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Congress has grown increasingly partisan since the 1970's, with the most extreme levels of partisanship occurring in the last few years. The media has also reflected on the loss of bipartisanship in Congress. However, the media often cites women as one of the last groups in the Senate willing to cross party lines. I analyze party unity scores from 1993-2013 to see if women senators are less partisan than their male counterparts, and if Democratic women senators are more or less partisan than Republican women senators. From these results, I find that Republican female senators are less partisan than Republican male senators and Democratic senators of either gender. I also find Democratic female senators are more partisan than Republican female senators, and just as partisan or more partisan than Democratic male senators. However, when analyzed through co-sponsorship data from 2009-2015, women senators are seen as more bipartisan than men. Finally, through anecdotal research, I find that both Republican and Democratic men and women in the Senate believe women legislate differently than men and view them as more willing to find common ground. I also find Republican and Democratic women of the Senate have shared experiences that lead them to forge bipartisan relationships that could lead them to work in a more bipartisan way. An interview with former Senator Olympia Snowe reveals that she believes women are results oriented and willing to work together on a range of issues, and especially those that benefit women.
ContributorsBennett, Linnea Christine (Author) / Woodall, Gina (Thesis director) / Lennon, Tara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This thesis comparatively examines the percentage of women who have been appointed to federal level Cabinet positions in the United States and Canada between 1980 and 2010. The thesis will first explain the differences in the nation's democratic systems -- presidential and parliamentarian -- to contextualize how each nation elects federal representatives coupled with their process of appointing individuals to Cabinet positions per administration. Then the thesis will briefly explain the basis of the political parties that have been active in each country alongside their prominent ideals, in an effort to understand the impact it has had on the number of women elected to federal positions. Finally, the research will focus on the number of women appointed to Cabinet to demonstrate how an increase in the amount of political parties, creates more competition between political parties, in turn allowing for a higher number of women to be elected as well as appointed to federal positions. In conclusion, the research suggests that liberal party's push forth more women to federal level positions in both countries. Coupled with the fact that the increase in the amount of office holding parties increases competition between parties and increases the number of women appointed to Cabinet.
ContributorsOkula, Victoria (Author) / Shair-Rosenfield, Sarah (Thesis director) / Kittilson, Miki (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
A large amount of research examines the effect of partisan polarization on the institution of Congress, yet we know remarkably little about this political phenomenon’s precise effect on the political behavior of the American electorate. Some scholars argue that polarization is healthy for democracy because it allows political elites to send clear cues to the mass public, but other scholars postulate that polarization is bad for democracy. Decades of research on voter turnout resulted in a vast accumulation of knowledge on the subject. However, scholars must pay greater attention to data collection and measurement strategies because the prevalent technique to quantify voter turnout artificially deflates participation rates. I take two paths to uncover the effects of partisanship on the decision to vote. From the micro perspective, I utilize a variety of partisanship measures based on survey data. From the aggregate perspective, I argue that calculating voter turnout based on the voting eligible population (VEP) is a superior measurement strategy to other techniques. I adoopt a VEP measure of voter turnout for state-wide races (1994-2010). The results suggest that polarization is an important factor that increases voter turnout at both the individual and aggregate levels.
ContributorsBumgardner, Erik (Author) / Espino, Rodolfo (Thesis advisor) / Fridkin, Kim (Committee member) / Kenney, Patrick (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Political party identification has an immense influence on shaping individual attitudes and processes of reasoning to the point where otherwise knowledgeable people endorse political conspiracies that support one's political in-group and simultaneously disparage an out-group. Although recent research has explored this tendency among partisans, less is known about how Independents respond in comparison. Previous research fails to identify the Independent as a unique type of voter, but rather categorizes this group as ostensibly partisan, not a separate phenomenon to investigate. However, most Independents purport neutrality and, by recent polls, are becoming a substantial body worthy of concerted focus. Many questions arise about who Independents really are. For example, do all who identify as Independent behave in a similar manner? Are Independents ideologically different than what is represented by a partisan label? Is the Independent category a broad term for something entirely misunderstood? A thorough investigation into the greater dynamics of the political environment in the United States is an enormous undertaking, requiring a robust interdisciplinary approach beyond the focus and intent of this study. Therefore, this study begins the journey toward understanding these phenomena; do Independents, as a whole, uniformly respond to statements about political conspiracy theories? To explore these possibilities, explicit responses are bypassed to evaluate the implicit appeal of political conspiracy theories. An action dynamics (mouse-tracking) approach, a data rich method that records the response process, demonstrates Independents are not in fact a homogeneous group, but rather seem to fall into two groups: non-partisan leaning and partisan leaning. The analysis exposes that relative to the baseline and control stimuli: (1) Non-leaning Independents reveal an increased susceptibility to implicitly endorse bi-partisan directed conspiracy theories when compared to leaners. (2) Republican-leaners demonstrate a stronger susceptibility to endorse right-wing aligned conspiracy theories (against Barack Obama), similar to Republican partisans. (3) Democrat-leaners, unlike Democrat partisans, do not demonstrate any particular susceptibility to implicitly endorse either right/left-wing aligned conspiracy theories (against Barack Obama or George W. Bush). Drawing from major theories from social, political, and cognitive psychology will contribute to an understanding of these phenomena. Concluding remarks include study limitations and future directions.
ContributorsJohnson, Chelsea (Author) / Duran, Nicholas D (Thesis advisor) / Robles-Sotelo, Elias (Committee member) / Hall, Deborah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Political polarization, or the inclination to align with the identity, ideologies, and candidates of a party that results in subsequent partisan animosity that creates divisions between these groups, can prevent important policies from getting passed. Policies related to sustainability, defined as that which “meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,” have been found to be particularly vulnerable to polarization (Brundtland, 1987). This research analyzes literature and expert interviews to provide recommendations and strategies that can be employed by sustainability advocates to get important policies passed despite the divisive political arena. The research concluded that public salience of sustainability issues, presentation of the co-benefits of sustainability policies, relationships amongst elected officials, and use of politically neutral language are especially important to garnering bipartisan support for sustainability policies. Based on these conclusions, strategies were recommended for sustainability advocates to use to overcome political polarization including bolstering communication skills to demonstrate how people are affected by sustainability issues and can benefit from sustainability policies and giving careful and continuous consideration to the words, phrases, and labels used to describe sustainability policies. A final recommendation is to examine political polarization and sustainability at the municipal level since this research indicated that this is a relatively under-examined context.
ContributorsBarlett, Riley (Author) / Melnick, Rob (Thesis director) / Kay, Braden (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2023-12
Description
Political polarization is at an all-time high in the United States and people are more polarized in their beliefs than ever. The issue of polarization is one of the most divisive conflicts in America today. The following honors thesis analyzes how political polarization affects voter emotions and behaviors. To study this, I expose participants to a high polarization news article and a low polarization news article and observe the results. Out of the test came two key findings. The first is that participants who identify as Independents were much more likely to feel inspiration in a high polarization context than in a low polarization context. The second is that in a high polarization condition, Democrat and Republican participants felt more connected to their own parties compared to the control condition.
ContributorsSharp, Harrison (Author) / Mandel, Naomi (Thesis director) / Eaton, Kathryn (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Department of Marketing (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-05
Description
This project focuses on the effects of partisanship and electoral contestation on the likelihood of state legislators to adopt an independent ethics commission. Existing literature suggests that ethics reform is a function of public perception and the need to assuage public outrage in the face of scandal. Additionally, many legislators view ethics laws as suggestions of their own ineptitude and thus resist reform. However, this existing view fails to consider the unique nature of the enabling legislation of ethics commissions and often conflates external, public drivers of reform with internal drivers personal to the individual legislators. Using logistic regression and time series analysis, this project finds that increased durations of single-party control in state legislatures decreases the chances of that legislature having an independent commission, suggesting that legislators use the partisan ethics committees as political weapons when they are in power. When the dominant party does not face the risk of becoming the minority, there is little in place to motivate ethics reform, thus the lack of commissions. This research identifies the need to develop more focused measures of inter-legislator partisanship and suggests that the effects of different types of ethics laws, specifically those pertaining to ethics commissions, should more often be studied in isolation, rather than as one single category.
ContributorsRobertson, Gordon (Author) / Hoekstra, Valerie (Thesis director) / Suk, Mina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor)
Created2022-05
Description
Despite George Washington’s warning against political parties, the United States we know today consists of two political parties that are becoming even more polarized. Since President Trump’s first run for the Republican party candidate and presidency, these partisan tensions have been recharged with further polarization and many individuals swearing on social media they would never date a Trump supporter. According to Pew Research Center, “45% [of Democrats and those who lean left who are currently seeking relationships] say they definitely would not consider seriously dating a Trump voter” (Brown 2020). The divide between parties and the importance of political beliefs amongst partners has appeared to only increase after the actions taken at the Capitol on January 6, 2021. My research aims to quantify this phenomenon and then discover the “why?” behind it. How many people really consider their partner’s partisan affiliation and political beliefs a deal-breaker? Further, is it a deal-breaker because of the individual’s identity and political beliefs? Using intersectionality as a framework to examine identity and the confluence of identifiers and oppressors, will allow for a deeper understanding and personal account of why individuals find partisanship to be such a big criterion in a partner.
ContributorsPerryman, Olivia (Author) / Lennon, Tara (Thesis director) / McGibbney-Vlahoulis, Michelle (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor)
Created2021-12