Monthly Archives: May 2010

Partisan Polarization and Congressional Accountability in House Elections

May 25, 2010 – 9:06 am

It may have been true 20, 30, or 40 years ago that members of Congress could evade accountability for Congress’s overall activities, but rising polarization has enabled voters to punish or reward Representatives for Congress’s collective performance. Shortly before the 2008 Congressional elections, only 36% believed that most members of Congress deserved reelection. These numbers […]

By A.B. | Posted in American Politics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

The Declining Talent Pool of Government

May 20, 2010 – 8:57 am

The “benchwarmer” dilemma: You want your best 11 players on the field, but in order to motivate your players, you’ve got to threaten to replace them with an inferior player from the bench. Imagine you’re a soccer coach. You’ve got 14 players on your roster, 11 of whom are on the field at any given […]

By A.B. | Posted in American Politics, Comparative Politics | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Broad Bills or Particularistic Policy? Historical Patterns in American State Legislatures

May 19, 2010 – 9:35 am

If you want your legislators to pass general policies that benefit the state as a whole, pay them less, make districts bigger, and strive for partisan balance. If you want your legislators to pass pork and other district-focused bills, pay them more, make districts smaller, and promote one-party government. When will state legislators take on […]

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Personality and Political Attitudes: Relationships across Issue Domains and Political Contexts

May 13, 2010 – 9:35 am

Conservatives are hard-working, organized, closed-minded, and emotionally stable. Liberals are lazy, disorganized, open-minded, and neurotic. Let’s see how the punditocracy spins that one. Yesterday I wrote about Mondak et al.’s recent APSR article about personality and political participation. On the very next page of the same issue of APSR, you’ll find a closely related article […]

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Personality and Civic Engagement: An Integrative Framework for the Study of Trait Effects on Political Behavior

May 12, 2010 – 9:13 am

We cannot understand the effects of personality without accounting for the environment, and we cannot understand the effects of the environment without accounting for personality. Political scientists pay very little attention to personality when they study political behavior. Instead, they prefer to look at environmental variables (campaign spending, personal income, personal education, candidate quality, electoral […]

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