Interpreting Congressional Elections

The Curious Case of the Incumbency Effect
1. Auflage 2018
ISBN: 978-1-138-47987-6
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 254 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 376 g

The increase in the "incumbency effect" has long dominated as a research focus and as a framework for interpreting congressional elections. This important new book challenges the empirical claim that incumbents are doing better and the research paradigm that accompanied the claim. It also offers an alternative interpretation of House elections since the 1960s. In a style that is provocative yet fair, learned, and transparent, Jeffrey Stonecash makes a two-pronged argument: frameworks and methodologies suffer when they stop being critically considered, and patterns of House elections over the long term actually reflect party change and realignment. A must-read for scholars and students of congressional elections.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Professional

Autoren/Hrsg.

Stonecash, Jeffrey M.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politikwissenschaft Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Part I: A Conventional Wisdom and Its Importance

1. The Fortunes of Incumbents and Interpreting Political Change

2. Vanishing Marginals, a Research Agenda, and Political Responsiveness

Part II: The Data and Doubts

3. The Basics: Percentages, Averages, and Careers

4. The Presidential–House Connection Issue

5. The Gelman-King Estimation (and the Role of Open Seats)

Part III: The Role and Emergence of a Paradigm

6. The Puzzle and an Interpretative Framework: Kuhn

7. Embracing One Paradigm and Discarding Another

8. A Consensus and Normal Science

9. Embracing and Sustaining a Paradigm: Why?

Part IV: An Alternative

10. An Alternative Framework and Analysis

11. Paradigms and Understanding American Politics

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jeffrey M. Stonecash is Emeritus Maxwell Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. He is the author or editor of over twenty books on American political parties, polling, and elections.