As electorates around the world become increasingly diverse, addressing how electoral persuasion emerges is a major concern. Focusing on the United States, this chapter explores the campaign strategies used by candidates to persuade, mobilize, and target diverse voters. It begins by conducting an exhaustive review of the existing research. After doing so, the chapter concludes that there is still much to be done and highlights particular aspects ripe for future research. In particular, scant attention has been paid to the ways candidates, political parties, and outside groups target African Americans and the extent to which they are persuaded or mobilized by these efforts. A similar need exists with respect to the campaign strategies used to target Asian Americans. Critically, it is important to know whether the electoral tactics, long proven effective for white Americans also work in the same way for voters with distinct political experiences and socialization processes. The remainder of the chapter offers future avenues and directions for scholars wishing to better understand how electoral persuasion operates in diverse electorates.
Earmarks are an important tool of a legislators’ reelection strategy, as they provide a prime opportunity to benefit their district and increase their chances at reelection. Yet, some legislators secure substantially more earmarks than others. Our study offers a new explanation for why this occurs. With limited legislative resources at their disposal, members of Congress are forced to make trade-offs in how they allocate their resources among legislative activities. In a world with resource constraints, members less engaged in earmarking are likely engaged in policymaking activities. We take advantage of new earmark and policymaking data to explore this hypothesized negative relationship between earmarking and policymaking effort. We find that legislators who exert greater effort on policymaking secure significantly fewer earmark dollars.
This chapter concerns positive political theory (PPT) within the context of comparative administrative law. In general, PPT posits that governmental actors—whether elected or appointed—have preferences over policy outcomes, respond rationally to incentives produced within their political and institutional environments, and anticipate the actions and preferences of other influential players in the policy-making game. In this light, the chapter first describes the application of PPT to the delegation of discretionary power to administrative agencies in the US. It then reviews the literature that has extended PPT to understand the design and performance of administrative agencies in other governmental systems and through comparative analysis, including in parliamentary and authoritarian governments. Lastly, the chapter addresses issues of corruption and transparency in government, and concludes with recommendations regarding fruitful avenues for future research.
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