The American Politics Workshop

presents

Chloe Thurston

Assistant Professor of Political Science

Northwestern University   

“At the Boundaries of Homeownership: Credit, Discrimination, and the American State”

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

To join the workshop email list visit: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/subscribe/americanpolitics. Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators, Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu) and Scott Cooley (cooley@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Barry Burden

Professor of Political Science

University of Wisconsin-Madison  

 “The Contingent Effects of Candidate Sex on Voter Choice ”

A prominent explanation for why women are significantly underrepresented in public office in the U.S. is that stereotypes lead voters to favor male candidates over female candidates. Yet whether voters actually use a candidate’s sex as a voting heuristic in the presence of other common information about candidates remains a surprisingly unsettled question. Using a conjoint experiment that controls for stereotypes, we show that voters are biased against female candidates but in some unexpected ways. The average effect of a candidate’s sex on voter decisions is small in magnitude, is limited to presidential rather than congressional elections, and appears only among male voters. More importantly, independent voters have the greatest negative bias against female candidates. The results suggest that partisanship works as a kind of “insurance” for voters who can be sure that the party affiliation of the candidate will represent their views in office regardless of the sex of the candidate.

Monday, November 6, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

To join the workshop email list visit: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/subscribe/americanpolitics. Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators, Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu) and Scott Cooley (cooley@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Justin Grimmer

Associate Professor in Political Science

 University of Chicago

“Changing the Subject to Build an Audience: How Elected Officials Affect Constituent Communication”

(Paper attached) 

Abstract

The constitution guarantees citizens the right to petition their elected officials and constituent communication is a central feature of representation. Yet, little is known about what constituents say and why they raise particular issues. Using an original data set of 2.7 million public posts and comments made on elected officials’ Facebook Pages, we show how the public’s comments follow the ebbs and flows of salient national debates. We also demonstrate that elected officials are able to influence the number and tone of constituent messages. When elected officials post on salient and national topics they increase the number of comments they receive. But weighing in on salient debates causes an increase in attacking comments and a decrease comments that praise the elected official. Our results highlight the tradeoffs elected officials face when choosing how to engage the public: engaging in national issues increases attention, but increases the incidence of harsh language.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

To join the workshop email list visit: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/subscribe/americanpolitics. Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators, Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu) and Scott Cooley (cooley@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Anthony Fowler

Associate Professor in the Harris School of Public Policy

 University of Chicago

“Do Shark Attacks Influence Presidential Elections? Reassessing a Prominent Finding on Voter Competence”

Abstract

We reassess Achen and Bartels’ (2002, 2016) prominent claim that shark attacks influence presidential elections. First, we assemble data on every fatal shark attack in U.S. history and countylevel returns from every presidential election between 1872 and 2012, and we find no systematic evidence that shark attacks affect elections. Second, we show that Achen and Bartels’ county-level finding for New Jersey in 1916 becomes substantively smaller and statistically weaker under alternative specifications. Third, we find that their town-level finding in Ocean County significantly shrinks when we correct errors and does not hold for the other beach counties. Lastly, implementing placebo tests in state-elections where there were no shark attacks, we demonstrate that Achen and Bartels’ result was likely to arise even if shark attacks do not influence elections. Overall, there is little compelling evidence that shark attacks influence presidential elections, and any such effect—if one exists—is substantively negligible.

Wednesday, October 18, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

To join the workshop email list visit: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/subscribe/americanpolitics. Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators, Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu) and Scott Cooley (cooley@uchicago.edu). 

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Alexandra Filindra

Assistant Professor of Political Science

University of Illinois at Chicago

“Raging Against the Machine: Racial Prejudice, White Reactionary Movements, and Public Hostility to Government”

Abstract

We argue that white Americans’ preferences regarding the scope of government and attitudes toward their national government have become racialized. Drawing on historical accounts of the racial realignment at the party level and the narratives that undergird this shift, we theorize that in the 1980s and 1990s, conservative elites became increasingly frustrated with what they viewed as bureaucratic obstructionism of their agenda. In response, they recast the narrative that emerged in the 1960s when the Republican Party mixed laissez-faire and racial ideologies under the banner of “states’ rights.” The new narrative blended racial resentment and open hostility to the national government and its agencies. In the 21^stcentury, these ideas were further popularized by the Tea Party. Based on this perspective, we test the hypothesis that among whites, support for small government ideology and perceptions that government is a threat to liberty positively correlate with negative racial considerations.  We report supportive evidence based on several waves of the ANES (1992-2016), a second national survey (2015), and a survey experiment.

Wednesday, October 11, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

Papers will be circulated in advance through our email list. To join the workshop email list visit: https://lists.uchicago.edu/web/subscribe/americanpolitics. Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators, Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu) and Scott Cooley (cooley@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Dr. Daniel Schlozman

Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

“The Hollow Parties”

Monday, May 1, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators in advance. They are Meg Savel (megsavel@uchicago.edu) and Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Drs. Maggie Penn and John Patty

Professors of Political Science, University of Chicago 

“How the Congressional Agenda Polarizes America”

Monday, April 24, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, First Floor Lounge, 5828 S. University Ave.

Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators in advance. They are Meg Savel (megsavel@uchicago.edu) and Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

The American Politics Workshop

presents

Dr. Eric Schickler

Professor, Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Endowed Chair, and Department Chair, University of California, Berkeley

Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932–1965

Monday, April 3, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: Pick Hall, Room 222, 5828 S. University Ave.

Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators in advance. They are Meg Savel (megsavel@uchicago.edu) and Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.

Provost’s Postdoctoral Scholar, School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

“Something Left to Love: Toward a Theory of Institutional Mourning”

Monday, March 6, 2017

12:00 – 1:20 pm

**Lunch will be served**

Location: 1st Floor Lounge, Pick Hall, 5828 S. University Ave.

Individuals with disabilities or those who require special accommodations should contact the coordinators in advance. They are Meg Savel (megsavel@uchicago.edu) and Jenn M. Jackson (jennjackson@uchicago.edu).

Additional information about the American Politics Workshop can be found on our website: https://voices.uchicago.edu/americanpol/.