Descriptive Representation and the Political Engagement of Women

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-362
Author(s):  
Jennifer Wolak
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Women Candidates ◽  
Elected Office

AbstractWhen women are represented on the campaign trail and in elected office, women in the electorate have been shown to report greater engagement in politics. However, most evidence of the effects of descriptive representation on women's empowerment is drawn from surveys from the 1980s and 1990s. I update these studies to consider how women candidates and officeholders affect the political knowledge, interest, and participation of other women in the electorate. Using responses from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study from 2006 to 2014, I find that both men and women are more politically knowledgeable when represented by women in Congress and in state government. Considering political engagement, I find little evidence that women are more politically interested or participatory when residing in places with more female officeholders or candidates. Women's political presence as candidates and officeholders does not uniquely encourage other women to engage in political life.

Descriptive Representation and Black Political Involvement

Gaining Voice ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 97-122
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Clark ◽  
Ray Block
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Involvement ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Political Empowerment ◽  
Black Representation ◽  
The Us

A healthy representative democracy requires that citizens be politically involved, and it is especially important to consider the political involvement of groups that are marginalized, such as African Americans. Building on the political empowerment hypothesis, the chapter argues that an increased black seat share and black representation ratio should be associated with increased black political involvement. Using 2008 Cooperative Congressional Election Study data, the chapter describes how in states with an increased black seat share in the legislature blacks are more likely to be highly interested in politics and are more likely to vote. In states with a higher black representation ratio, blacks are more inclined to persuade others to vote. Black representation in the US House does not increase black political involvement, despite being the focus of many scholarly works of political empowerment.

Civic Humanism

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Craig Kallendorf
Keyword(s):  
American Revolution ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Italian Renaissance ◽  
The Political ◽  
Civic Humanism ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Renaissance Studies ◽  
Classical Models ◽  
The Republic

Civic humanism is one of the more interesting and important concepts in Renaissance studies, in part because of its unusually long afterlife, and in part because almost everything pertaining to it is controversial. There is general agreement that it involves a commitment to the active political life under the influence of classical models, but from that point on, scholarship divides. Are its origins in the political life of Florence at the turn of the 15th century or in the political thought of the 14th century? Does civic humanism predicate a commitment to the republic as we understand the term today, or only to active political engagement in general? When did it end: In Italy, in the 16th century? In England, in the 17th century? In the ideological debates of the American revolution? Or later? Since large blocks of postwar scholarship on the Italian Renaissance are a reaction to civic humanism, either directly or indirectly, any selection from among this much material becomes at least somewhat arbitrary, but the bibliography that follows should provide a basic orientation to the major issues involved, with an emphasis on how ideas about civic humanism have evolved rather than on restatements of earlier positions.

How Gender Conditions the Way Citizens Evaluate and Engage with Their Representatives

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mia Costa ◽  
Brian F. Schaffner
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Evidence ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Strong Evidence ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Panel Survey ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Study Panel ◽  
Rate Female

Scholars argue that women’s presence in politics enhances symbolic representation, such as positive evaluations of one’s representative and increased political engagement. However, there is little empirical evidence of these symbolic benefits from descriptive representation. With data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study panel survey, we examine how a change in the gender of a representative affects individuals’ perceptions of that representative and likelihood to contact them. In general, we find that women express more positive evaluations of female representatives than male representatives, yet they are also less likely to contact female representatives. By contrast, the effect of an elected official’s gender does not significantly affect how men evaluate or engage with that official. However, we also show that partisanship conditions these effects, perhaps due to the fact that gender stereotypes operate differently for Democrats than Republicans. For example, women rate female Republican legislators more positively than they do male Republican legislators, but neither women nor men rate Democratic legislators differently based on their gender. The findings provide strong evidence that gender matters when it comes to representation, but contrary to some conventional wisdom, female elected officials may actually enjoy some advantages in terms of their standing among constituents.

scholarly journals Inter-Orthodox conflict as a destabilizing factor in the socio-political development of Ukraine

1999 ◽  
pp. 100-105
Author(s):  
S. Tkach
Keyword(s):  
State Government ◽  
Political Development ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Religious Organizations ◽  
The Political ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Political Processes ◽  
Religious Factor ◽  
The Church

Recently, the religious factor in a number of circumstances (historical, economic, ideological) plays an increasingly important role in the socio-political life of our state. Religious organizations have become an integral part of the political and cultural spheres of life and greatly influence the socio-political processes in the Ukrainian state. This is evidenced, in particular, by the aggregated data of sociological surveys conducted by various centers and institutions, according to which the church community is most trusted by the population of our country (about 27.6%) (for comparison: the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine - 3.1%, state government-3%, judicial bodies-4%). Therefore, the analysis of social processes in the context of confessional measurement is now of particular importance

Implicit Political Knowledge

2013 ◽  
Vol 46 (03) ◽  
pp. 553-555
Author(s):  
Aleksander Ksiazkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Institutional Structures ◽  
Voting Decisions

Political knowledge today is studied primarily at the explicit level. Measures of political knowledge often rely on testing whether voters are aware of various “facts” about political life, such as the names and offices of prominent political actors, the institutional structures of the political system, and the ideological or policy differences between the major political parties (e.g., Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996). These various kinds of political information are considered to be important by political scientists and other social scientists because they facilitate the informed voting decisions that are needed to hold elected leaders accountable (e.g., Lau and Redlawsk 2006; Pande 2011).

Why Some Blame Politics for Their Personal Problems

2021 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2110134
Author(s):  
Vanessa Baird ◽  
Jennifer Wolak
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Political System ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
The Political ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Sense Of Control ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Personal Problems

Why do some people blame the political system for the problems in their lives? We explore the origins of these grievances and how people assign responsibility and blame for the challenges they face. We propose that individual differences in the personality traits of locus of control and self-esteem help explain why some blame the political system for their personal problems. Using responses from a module of the 2016 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we show that those with low self-esteem and a weaker sense of control over their fates are more likely to blame the political system for the challenges they face in their lives. We also demonstrate that this assignment of blame is politically consequential, where those who intertwine the personal and the political are more likely to evaluate elected officials based on pocketbook economic conditions rather than sociotropic considerations.

Piquing Political Interest, Forging Political Engagement

2020 ◽  
pp. 95-108
Author(s):  
Magda Hinojosa ◽  
Miki Caul Kittilson
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Political Engagement ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Consistent Pattern ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
Descriptive Representation ◽  
Political Discussion ◽  
Gender Gaps ◽  
Over Time

How do sizable and visible gains in women’s officeholding affect women’s and men’s political engagement? This chapter examines how women’s political presence shapes gender differences in political knowledge, interest, discussion, and citizens’ beliefs about their own efficaciousness. The authors draw on their unique survey in Uruguay before quota implementation and after the resulting increase in women’s descriptive representation to track gender differences over time. Both bivariate and multivariate analyses reveal a consistent pattern of rising engagement for women as a consequence of the changing face of descriptive representation. After the election, previously statistically significant gender gaps in favor of men evaporate for political interest, political knowledge, perceptions of understanding issues, and political discussion.

Who Puts Their Politics on Display?

2019 ◽  
pp. 43-59
Author(s):  
Elaine Auyoung
Keyword(s):  
Political Participation ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
National Data

In this chapter, we explore a variety of factors that influence an individual’s decision to display a campaign yard sign. First, we consider the displaying of signs from the perspective of traditional models of political participation. Using national data from the 2012 Cooperative Congressional Election Study, we explore demographic and attitudinal predictors of sign displaying, as well as measures of the political environment, such as residence in a swing state. Then, relying on our observational data from the 2008 and 2012 elections, we turn our attention to more localized factors that may encourage or inhibit the displaying of signs. In keeping with recent contextual work, we explore linkages between property traits, neighborhood traits, and the displaying of signs. Finally, we consider personality and whether individuals who display signs share traits such as the desire to make one’s views known and the propensity to initiate political conversations.

Mechanical Turk and the “Don’t Know” Option

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Adam R. Brown ◽  
Jeremy C. Pope
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Mechanical Turk ◽  
Control Mechanisms ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Time Sharing ◽  
Election Study ◽  
The Social ◽  
Amazon's Mechanical Turk ◽  
Election Studies

ABSTRACT Luskin and Bullock’s (2011) randomized experiment on live-interview respondents found no evidence that American National Election Studies and Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences respondents hide knowledge behind the “don’t know” (DK) option. We successfully replicated their finding using two online platforms, the Cooperative Congressional Election Study and Google Surveys. However, we obtained different results on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk). We attribute this difference to MTurkers’ experience with attention checks and other quality-control mechanisms, which condition them to avoid errors. This conditioning leads MTurkers to hide knowledge behind DK in ways not observed on other platforms. Researchers conducting political knowledge experiments or piloting surveys on MTurk should be aware of these differences.

Partisanship and Perceptions of Party-Line Voting in Congress

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 32-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Logan Dancey ◽  
Geoffrey Sheagley
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Separate Experiment ◽  
Congressional Election ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Opposing Party ◽  
Favorable Impression ◽  
Party Line

This paper explores public perceptions of congressional partisanship in an era of polarized parties. We use data from a module on the 2014 Cooperative Congressional Election Study (CCES) that asks respondents about the voting behavior of their legislators. Our results show that individuals underestimate the extent to which legislators from their own party vote the party line—even when primed with information about high levels of party-line voting in Congress—while fairly accurately perceiving levels of unity in the opposing party. We also find evidence that this perceptual gap endures, and at times widens, at higher levels of political knowledge and in the presence of elections. Finally, in a separate experiment, we explore how voters respond to differential levels of party-line voting by a hypothetical legislator. The combined results from the experiment and CCES module suggest voters’ perceptions often align with what allows them to have the most favorable impression of their party’s senators or unfavorable impression of the other party’s senators. The results suggest that biases in how voters process information about levels of partisanship in Congress may limit accountability in meaningful ways.

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