If Republicans are wondering about how to choose among less-than-inspiring choices available in the upcoming primaries — and how to sort losers from potential winners in a national election — they would be wise to sign up for study with Steven J. Brams. What happens in primaries of both parties, he says, is that the “field is crowded, the centrist is squeezed, the strong left candidate or strong right candidate wins. And it’s a disaster, in my opinion, for the country.” Brams says approval voting, in which voters can vote for more than one candidate — in some scenarios as ... Read More
Why a Democracy Needs Uninformed People
December 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Uninformed people catch a lot of flak in society, whether they’re sitting on decision-making committees, choosing a new PTA president, or voting in a national election. Political commentators often daydream of a fully engaged and 100 percent knowledgeable electorate. New research, though, suggests these know-nothings may be more vital to democracy than anyone has given them credit for. Researchers at Princeton have discovered that the least informed among us may have a crucial role in tempering the most opinionated minorities. Surprisingly, they started off by studying fish. Iain ... Read More
Righting the Voting Income Gap
November 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Long-standing efforts to increase the number of low-income voters have been paying off. Several voting rights groups point to data from the federal Election Assistance Commission that show an increase in new voter registrations coming from public-assistance agencies. Since 1993, the National Voter Registration Act, known as the “Motor Voter Bill,” requires that voter registration be offered at DMV offices and public-assistance agencies. At the time of its passage, the law was heralded for empowering poor and working people, while detractors said it could lead to registering dead ... Read More
Scandals Do Drive Voters — When Abuse of Power Is Involved
November 7, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Political scandals are, in a sense, like car crashes: They attract our attention because they bring out our morbid curiosity. Will this be the end of a big-time politician’s career? Or will the voters simply shrug? Newly published research suggests the answer depends upon the type of misbehavior that has been uncovered. It finds that while sex scandals tend to get the most media coverage, they have the least impact on voters’ views. “On average, financial scandals are worse than moral ones, and abuses of power amplify the negative effects,” said University of Illinois political ... Read More
Hidden Patterns in Presidential Voting
July 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
With the Republican field finally solidifying, the 2012 presidential campaign season is finally off to the races. For the next 16 months, political pundits will spend hour after hour analyzing the most minor twist and turns in the campaigns — even though almost all of the day-to-day political zigs and zags will make no difference to voters in the end. But what if even the big issues — like the economy and the multiple wars that we are engaged in — didn't matter to voters either? According to Nathan Collins, a political scientist at the Santa Fe Institute, if you look at voting ... Read More
Will Hispanics Take Over American Politics?
April 19, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The rapid growth in the U.S. Hispanic population over the last 40 years — both in terms of raw numbers and percentage of the population — is probably the most important emergent force in American politics today. The evidence is around us: In 2008, each party conducted an entire presidential primary debate in Spanish. In 2009, the first Hispanic judge, Sonia Sotomayor, was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in 2010, for the first time ever in a single election, three Hispanic candidates won top statewide offices: Republican Brian Sandoval became Nevada's first Hispanic governor; ... Read More
Better Candidate Websites Provide Democrats Advantage
April 6, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
President Obama kicked off his re-election campaign this week not with a speech or press conference, but via an online video. His choice of medium — and the news that he will hold a “virtual town hall” from Facebook headquarters later this month — reflected the increasing importance of the Internet as a campaign tool. As Obama showed in 2008, candidate websites are a valuable way to spread information, raise money and mobilize supporters. But to fulfill these functions, they need to be well designed and user friendly. Newly published research suggests that, if they want to be ... Read More
How Much Am I Bid on This Donkey (or Elephant)?
December 14, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
The tax debate in Washington this week has a tangible impact on every family in the country — one that can be measured in literal dollars and cents. (In fact, you can calculate your personal impact here.) The scenario is a testament to the fact that outcomes of elections do matter; if Congress had a different makeup of Democrats and Republicans today, that dollar amount in your bank account next year likely would look different, too. Because of this, it seems logical to think that when people vote, the consequences should have some real value to them. Congress sets policies over Medicare, ... Read More
This Really Is the Worst Election Ever
November 2, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
This U.S. election cycle has set some truly impressive benchmarks for negative campaign advertising. We had the creepy demon-wolf in sheep's clothing ad (an attack on Republican Senate primary candidate Tom Campbell in California). There was the infamous 30-second spot in Kentucky that asked this pertinent question about the state's Republican candidate for Senate: "Why did Rand Paul once tie a woman up, tell her to bow down before a false idol, and say his god was 'Aqua Buddha'?" Erika Franklin Fowler, an assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University, particularly likes the ... Read More
