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Replication Data for: Loose Cannons or Loyal Foot Soldiers? Toward a More Complex Theory of Interest Group Advertising Strategies
No full textRecent court decisions have encouraged new types of interest groups to become involved in election campaigns. Yet questions remain about whether interest group sponsorship of advertising affects the content of the issues being discussed. The ability of interest groups to influence the campaign agenda has implications for the extent to which politicians can be held accountable by citizens. In this research, we present a new conceptual framework for explaining variation in interest group advertising strategies and examine the factors leading different types of interest groups to be loose cannons (diverging from the issue debates among candidates) or loyal foot soldiers (matching the candidates’ issue debates). We find more evidence of loyal foot soldier behavior among new multi-issue interest groups and among Republicans groups and candidates. Fears of interest groups “hijacking” campaign agendas appear unfounded
Replication Data for: Loose Cannons or Loyal Foot Soldiers? Toward a More Complex Theory of Interest Group Advertising Strategies
No full textRecent court decisions have encouraged new types of interest groups to become involved in election campaigns. Yet questions remain about whether interest group sponsorship of advertising affects the content of the issues being discussed. The ability of interest groups to influence the campaign agenda has implications for the extent to which politicians can be held accountable by citizens. In this research, we present a new conceptual framework for explaining variation in interest group advertising strategies and examine the factors leading different types of interest groups to be loose cannons (diverging from the issue debates among candidates) or loyal foot soldiers (matching the candidates’ issue debates). We find more evidence of loyal foot soldier behavior among new multi-issue interest groups and among Republicans groups and candidates. Fears of interest groups “hijacking” campaign agendas appear unfounded
Echo Chambers and Misinformation: How Social Media Use Conditions Individuals to Believe Fake News
Get PDFThesis (Ph.D.), Political Science, Washington State UniversityResearch has suggested that personalized information streams on social media platforms (i.e., echo chambers) contribute to the proliferation of fake news. Using a combination of laboratory and survey experiments, I find that homogeneous discussion groups and echo chambers cause individuals to engage in more impulsive, affect-driven thought over deliberate, critical analysis. I also find that even when controlling for other factors, high social media use conditions individuals to believe fake material. While removing individuals from partisan echo chambers does make participants less susceptible to believing fake news, these effects appear confined to Democrats. Republican participants in echo chambers believe fake news to be true at similar rates to their counterparts who receive more heterogeneous information streams. This is important considering that the vast majority of fake news consumers are Republicans. My research suggests that breaking up echo chambers may only make a marginal difference in the spread of online misinformation.Washington State University, Political Scienc
FALSE ALARM! THE MEASUREMENT AND ASSESSMENT OF POLITICAL CYNICISM AND THE CONSEQUENCES FOR POLITICAL PARTICIPATION
No full textThesis (Ph.D.), School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Washington State UniversityThe impact of political cynicism on political participation is an ongoing concern of scholars who study political behavior. While political cynicism is often assumed to reduce people’s involvement in politics, others suggest that cynicism may actually increase electoral support for ideologically extreme political parties. I argue that this disagreement is caused by the lack of a proper definition and measurement of political cynicism. This dissertation introduces a new approach to studying the relationship between cynicism and participation, starting with a comprehensive definition, which distinguishes cynicism from other attitudes such as distrust, social or horizontal cynicism and political efficacy. I define political cynicism as an enduring attitude towards politics based on the belief that the political object of cynicism (politicians, political institutions, and the political system as a whole) is untrustworthy, immoral, dishonest, incompetent, self-interested and out of touch with citizens. Additionally, using original data collected through online surveys, I construct a better instrument to identify political cynicism among citizens, focusing on the six dimensions I identified. Structural equation modeling confirms the reliability of the scale and shows that political cynicism is related to, but distinct from political distrust, political efficacy and social trust. Citizens who are cynical towards politics distinguish between human nature and political nature. Furthermore, I argue that the supposed negative link between cynicism and participation is overstated as I find that the story is much more complicated than it is usually made out to be. Additionally, I find that political cynicism and political distrust have different consequences for political participation. By and large, cynicism and participation are unrelated. When there is a relationship between political cynicism and political participation, it is a positive one. These findings are consistent in several samples and for a variety of types of participation. Consequently, this dissertation shows a citizenry that, although politically cynical to a certain degree, is at the same time not deterred from being politically active. The fretting and hand wringing therefore has to stop. It was false alarm, as political cynicism is not the problem it is made out to be for political participation.School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, Washington State Universit
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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THE PINK TIDE AND DEMOCRATIC CONSOLIDATION IN SOUTH AMERICA: A COMPARATIVE MIXED METHODS ANALYSIS OF ECONOMIC AND GENDER EQUALITY POLICY IN BOLIVIA, CHILE, PERU AND COLOMBIA
Get PDFDoes the political left approach issues of inequality differently to the right? My research investigates how successful the “pink tide” in South America was at effecting social and economic change through an examination of the causes and consequences of a region-wide shift in the political landscape of South America over the past two decades. Did widespread changes in the political ideology of regimes across the continent make a substantive difference to the people where it took place, and how can we evaluate that variation if so? I examine the rise of left-wing regimes in the context of neoliberal economic policies that were experienced across the developing world, and the extent to which those administrations governing from the left acted to improve the economic situation of those living in poverty. This macro level data on economic inequality provides the background to then examine the degree to which left-wing governments addressed issues of women’s inequality, measured through the policies and actions around women’s political representation, and actions to deal with violence against women. I then examine in detail the provision of sexual health and reproductive healthcare services, specifically around abortion and emergency contraception. The results from Bolivia, Chile, and Peru are compared to those in Colombia, which over the period in question elected only conservative presidents. I argue that firstly, the left did make a measurable, positive difference to levels of economic inequality, and that secondly, gender inequality has an increased likelihood of being reduced under leftist regimes, while reproductive rights are more likely to be enhanced. These findings have important implications for democratic consolidation in the region
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