Strict voter ID laws make Republican voters more confidentabout elections

Recent years have seen a growing number of states adopt stricter voter identification laws, justifying these new laws as guarding against voter fraud. But are citizens actually concerned that voter fraud is going on? In new research Todd Donovan and Shaun Bowler find that in states without voter ID laws, Democrats are generally confident that elections are fair while Republicans are not, and that the reverse is true in states with strict voter ID laws

Broadening and deepening or broadening versus deepening: The question of enlargement and Europe's 'hesistant Europeans'

The European Union sees the inclusion of many Eastern European states -enlargement- as a natural progression in the process of building an 'ever closer union'. For the European Commission in particular, the process of enlargement (broadening) is part of the process of integration and acts as a complement to the development of a stronger role for the European Union and its institutions or deepening of integration. Yet as the first Irish referendum on the Nice Treaty showed, not all of European's citizens see the two processes of enlargement and integration in the same light. This article addresses two related questions. First, how are attitudes towards deepening and broadening related, and do European citizens see them as complementary or contradictory? Second, and related to the first, what factors drive popular attitudes towards enlargement

Reasoning about Institutional Change: Winners, Losers and Support for Electoral Reforms

This study assesses how the mass public reasons about political institutions by examining the effects of winning and losing on support for several electoral reform proposals. The national sample survey identified majorities supporting proposals for major changes in America\u27s electoral institutions, and that suggested electoral losses may have a modest effect in reducing losers\u27 satisfaction with how democracy works. Random assignment experiments that tested hypotheses derived from theories of risk perception were conducted. It was found that people who saw themselves as winners and losers in the electoral arena reasoned differently when proposals for change were framed in terms of loss. Losers may be just slightly more supportive than winners of some electoral reforms; however, they appeared less sensitive than winners to framing effects that presented reform proposals in terms of the risks of loss. Winners may support the same reform proposals but their support for change decreased more when the proposals were framed as a potential loss. Winners are thus risk aversive when evaluating electoral reform proposals, while losers may even be risk seeking. Although this survey found support for major reforms, the patterns of reasoning that were identified in the mass public suggest a basis for the stability of electoral institutions

Democracy, Institutions and Attitudes about Citizen Influence on Government

Theorists such as Carole Pateman and Benjamin Barber suggest that democratic participation will engage citizens and lead them to have more positive regard for political processes and democratic practices. The American states provide a setting where provisions for direct voter participation in legislation vary substantially. If participatory institutions have an \u27educative role\u27 that shapes perceptions of government, then citizens exposed to direct democracy may be more likely to claim they understand politics and be more likely to perceive that they are capable of participation. They may also be more likely to perceive that government is responsive to them. We merge data on state-level political institutions with data from the 1992 American National Election Study to test these hypotheses with OLS models. Our primary hypotheses find support. We present evidence that the effects of exposure to direct democracy on internal and external political efficacy rival the effects of formal education

Popular attitudes Toward Direct Democracy

Initiative and referendum use has widespread public support in many established democracies. We use data from four nations to test hypotheses about approval of direct democracy. We find that people see similar flaws in representative and direct democracy, and that their support for direct democracy is a function of how they assess the relative power of special interests in each arena. Many people believe representatives (but not voters) are influenced by interests, and these people are more likely to approve of direct democracy. Attitudes about direct democracy are also structured by opinions about voter abilities, and by preferences for a delegate model of representation. Our findings contradict the Hibbing and Theiss-Morse "stealth democracy" thesis. We contend that citizens recognize the importance of elected officials, and that they want ordinary people to vote on matters of policy. We suggest people see the voting public, participating via direct democracy, as a check on the power narrow interests have in legislative settings

Getting out the vote: party mobilization in a comparative perspective

© 2007 Cambridge University PressA long tradition within political science examines the impact of party canvassing on voter participation. Very little of this work, however, is comparative in scope. This essay examines how system-level characteristics shape the nature and impact of party canvassing and how voters respond to those efforts. Parties are found to target the same types of potential voters everywhere – those who are likely to participate. However, one important difference is that overall levels of party contact are far greater in candidate-based systems than in proportional representation (PR) systems. Party mobilization, therefore, cannot explain the higher rates of turnout observed in PR systems

Jurisdiction over a Parent Corporation in Its Subsidiary\u27s State of Incorporation

In this paper we examine how Spanish language marks a political divide within the Latino community. Spanish language use also provides an opportunity for political parties to send slightly different campaign messages. We illustrate this point with reference to California’s Democratic part

Art for Democracy\u27s Sake? Group Membership and Political Engagement in Europe

Theorists contend that private social groups-particularly those that have no overt political missions such as bowling leagues, sports clubs, and choral societies-make major contributions to democracy by generating engagement with democracy in the form of political interest and participation. Although this discussion is generally at an aggregate level, it is based on seldom-tested assumptions about individual-level phenomena. This study expands our understanding of how (and where) memberships in various groups are associated with political engagement of individual citizens. We test if the effects of group membership vary across eleven European democracies and test which types of groups have the strongest association with political engagement. We find that major social groups differ in their relationship with engagement, and we also find that formal political arrangements for group accommodation may condition the effects of some memberships on engagement