Lonna Rae Atkeson

More is Better: The Influence of Collective Female Descriptive Representation on External Efficacy

This study tests the hypothesis that collective descriptive representation has important benefits for strengthening and legitimizing democratic society. Specifically, we test whether increased proportions of collective female descriptive representation in the statehouse and the presence of a female state executive are important to female citizens’ attitudes toward government responsiveness, or external efficacy. We hypothesize that an increase in female collective descriptive representation in the legislative and state executive branches of government will increase female citizens’ external efficacy but will be unimportant to males. We pooled American National Election Studies (ANES) data from 1988 to 1998 and used ordered probit techniques to test the hypothesis. In addition to our main independent variable of interest, our model includes state political culture, dyadic descriptive representation, dyadic substantive representation, sociodemographics, political participation, strength of partisanship, and electoral dummy variables as controls. Our results confirm that higher levels of collective female descriptive representation promote higher values of external efficacy for female citizens, suggesting that collective female descriptive representation has important benefits to a democratic society.

Divisive Primaries and General Election Outcomes: Another Look at Presidental Campaigns

Theory: The divisive primary hypothesis asserts that the more divisive the presidential primary contest compared to that of the other party the fewer votes received in the general election. Thus the party candidate with the most divisive primary will have a more difficult general election fight. However, studies at the presidential level have failed to consider candidate quality, prior vulnerability of the incumbent president or his party, the national nature of the presidential race, and the unique context of each presidential election campaign. Once these factors are taken into account presidential primaries should have a more marginal or even nonexistent effect in understanding general election outcomes. Hypothesis: Including appropriate controls for election year context in a state-by-state model and creating a national model that controls for election year context, candidate quality, and the nature of the times should diminish the effect of nomination divisiveness on general election outcomes. Methods: Regression analysis is used to examine the effect of presidential divisive nomination campaigns on general election outcomes. Results: Once election year context in the state-by-state model is controlled for, divisiveness has a much more modest effect. This modest effect does not appear to change general election outcomes. In addition, the election year model, which posits that presidential elections are national elections and not state-by-state elections, indicated that divisiveness was not significantly different from zero.

SURE, I VOTED FOR THE WINNER! Overreport of the Primary Vote for the Party Nominee in the National Election Studies

Misreport is a serious problem because inaccurate data may lead to erroneous substantive conclusions. This study examines the systematic misreport for the eventual presidential nominee in the American National Election Studies (ANES) presidential primary vote question. Using various data sources, this study demonstrates that misreport in presidential primaries is a serious problem leading to possible misinterpretation of the negative carryover hypothesis. Misreport also may be a product of time of interview. Earlier interviewing may help to solve part of the misreport problem.

Explaining the Marginalization of Women in Legislative Institutions

Previous research suggests that women tend to be marginalized in legislatures or denied access to important agenda-setting resources that reduce their effectiveness as legislators after gaining office. However, previous studies have not been able to disentangle competing theoretical explanations for this marginalization. Some suggest it is due to explicit gender discrimination, while others suggest institutional norms such as incumbency are to blame. We address this puzzle with data from the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, an institution without incumbency, by examining gender differences in rates of bill sponsorship, bill passage rates, and committee assignments before and after the adoption of gender quotas. We find little evidence that female legislators are marginalized in the Mexican Chamber of Deputies, tentatively suggesting incumbency, rather than discrimination, may explain evidence of marginalization in other legislatures. Furthermore, we find little evidence to support the notion that implementing gender quotas has negative consequences

Reducing Stereotypes of Female Political Leaders in Mexico

Does electing female political leaders reduce gender stereotypes about leadership? Scholars know little about how the increasing presence of female executives alters gender stereotypes about political leadership. Some studies suggest gender stereotypes change slowly because they are embedded in cultural values and structural factors that reinforce traditional gender roles. Other research suggests stereotypes change more quickly with the increasing presence of female political leadership. We address this question by examining the effect of being governed by a female mayor in Mexico. We find that the presence of a current female mayor reduces gender stereotypes among males. However, past female mayors have little effect on current gender stereotypes about leadership. Our results suggest women must be present in executive offices more frequently to produce long-term change in gender stereotypes.

Meaningful Participation and the Evolution of the Reformed Presidential Nominating System

Forty years ago, violent protests at the Democratic National Convention captured the attention of the nation as rioters vented their anger over a nomination process they felt excluded their voices. The disastrous 1968 convention spawned a cascade of reforms in the presidential nomination system, many of which were intended to create greater opportunity for meaningful participation of the partys rank-and-file members. Forty years later, where do we stand? Does the nomination process meet the goals of encouraging broad participation and connecting rank-and-file preferences to nomination outcomes? We offer some tentative answers to these questions by tracing the history of the nomination process, its evolution over the last 40 years, and the implications of several key changes in the system for citizen participation.

Who Asks For Voter Identification? Explaining Poll-Worker Discretion

As street-level bureaucrats, poll workers bear the primary responsibility for implementing voter identification requirements. Voter identification requirements are not implemented equally across groups of voters, and poll workers exercise substantial discretion in how they apply election law. In states with minimal and varying identification requirements, poll workers appear to treat especially minority voters differently, requesting more stringent voter identification. We explain why poll workers are different from other street-level bureaucrats and how traditional mechanisms of control have little impact on limiting poll-worker discretion. We test why many poll workers appear not to follow the law using a post-election survey of New Mexico poll workers. We find little evidence that race, training, or partisanship matters. Instead, poll worker attitudes toward photo-identification policies and their educational attainment influences implementation of voter-identification laws.

Surveying Political Activists: The Effectiveness of a Mixed Mode Survey Design

Abstract This article reports on the used of a mixed mode survey – mail and internet – to study 2004 New Mexico Democratic presidential caucus voters. Potential respondents were sent a letter asking them to answer on‐line or to request a mail survey. We tested for sample representativeness, possible differences between survey modes, and the effectiveness of reminder postcards on survey response. We find that the mixed mode survey does a relatively good job of representing the sample, but that web responders were younger, whiter, wealthier, and more educated. We find no difference by survey mode for answers to our substantive survey questions once we control for demographics. Postcards were very effective in increasing the response rate. In addition, we find that respondents had a difficult time understanding how to enter the survey web address on their web browser and suggest that information on browser use be included in the initial contact letter and follow‐up postcards.

Presidential Primary Turnout 1972–2016

We explore the implications of sequential presidential primary elections for turnout in selecting the presidential party nominees. Drawing from a micro-level theory of participation in sequential elections, we develop a set of aggregate-level hypotheses that tease out different ways that candidate mobilization efforts as well as the legal and institutional structures within a sequential contest influence turnout in presidential nomination contests. Using data from all state primary elections from 1972–2016, we find that electorates facing winnowed candidate pools, and those with contests after the effective endings to presidential contests have substantially reduced turnout that effectively disenfranchises voters in many states. Sequenced primary elections lead to lower overall turnout and less meaningful participation for many voters during presidential nominations contests.

Campaigns, descriptive representation, quotas and women’s political engagement in Mexico

ABSTRACT To what extent does the presence of a competitive female legislative candidate influence women’s political engagement in the context of a gender quota regime? Existing work on the effects of increasing descriptive representation on women’s engagement suggests a positive effect, but less attention is paid to how gender quotas may alter the relationship. We develop and test two hypotheses, one suggesting female candidates positively influence women’s engagement, while the other suggests female candidates in a gender quota regime may create a backlash effect and negatively influence women’s engagement. We draw on two nationally representative post-election surveys from Mexico and original data on the number and competitiveness of female candidates to examine the influence of these candidacies on multiple measures of political engagement. Overall, our results are more consistent with a backlash effect. We find female legislative candidates have little positive effect on increasing political engagement among women.