Reproducible and Replicable: An Empirical Assessment of the Social Construction of Politically Relevant Target Groups

Kreitzer, Rebecca J.; Smith, Candis Watts

doi:10.1017/s1049096518000987

Cited by 34 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(21 reference statements)

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“…As an external validation of the power and social constructions ratings, we utilized the research by Kreitzer and Smith () in which they used crowd sourcing involving more than 1,500 participants to estimate the power and social constructions of “deservingness” of 73 target populations . Thirty‐four of their target groups overlapped with targets in this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Constructions, Anticipatory Feedback Strategies, and Deceptive Public Policy

Schneider¹,

Ingram²

2018

Policy Studies Journal

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Elected leaders adopt “anticipatory feedback strategies” in designing public policies that generate support and forestall opposition. This contention is at the core of a social construction theory of feedback. Officials anticipate approval when policies allocate benefits to powerful groups socially constructed as deserving and allocate costs or punishment to groups viewed as undeserving, particularly if these groups lack political power. Designs for powerful groups that are widely viewed as unworthy provide mainly benefits in ways that are hidden from the general public who would not approve. For politically weak groups regarded as deserving, legislators generally design policies that provide promises, but not much in terms of material benefits. Often, deception will be used to protect or enhance this particular allocation pattern, including the reinforcement, perpetuation, or change in the social constructions along with the stereotypes, labels, stigma, and accompanying narratives. Using data from legislation introduced by the 2016 Arizona Legislature, we find that most policy is directed toward providing benefits to positively viewed target populations, as expected by the theory, and legislators employ deceptive feedback strategies that protect themselves. Feedback from the general public, which otherwise might be expected, may be precluded by the deceptive strategies being used.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Constructions, Anticipatory Feedback Strategies, and Deceptive Public Policy

Schneider¹,

Ingram²

2018

Policy Studies Journal

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“…The vast majority of policy makers in a federalist, democratic governance system are ostensibly influenced by aggregate state and local public stances and views about groups on various issues (Kreitzer and Smith 2018;Schneider and Ingram 1993). The data we provide here allow us to answer some basic but fundamentally critical questions.…”

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confidence: 98%

The Dynamics of Racial Resentment across the 50 US States

Smith¹,

Kreitzer

Suo

2019

Perspect. polit.

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Although many scholars who study the role of racial animus in Americans’ political attitudes and policy preferences do so to help us understand national-level politics, (racialized) policy is largely shaped at the state level. States are laboratories of policy innovation whose experiments can exacerbate or ameliorate racial inequality. In this article, we develop state-level scores of racial resentment. By using linear multilevel regression and poststratification weighting techniques and by linking nationally representative survey data with US Census data, we create time-varying, dynamic state-level estimates of racial resentment from 1988 to 2016. These measures enable us to explore the extent to which subnational levels of racial attitudes fluctuate over time and to provide a comparative analysis of state-level racial resentment scores across space and time. We find that states’ levels of racial animus change slowly, with some exhibiting increases over time while others do just the opposite. Southern states’ reputation for having the highest levels of racial resentment has been challenged by states across various regions of the United States. Many states had their lowest levels of symbolic racism decades ago, contrary to the traditional American narrative of racial progress.

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“…The social construction of target populations refers to the popular images of the person whose well-being and behavior are affected by public policy (Kreitzer & Smith, 2018;Ingram & Schneider, 2015;Schneider & Ingram, 1993). Constructions become embedded in policy as messages absorbed by citizens, so that those who have the power to frame an issue often determine whether it is addressed as a public or private concern.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Committee Hearings, Witness Affiliations, and the Passage of the Violence Against Women Act

Barrick

2021

J of Pol Practice & Research

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The author tracks attention to domestic violence at the congressional level and seeks to answer the question of why Congress recognized violence against women as a new category suitable for protection. I adopt a longitudinal approach to examine how hearings, witness affiliations, and policy entrepreneurs played a role in the passage of Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). The study develops and uses indicators of legislative attention and presidential attention to track the evolution of domestic violence policy between 1965 and 2020. This study shows that domestic violence, crime, and health accounted for most of the frames used by witnesses and/ or committees when discussing violence against women. The gender politics coalition made up the largest group of witnesses at the committee hearings. I also demonstrate that there is not much variation between the witnesses at the judiciary and labor committee hearings. By tracking the evolution of VAWA through the committee hearings as well as identifying the coalitions, I am able to show the new policy dimensions that emerged to regulate gender violence. The way that political actors constructed domestic violence victims dictated the type of policies that were used in resolving violence against women. This interaction helped to explain the slow response to helping battered women. However, as women began to gain a voice and exercise political power, public officials took notice of this problem.

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Reproducible and Replicable: An Empirical Assessment of the Social Construction of Politically Relevant Target Groups

Cited by 34 publications

References 6 publications

Social Constructions, Anticipatory Feedback Strategies, and Deceptive Public Policy

Social Constructions, Anticipatory Feedback Strategies, and Deceptive Public Policy

The Dynamics of Racial Resentment across the 50 US States

Committee Hearings, Witness Affiliations, and the Passage of the Violence Against Women Act

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