Elections as institutions
Although American elections have been studied extensively, little research has been dedicated to examining variations in voting for different offices. This dissertation explores how the characteristics of an office influence how voters select who will serve in that office. Reelection rates and margi...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Dissertation |
| Language: | English |
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ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
01-01-1988
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| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | Although American elections have been studied extensively, little research has been dedicated to examining variations in voting for different offices. This dissertation explores how the characteristics of an office influence how voters select who will serve in that office. Reelection rates and margins of victory for the House of Representatives, Senate, and gubernatorial elections are examined in order to compare incumbent security in these offices. Previous research on judicial, municipal and state legislative races are also included to provide a more complete analysis. Additionally, a survey done by the author specifically for this dissertation permits examining hypotheses not directly testable with actual election data. By including races for numerous types of offices this dissertation examines how the impact of the size of the elected body and the size of the office's constituency affects the use of information by voters. The impact on levels of information caused by the timing of elections is also considered. This dissertation also includes a discussion of the effects of nonpartisan ballots and constraints on campaign information such as those found in judicial elections. The research presented here suggests that these features of political offices have a significant impact on the ability of incumbent candidates to retain their offices. |
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| ISBN: | 9798207046648 |