According to the conventional wisdom, incivility in political campaigns hurts democracy – it increases skepticism, reduces turnout, and creates a hostile public atmosphere. But according to new research by Deborah Jordan Brooks (Dartmouth College) and John G. Greer (Vanderbilt University), this conventional wisdom is incorrect.
In their recent article, “Beyond Negativity: The Effects of Incivility on the Electorate,” which appeared in the January 2007 issue of the American Journal of Political Science, there is “no evidence that even the most despised of candidate messages – negative, uncivil, trait-based messages – are harmful to the democratic engagement of the polity” (12). In …read more

Everyone who thinks about either politics or business has an opinion about China. In the September 2007 edition of the top journal Perspectives on Politics, University of Virginia Professor Jeffrey W. Legro explains why he thinks most of these opinions are wrong.
In his article, “What China Will Want: The Future Intentions of a Rising Power,” Legro contends that China is currently a Status Quo Power, which means that China has no interest in seeking changes to the international economic or political system. Three big examples of China’s deepening integration are its membership in the World Trade Organization, its participation in …read more

Voting is a complicated thing. After you manage to make it to the voting booth, you may be faced with any of several types of voting machines, each with a range of possible ballot designs. It can create an awful lot of confusion. The new electronic voting machines have been praised by many, criticized by some, and used by millions. But electronic voting in itself isn’t a silver bullet. Although electronic voting does seem to reduce the uncertainties of older, mechanical voting systems, electronic interfaces can confuse and frustrate the elderly and those with less technological competence, which creates a …read more

I enjoyed our discussion of the differences between serious, non-partisan public opinion polls and their imitators. But let’s take a moment for scientific humility and dwell momentarily on two of the most famous polling disasters in American political history. They occurred 62 years apart, and involve two of the most interesting names in American politics – Franklin Roosevelt and Jesse Ventura.
During the 1936 election season, the Literary Digest conducted a random telephone survey in an attempt to predict the election outcome. The results indicated a solid victory for Republican Alf Landon. Of course, Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt won in a …read more

According to an interesting new report by the Pew Research Center, 75% of Americans believe that men and women make equally good political leaders – 16% prefer men, and 6% favor women as leaders. The report, titled “How the World Rates Women as Leaders,” explores attitudes towards men and women as political leaders in nearly 50 countries.
Peru, Spain, and Britain seem to be the most equalitarian states on this issue. In each country, 83% of respondents claimed that both sexes perform equally well as political leaders. On the other hand, just 16% of respondents in the Palestinian territories and …read more