Papers by Kaylee T Johnson
Most foundational theories of congressional representation were developed during an era of less p... more Most foundational theories of congressional representation were developed during an era of less polarized and less partisan politics. These theories viewed the incumbency advantage as buttressed by the fact that some constituents were willing to support legislators from the opposite party because of their “home styles.” But in an era of policy immoderation in Congress, this perspective leads to an assumption that citizens evaluate their members of Congress based on what those legislators do for them individually, rather than what they do for their districts more broadly. In this paper, we ask whether citizens take the interests of their fellow constituents into account when evaluating their members of Congress. Using both survey data and an experiment, we uncover support for the notion that citizens take a more communal view of representation as at least part of their evaluations of their representatives. This suggests individuals may have a more nuanced understanding of representation than purely self-interested approaches tend to assume.
What drives candidates to " go negative " and against which opponents? Using a unique dataset con... more What drives candidates to " go negative " and against which opponents? Using a unique dataset consisting of all inter-candidate tweets by the 17 Republican presidential candidates in the 2016 primaries, we assess predictors of negative aff ect online. Twitter is a free platform, and candidates therefore face no resource limitations when using it; this makes Twitter a wellspring of information about campaign messaging, given a level playing -fi eld. Moreover, Twitter's 140-character limit acts as a liberating constraint, leading candidates to issue sound bites ready for potential distribution not only online, but also through conventional media, as tweets become news. We fi nd tweet negativity and overall rate of tweeting increases as the campaign season progresses. Unsurprisingly, the front-runner and eventual nominee, Donald Trump, sends and receives the most negative tweets and is more likely than his opponents to strike out against even those opponents who are polling poorly. However, candidates overwhelmingly " punch upwards " against those ahead of them in the polls, and this pattern goes beyond attacks against those near the top. Sixty of 136 dyads are characterized by lopsided negativity in one direction and only one of these 60 involves a clearly higher status candidate on the off ensive.
Forthcoming, Presidential Studies Quarterly Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats have abandon... more Forthcoming, Presidential Studies Quarterly Conventional wisdom holds that Democrats have abandoned the language of class populism. Using a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of hundreds of Democratic presidential campaign speeches over the 1932-2012 period, we revisit the received view. We provide evidence that Democratic presidential candidates have made increasingly frequent references to the wealthy; have employed a consistently adversarial tone in statements referring to the affluent; have made increasingly frequent criticisms of Republicans' alleged favoritism toward the rich; and have increasingly linked references to the wealthy to promises to assist less fortunate Americans through programmatic reforms. Our findings indicate that class populism is alive and well in Democratic presidential campaign rhetoric.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
Recent research suggests that the American left and right exhibit important differences, with the... more Recent research suggests that the American left and right exhibit important differences, with the Republican Party serving as the agent of an ideological movement, and the Democratic Party operating as a loose coalition of interest groups. Focusing on presidential campaigns, we argue that this thesis – though correct in many ways – misses an important way in which Democrats are more ideological than this argument predicts. Specifically, Democratic presidential candidates are much more likely than Republicans to use the language of class in discussing social and economic relations, to express sympathy for/solidarity with class groups, to discuss matters of distributional fairness, and to link discussions of class to government activities, than are Republicans. We argue that Democratic presidential candidates’ class-awareness points to a coherent political worldview in which economic justice is a salient concern and government has an active role to play in addressing class inequalities, while Republicans’ lesser attentiveness reflects their tendency not to view society in class terms or recommend vigorous government actions to redress class differences.
Drafts by Kaylee T Johnson
In this paper, we draw on a new dataset of all statements about class groups by Democratic and R... more In this paper, we draw on a new dataset of all statements about class groups by Democratic and Republican presidential candidates over the 1952-2012 period to examine how changing economic conditions - especially rising economic inequality - have affected the discussion of class issues in campaigns.
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Papers by Kaylee T Johnson
Drafts by Kaylee T Johnson