RadioWaves and Ballot Boxes: How Conservative Broadcasting Influenced Southern Electoral Behavior
by Ian Carlson Bailey Abstract This study examines how conservative talk radio influenced electoral behavior in the American South during the postwar era. Focusing on Carl McIntire’s “Twentieth Century Reformation Hour” program, I exploit exogenous variation in radio signal strength driven by topographical differences to identify causal effects on voting patterns. Using a novel dataset […]
Splitting Hairs or Splitting Regions: The Differential Democratic Impacts of Splitting ZIP Codes vs. Counties During Redistricting
by Jacob Hervey Abstract In light of the Supreme Court’s holding in Gill v. Whitford, judicially-enforceable gerrymandering metrics must focus on democratic harms to individual citizens, instead of state-wide measures of proportionality. Previous literature has suggested that gerrymandering metrics should focus on the extent to which congressional districts split preexisting geographic boundaries (namely, ZIP codes […]
Faith in the Future and Social Conflict: Economic Growth as a Mechanism for Political Stabilization
By Alexander Bloedel This paper studies the mechanisms that link sociopolitical conflict and (expectations about) economic prosperity. Motivated by a large body of empirical and historical work on the correlation between economic development and democratization, I develop a game-theoretic model of economic growth with political economy constraints. In an economy where low income agents are […]
Determining the Effect of Personal and Familial Wealth on Congressional and State Legislative Election Outcomes
By Anisha Khemlani This paper seeks to further the debate on money and politics. Specifically, it focuses on the effect of wealth on election outcomes. The goal is to determine the relationship between personal wealth and voter margins of congressional elections and the effect of familial wealth on state legislative elections. A regression analysis of […]
How Do Campaign Contributions from Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Influence Senators’ Policy Decisions?
by Ashlyn Hankey Abstract This paper examines the influence of the main interest groups in the debate over amending Section 936 of bill HR 4210, a bill that grants tax credits to American manufacturers with sites in Puerto Rico. The amendment proposed to place stipulations on the pharmaceutical manufacturers’ eligibility for the credit to lower […]
Congressional Voting on the Secure Fence Act of 2006: Political Posturing Overshadows Campaign Contributions
by Simon Alexander Blank Abstract This study examines the determinants of voting on the 2006 Secure Fence Act in the U.S. House of Representatives. First, a simultaneous probit-Tobit model is used to account for the endogenous nature of campaign contributions. It reveals five significant determinants of campaign contributions from Agribusiness—political ideology, membership on the Committee […]
