printer friendly pageCOMM 162: Campaigns, Voting, Media, and Elections (COMM 262, POLISCI 120B)
This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key players -- candidates, parties, journalists, and voters -- in terms of the institutional arrangements and political incentives that confront them. Second, we will use current and recent election campaigns as "laboratories" for testing generalizations about campaign strategy and voter behavior. Third, we examine selections from the academic literature dealing with the origins of partisan identity, electoral design, and the immediate effects of campaigns on public opinion, voter turnout, and voter choice. As well, we'll explore issues of electoral reform and their more long-term consequences for governance and the political process.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: GER:DB-SocSci, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Iyengar, S. (PI)
COMM 161: Research Seminar on Political Campaigns
This seminar will provide students with the opportunity to design and implement a research project concerning the effects of campaigns on public opinion/voting preference. The first half of the course will expose students to principles of research design (including field experiments, surveys and content analysis) and major repositories of election and campaign data including the American National Election Studies, the Wisconsin Advertising Database, and other compilations of national and statewide polls. The second half of the course will cover recent scholarship into the effects of exposure to political campaigns on vote choice, turnout, polarization, and related outcomes. Prerequisite:
COMM162/
Polisci 120b
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