Lexington Books
Pages: 156
•
Trim: 6 x 8¾
978-1-4985-3029-3 • Hardback • June 2016 • $105.00 • (£81.00)
978-1-4985-3031-6 • Paperback • August 2018 • $44.99 • (£35.00)
978-1-4985-3030-9 • eBook • June 2016 • $42.50 • (£33.00)
Jeanette Morehouse Mendez is professor and head of the Political Science Department at Oklahoma State University.
Rebekah Herrick is professor of political science at Oklahoma State University.
Preface
Chapter 1: The Theory of Descriptive Elections
Chapter 2: The Effects of Descriptive Elections on Turnout
Chapter 3: Effects of Descriptive Elections on Voter Engagement
Chapter 4: Descriptive Elections and Campaign Ads
Chapter 5: Descriptive Elections, Issues and Media Coverage
Chapter 6: Descriptive Elections in State Legislative Races
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Appendix 1: Survey script for scenarios used with student survey
Appendix 2: Survey script for scenarios used with MTurk survey
Appendix 3: List of Races
Appendix 4: List of Issues Coded
Appendix 5: List of Traits Coded
Mendez and Herrick offer a fresh perspective on diversity and U.S. elections. With new data and a host of analyses, they advance the notion of ‘descriptive elections’ and identify the significance of different types of elections for voter engagement and turnout. They show that mixed-gender contests can alter attitudes and behavior, providing important evidence of how voters use gender as a cue. With attention to multiple levels of office and a focus on electoral contests—rather than candidates—this book advances representation research in interesting ways.
— Kira Sanbonmatsu, Rutgers University
Jeanette Morehouse Mendez and Rebecca Herrick provide a novel framework for analyzing elections based on the demographic characteristics of candidates and modeled on the concept of descriptive representation. Focusing on the gender composition of opposing candidates in races at congressional, gubernatorial, and state legislative levels, they find that gender diversity has its strongest effects, leading to higher levels of both engagement and turnout, in races where a Democratic woman runs against a Republican man. The authors' research provides convincing evidence for the utility of their descriptive elections framework, underscores the importance of gender as a category of analysis in understanding election results, and bolsters the authors' contention that diverse candidates are good for democracy.
— Susan J. Carroll, Co-author of “A Seat at the Table: Congresswomen’s Perspectives on Why Their Presence Matters”, Rutgers University