Research in American Politics (RAP)
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 Wednesdays
Director:
Luke Keele
This workshop serves as a forum for the presentation of research by graduate students
and faculty in American politics. For graduate students, RAP is
an opportunity to hear and present practice job talks, dissertation
chapters, and conference papers. Occasional RAP sessions will include
research presentations by faculty from Ohio State and other universities.
RAP will be held in the Spencer Room (Derby 2130) on Wednesdays from 12:00 to 1:30 p.m. (unless otherwise noted).
Please contact Craig Volden (volden.2@osu.edu) if you would like to
present.
Winter 2007 Presentation Schedule
February 28,
12:00-1:30 p.m.
Corwin Smidt
Title: "The Spinning Message: Agenda Dynamics in the 2000
Presidential Campaign"
Abstract: Evidence suggests candidate issue appeals raise the
salience of corresponding issue considerations among voters. Despite this
influence recent empirical examinations find candidates fail to discuss those
issues expected to be to their advantage. To explain this puzzle I present a
theoretical model allowing for news media influence on voter agendas and
malleable voter opinions. The model suggests that, given persuasive influences,
the greater the news media’s influence on voters the more reactive candidates
are to this agenda and the more likely issue convergence occurs. These
predictions are tested on dynamics of candidate, mass public, and news media
agendas within the context of the 2000 presidential campaign. In general, the
results support expectations that the news media mostly influence changes in
candidate and voter agendas during the campaign.
April 25, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
Tom Nelson
Title: "Value Recruitment In The Evolution Debate: A Theory, A Design, And No Data."
(Download
a Copy of the Paper Here)
Abstract: Value recruitment describes how communicators adopt
social and political values to court public opinion. My theory of value
recruitment incorporates four broad persuasive strategies, and numerous
rhetorical tactics. I examine the recurring debate over teaching evolution
in public schools as a case study of value recruitment in action. While I
actually do have data, my talk will describe some forthcoming experiments
that will examine the communicative and psychological dynamics of value
recruitment.
May 2, 12:00-1:30 p.m.
David Jacobs, OSU Sociology
Title: "The Politics of Resentment in the Post Civil-Rights Era: Minority Threat, Homicide, and Ideological Voting in Congress"
(Download a Copy of the Paper Here)
Abstract: This study assesses whether racial and ethnic resentments still influence U.S. politics. Tests of hypotheses derived from minority threat theory and minority voting power stipulating quadratic relationships between minority presence and roll call votes for liberal legislation in the House of Representatives are conducted. In addition to these nonlinear associations, the political influence of the most menacing crime the public blames on underclass minorities is assessed as well. Fixed-effects estimates based on analyses of 1152 state-years in the post civil rights era indicate that the expected U-shaped relationships are present between minority population size and roll call votes for liberal legislation. Additional findings suggest that expansions in the murder rates produced decreased support for liberal policies. Statements by Republican campaign officials on how they deliberately used mass resentments against minorities to gain normally Democratic votes provide evidence about the intervening connections between the threat to white dominance posed by larger minority populations and reduced support for liberal legislation.
Archived RAPs
