December, 2004 Newsletter of the APSA Organized Section on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior

  1. Happy Holidays to everyone in the section
    Enjoy the inter-semester break.

  2. Section Website Revision
    Reminder: our section website has been revised. We have added new materials on teaching and updated the resource listings. Please give it a look and feel free to suggest content.  Section site
  3. Section Awards
    Congratulations to the following scholars, who were given awards at the most recent Annual Meeting:

    Shanto Iyenger (Stanford) and Donald Kinder (Michigan), authors of News the Matters: Television and American Public Opinion (Chicago 1987)  were given the Philip E. Converse book award for the best book in the subfield published at least five years ago. 

    Larry Bartels (Princeton), author of "Homer gets a tax cut: inequality and public policy in the American mind," was given the award for the best paper in the subfield presented at last year's annual meeting.

    Marc J. Hetherington (Vanderbilt) was given the Emerging Scholar award, for the top scholar in the subfield who is within 10 years of his PhD.

    M. Kent Jennings (UCSB) was awarded the Warren E. Miller award, given every two or three years for an outstanding career of intellectual accomplishment and service to the profession.

  4. M. Kent Jennings, An Intellectual Profile
    M. Kent Jennings, winner of the 2004 Warren E. Miller career award from our section, was profiled by Professor Paul Beck in 1996 in in PS: Political  Science and Politics.  
    Paul writes: Kent Jennings was born at the depths of the Depression in the small central valley town of Chowchilla, California. He did his undergraduate work-at the University of Redlands and then went on to graduate study at the University of North Carolina, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1961. ... As he was finishing up at North Carolina, he landed a position with the Brookings Institution where he was associated with an important study of the occupational values and perceptions of government employment held by federal employees and the public.
    In 1963, Kent began his academic careerf as an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.  He rose quickly from assistant to associate to full professor and enjoyed a long association with the University's Institute of Social Research.
    M. Kent Jennings hahs offered answers to all four of the central questions of democratic political behavior...  He is best known for his path-breaking work on the patterns and development of political preferences and behaviors among young Americans.
    (Read the full story here.)
  5. Teaching tools
    Here are a few articles that draw upon political science research and which may be of interest to our members.  Feel free to send along more for inclusion in the newsletter.
    Scott McClurg (Southern Illinois University) sends along a link (http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa525.pdf) to this report from the Cato Institute that discusses voter ignorance.  Scott writes: "...it draws heavily on political science research (sort of a meta literature review) to draw its conclusions, so may be of interest to our members."
    Paul Gronke adds this link to an article by Louis Menand from the New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/critics/atlarge/?040830crat_atlarge).  Menand does a good job summarizing the ideology debate from Converse to Popkin.    


  6. SPSA Meeting Panels (Jan 6-8, 2005)
    The preliminary program is available at http://spsa.net/conference05.htm

    Section F Elections and Voting
    F-1 Aspects of the 2004 Election
    F-2 Voting Behavior
    F-3 Participation beyond Voting
    F-4 Electoral Reform in the United States
    F-5 Electoral Turnout
    F-6 Political Information
    F-7 Political Information
    F-8 Election Campaigns
    F-9/X-8 Explaining Gubernatorial Elections (Cosponsored with State Politics Section)
    F-10/W-1 Roundtable: The South in the 2004 Elections (Co-sponsored with Southern
    Politics Section)

    Section P Public Opinion
    P-1 The Web of Political Information
    P-2 Political Trust
    P-3 Attitudinal Ambivalence in the Mass Public
    P-4 Public Opinion about Moral Issues
    P-5 9/11 in the Public Mind
    P-6 Issues in American Foreign Policy
    P-7 Measurement Issues in Public Opinion Research
    P-8 Factors Shaping Public Attitudes
    P-9 Reexamining Major Themes in Public Opinion Research
    P-10 Public Opinion in States and Localities

  7. WPSA Meeting Panels (March 17-19, 2005)
    The preliminary program is available at http://www.csus.edu/ORG/WPSA/

    Section 16   -  Public Opinion and Political Psychology
    Panel 16. 01 - Public Opinion and Elections After 9/11
    Panel 16. 02 - Trust, Mobilization, and Participation
    Panel 16. 03 - Disaggregating Public Opinion
    Panel 16. 04 - New Directions for Symbolic Racism
    Panel 16. 05 - Immigration and Public Opinion
      
    Section 22   -  Voting and Elections
    Panel 22. 01 - The Impact of BCRA in Presidential and Congressional Elections
    Panel 22. 02 - Wimp or Shrimp? How Voters Decide
    Panel 22. 03 - Exploring Voter Turnout
    Panel 22. 04 - How Institutions Matter
    Panel 22. 05 - The Ever-Shifting Parties
    Panel 22. 06 - The 2004 Election: Issues, Debates, Geography & Turnout
    Panel 22. 07 - Voter Turnout and Vote Choice in Comparative Perspective
    Panel 22. 08 - Race, SES and Precinct Quality in American Cities: I
    Panel 22. 09 - Race, SES and Precinct Quality in American Cities: II
  8. Upcoming conferences and deadlines:
    NSF Political Science Division: January 15 
    APSA Small Research Program: February 1
    Ralph Bunche Summer Institute: February 15

    APSA Conference Page: Click here
    APSA Grants page: click here
    9.

Paul Gronke, Communications Director
APSA Section on Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior
Reed College
3203 SE Woodstock Blvd
Portland OR 97202

Email: paul.gronke@reed.edu



Questions or suggestions regarding this website should be directed, as appropriate, to Paul Gronke, Director of Communications, or Vincent Vecera, Webmaster. This page is maintained by Vincent Vecera of Reed College.