Comparing Competing Theories on the Causes of Mandate Perceptions

The discussion of presidential mandates is as certain as a presidential election itself. Journalists inevitably discuss whether the president-elect has a popular mandate. Because they see elections as too complex to allow the public to send a unitary signal, political scientists are more skeptical of mandates. Mandates, however, have received new attention by scholars asking whether perceptions of mandate arise and lead representatives to act as if voters sent a policy directive. Two explanations have emerged to account for why elected officials might react to such perceptions. One focuses on the President’s strategic decision to declare a mandate, the second on how members of Congress read signals of changing preferences in the electorate from their own election results. We test these competing views to see which more accurately explains how members of Congress act in support of a perceived mandate. The results indicate that members respond more to messages about changing preferences than to the president’s mandate declaration

Issue evolution: race and the transformation of american politics/ Carmines

xvii, 271 hal.: tab.; 23 cm

A Research Design on Candidate Evaluations and Political Participation in 2012 Kenya Election

A research proposal by Kioko Ireri, lecturer at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, USIU-A.Elections are a permanent fixture in politics. Either in America or in Kenya - nothing spices up the political scene more than elections - the nerve-center of democratic politics. No wonder, periodically, people across nations respond to the all-important call in politics: participating in elections. People engage in the political process to quench various gratifications which are shaped by socio-cultural and economic cleavages. Political participation “provides the mechanism by which citizens can communicate information about their interests, preferences, and needs and generate pressure to respond” (Verba, Schlozman & Brady, 1995, p. 1). Besides the flurry of events which characterize campaigns, most of the focus is always on candidates. In presidential contests especially, candidates come under intense public scrutiny – resulting in evaluation of their leadership qualities. Rahn, Aldrich and Sullivan (1990) explain that the electoral process is “clearly an arena in which citizens will wish to select leaders who will competently run their government and whose personal qualities will evoke trust and confidence in their personal motives” p. 142). This explains why students of elections have probed questions centering on candidate evaluations and political participation

The Temptation of Executive Authority: How Increased Polarization and the Decline in Legislative Capacity Have Contributed to the Expansion of Presidential Power

This paper argues that our increasingly polarized politics has led to political stalemate and policy gridlock in Congress which, in turn, have contributed to a change in the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government; specifically, executive power has increased at the expense of a diminished legislature. The paper will trace the extent to which Congress has become increasingly polarized and how this increased polarization has reduced Congress\u27s capability and productivity while simultaneously increasing policy gridlock resulting in the expansion of executive power (and judicial authority) relative to legislative authorit