Primaries, general elections, delegate math, campaign finance, field experiments, debate rules, voter behavior, and the gap between what elections are supposed to do and what they actually do.
A recent paper by Joshua Kalla & David Broockman has attracted some attention (for example, in this Washington Post story, Monkey Cage post, and this excellent, reflective post on Mischiefs of Faction by Jennifer Victor). In a nutshell, the paper reports the results of a well-designed field experiment that provides evidence that donations to a Member of Congress “open doors” in the … Read more
All is not well in Thaliand, where the opposition Democrat Party is calling for its supporters (some of whom have been actively protesting for months now) to boycott today’s parliamentary elections. Boycotting elections is not uncommon: indeed, opposition parties have recently boycotted elections in Bangladesh and the main Islamist opposition party is calling for a boycott … Read more
So, the Federal Government is once again approaching the debt ceiling. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has said that he thinks that “…for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling, when we have a debt the size of our economy is irresponsible. So, we ought to discuss adding something to his request to … Read more
A recurring apparent conundrum is the mismatch between Congressional approval (about 14% approval and 78% disapproval) and reelection rates (about 91% in 2012). If Americans disapprove of their legislators at such a high rate, why do they reelect them at an even higher rate? PEOPLE BE CRAZY…AMIRITE? Maybe. A traditional explanation is that people don’t … Read more
Yesterday, the Senate—in line with expectations—rejected the most basic of gun control proposals. In light of the Newtown massacre—an event that shook all of us—this might seem shocking. For example, even leaving aside the emotional pull that perhaps we can as a nation call that horrible day back and make it right, the proposal arguably … Read more
There has been a resurgence of interest in the question of which groups may or may not explicitly support and endorse candidates for election. In particular, some church groups have begun to provide explicit endorsements of specific political candidates, and a lawsuit was recently filed seeking to force the IRS to enforce the requirement that these … Read more