways of explicitly asking people how they feel about another group — feeling thermometers, like/dislike scales, favorability ratings — explicit measures asked using mechanisms designed to overcome or attenuate social desirability concerns — bogus pipeline, ACASI — and a plethora of implicit measures — affect misattribution, IAT — there exist
Remembering Reagan
Some Potential Negatives of Elite Polarization
Growing ideological distance between the parties has produced clearer choices. This added clarity has resulted in improved propensity among voters to make ideologically consistent choices (Levendusky 2010). This is seen as a positive.
However, there may be some negative normative implications as well. If parties have moved away from the
Institutional Distrust
It is sometimes assumed that high levels of institutional distrust in America are peculiar to it. So much so that a variety of theories have been offered to ‘explain’ this peculiarity including, but not limited to, elite polarization, income inequality, polarized media, etc. Empirical support for the ‘American exceptionalism’ however
Affectively Polarized? Partisan Polarization Among the Masses
The shooting of Representative Giffords has reignited the debate about the extent to which the public is polarized. Some political scientists have answered the question by analyzing people’s policy positions over the years. And the data are clear on the question—no, not really.
However, a lack of ‘real’
The Unscientific Republican
Only 6% of scientists in a random sample of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) identify themselves as Republicans, according to a Pew 2009 Study. Assuming AAAS is not tremendously unrepresentative of scientists as a whole, what explains the under-representation of Republicans in science?
While Republicans are under-represented
Extremely or Fairly Satisfied with How Democracy Works
Proportion extremely or fairly satisfied with the way "democracy works" over time across some established democracies, Nordic countries, and in the U.K, and satisfaction with democracy by party by year in the U.S.
Established Democraciesest2.pdf7 KBdownload-circleNordic Countriesnordicr.pdf10 KBdownload-circleU.K.ukr.pdf6 KBdownload-circleU.S.nesres.