Lyn Ragsdale
Biographic Data
| ID | 1065192 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Lyn Ragsdale |
| GIVEN NAMES | Lyn |
| FAMILY NAME | Ragsdale |
| SIGNATURE | RAGSDALE L |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Arizona |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 23 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 329 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 23 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| H-INDEX | 9 |
The American Nonvoter
The book explores the impact of uncertainty in the national campaign context on nonvoting in presidential and midterm House elections from 1920 through 2012. While previous studies have focused on individuals' motivations to vote and candidates' mobilization efforts, this book considers how uncertain national circumstances in the months before the election affect whether people vote or not. Uncertainty is defined as decision makers being unable t…
A Period of Government Reassessment: 1974–1990
This chapter examines the period after Watergate, during which nonvoting increased. The chapter finds that the introduction of cable television into American homes was principally associated with this increase. With cable television, people could avoid politics by selecting channels that were expressly not political. In contrast, the uncertainty defined by the stagflation of the period—in which both inflation and unemployment increased in tandem—…
Who Are Nonvoters?
Examining nonvoting at the individual level, this chapter identifies four types of nonvoters in both presidential and midterm elections. The chapter draws a theoretical distinction between external uncertainty found in the national campaign context and internal uncertainty among eligible citizens about whether a specific candidate will adequately address the external uncertainty. The four types of nonvoters respond to this internal uncertainty di…
Campaign Context, Uncertainty, and Nonvoting
The chapter introduces the specific indicators of uncertainty in the national campaign context, which include economic volatility, technology shock (with the invention of new mass communication devices, including radio, television, cable television, and the Internet), dramatic national events such as US involvement in major international conflicts, and federal expansion of the franchise. The more change in each indicator, the greater the increase…
Casting Votes: The National Campaign Context and State Turnout, 1920–2008
This study examines voter turnout in the American states in U.S. presidential and House elections from 1920 through 2008. A model predicts turnout as the sum of the national campaign context, state autonomy, and electoral continuity. The national campaign context encompasses conditions that prompt turnout to shift similarly across states. State autonomy involves state-specific factors that prompt turnout to vary across states. Electoral continuit…
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity. By Mary E. Stuckey. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. 404p. $35.00. This is a powerful, ambitious book on the connection between American presidents and American identity. Mary Stuckey argues that through their rhetoric, American presidents reduce an often contradictory and always complex set of national identities into a single overarching one. Presidents present this idealized …
Barbara Hinckley
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
The Institutionalization of the American Presidency, 1924-92
Theory: The institutionalization of the presidency involves the process by which the office as an organization attains stability and value as an end in itself. Stability denotes that the entity cannot be easily altered or eliminated, while value involves the entity acquiring a distinctive identity. More specifically, the presidency becomes institutionalized when it attains high levels of four features: autonomy (the independence of the presidency…
Activities and Appointments
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Candidates, Issues, and Participation in Senate Elections
The study provides the first thorough empirical examination of how individuals' knowledge of and opinions about the candidates and issues of a campaign affect participation. The study proposes a campaign attention model in which people assess whether there is someone for whom to vote before deciding whether to vote. More specifically, the model posits three candidate-based conditions for participation: knowledge, distinctiveness, and preference. …
Who Are Nonvoters? Profiles from the 1990 Senate Elections
This study offers the first exploration of types of nonvoters. Heretofore, researchers have analyzed factors that distinguish voters from nonvoters, but they have not studied factors that reveal distinctions among nonvoters. Scholars view nonvoters as a large monolith, assuming that they respond (or fail to respond) to politics in the same way. This paper develops a campaign attention model of nonvoting that proposes that variations in individual…
A Report on the Congressional Fellowship Program, 1990–91 and 1991–92
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
The "Post-Modern" Presidency. A New Presidential Epoch: A Review Essay
A Report on the Congressional Fellowship Program, 1989–90 and 1990–91
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Strong feelings: Emotional responses to presidents
Lyn Ragsdale Named William A. Steiger Congressional Fellow
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Campaigns for Campaigners: A Review Essay
Campaigns for Campaigners: A Review Essay
ECENT elections to the Congress of the United States have been marked by a dramatic increase in the money raised and spent on congressional campaigns. As shown in Table 1, the average total contributions made to House candidates in 1972 of $51,752 more than quadrupled by 1984 to $215,238. But another item on the campaign ledger presented in the table has not increased: the number of competitive House races. In 1972, 72 percent of winners in incum…
Presidential Speechmaking and the Public Audience: Individual Presidents and Group Attitudes
The study examines the impact of the major prime-time addresses of individual presidents from Johnson through Reagan on the attitudes of party and income groups within the public from 1965 to 1983. Three patterns of group effects are hypothesized: (1) an inclusive pattern in which a president improves his popularity among a broad range of groups, including critics and backers, (2) a discordant pattern in which a president improves his standing wi…
Representatives' Actions and Challengers' Reactions: Limits to Candidate Connections in the House
The study examines the relationships between House incumbents and challengers by considering three ways in which the resources of one candidate may affect the strength of the other. Using data from the 1978 and 1980 elections, the analysis first considers the effects of various incumbent activities in the interelection year (e.g., trips to the district, the cosponsorship of bills, visibility on national news broadcasts, committee prestige, leader…
The Politics of Presidential Speechmaking, 1949-1980
The study provides an empirical analysis of the determinants and consequences of presidential speechmaking, defined as the occurrence of a major, nationally broadcast and televised address. Major speeches delivered by Presidents Truman through Carter are examined during the period 1949-1980. Using a probit analysis, a prediction is made of the likelihood of a major speech occurring within a month, based on the effects of public attitudes, nationa…
Responsiveness and Legislative Elections: Toward a Comparative Study
Incumbent Popularity, Challenger Invisibility, and Congressional Voters
Congressional election scholars present two distinct explanations for the resounding electoral success of House incumbents-the popularity of the incumbents themselves and the invisibility of their challengers. Without bringing the two explanations together, however, it is difficult to assess how the interactions between incumbents and challengers are viewed by voters in an election context. Using the 1978 CPS study, a nonrecursive structural equa…
The Politics of Presidential Speechmaking, 1949-1980
The study provides an empirical analysis of the determinants and consequences of presidential speechmaking, defined as the occurrence of a major, nationally broadcast and televised address. Major speeches delivered by Presidents Truman through Carter are examined during the period 1949-1980. Using a probit analysis, a prediction is made of the likelihood of a major speech occurring within a month, based on the effects of public attitudes, nationa…
Representatives' Actions and Challengers' Reactions: Limits to Candidate Connections in the House
The study examines the relationships between House incumbents and challengers by considering three ways in which the resources of one candidate may affect the strength of the other. Using data from the 1978 and 1980 elections, the analysis first considers the effects of various incumbent activities in the interelection year (e.g., trips to the district, the cosponsorship of bills, visibility on national news broadcasts, committee prestige, leader…
Presidential Speechmaking and the Public Audience: Individual Presidents and Group Attitudes
The study examines the impact of the major prime-time addresses of individual presidents from Johnson through Reagan on the attitudes of party and income groups within the public from 1965 to 1983. Three patterns of group effects are hypothesized: (1) an inclusive pattern in which a president improves his popularity among a broad range of groups, including critics and backers, (2) a discordant pattern in which a president improves his standing wi…
The Institutionalization of the American Presidency, 1924-92
Theory: The institutionalization of the presidency involves the process by which the office as an organization attains stability and value as an end in itself. Stability denotes that the entity cannot be easily altered or eliminated, while value involves the entity acquiring a distinctive identity. More specifically, the presidency becomes institutionalized when it attains high levels of four features: autonomy (the independence of the presidency…
Who Are Nonvoters? Profiles from the 1990 Senate Elections
This study offers the first exploration of types of nonvoters. Heretofore, researchers have analyzed factors that distinguish voters from nonvoters, but they have not studied factors that reveal distinctions among nonvoters. Scholars view nonvoters as a large monolith, assuming that they respond (or fail to respond) to politics in the same way. This paper develops a campaign attention model of nonvoting that proposes that variations in individual…
Incumbent Popularity, Challenger Invisibility, and Congressional Voters
Congressional election scholars present two distinct explanations for the resounding electoral success of House incumbents-the popularity of the incumbents themselves and the invisibility of their challengers. Without bringing the two explanations together, however, it is difficult to assess how the interactions between incumbents and challengers are viewed by voters in an election context. Using the 1978 CPS study, a nonrecursive structural equa…
Strong feelings: Emotional responses to presidents
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity. By Mary E. Stuckey. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. 404p. $35.00. This is a powerful, ambitious book on the connection between American presidents and American identity. Mary Stuckey argues that through their rhetoric, American presidents reduce an often contradictory and always complex set of national identities into a single overarching one. Presidents present this idealized …
Candidates, Issues, and Participation in Senate Elections
The study provides the first thorough empirical examination of how individuals' knowledge of and opinions about the candidates and issues of a campaign affect participation. The study proposes a campaign attention model in which people assess whether there is someone for whom to vote before deciding whether to vote. More specifically, the model posits three candidate-based conditions for participation: knowledge, distinctiveness, and preference. …
Responsiveness and Legislative Elections: Toward a Comparative Study
Casting Votes: The National Campaign Context and State Turnout, 1920–2008
This study examines voter turnout in the American states in U.S. presidential and House elections from 1920 through 2008. A model predicts turnout as the sum of the national campaign context, state autonomy, and electoral continuity. The national campaign context encompasses conditions that prompt turnout to shift similarly across states. State autonomy involves state-specific factors that prompt turnout to vary across states. Electoral continuit…
Incumbent Popularity, Challenger Invisibility, and Congressional Voters
Congressional election scholars present two distinct explanations for the resounding electoral success of House incumbents-the popularity of the incumbents themselves and the invisibility of their challengers. Without bringing the two explanations together, however, it is difficult to assess how the interactions between incumbents and challengers are viewed by voters in an election context. Using the 1978 CPS study, a nonrecursive structural equa…
Responsiveness and Legislative Elections: Toward a Comparative Study
The Politics of Presidential Speechmaking, 1949-1980
The study provides an empirical analysis of the determinants and consequences of presidential speechmaking, defined as the occurrence of a major, nationally broadcast and televised address. Major speeches delivered by Presidents Truman through Carter are examined during the period 1949-1980. Using a probit analysis, a prediction is made of the likelihood of a major speech occurring within a month, based on the effects of public attitudes, nationa…
Campaigns for Campaigners: A Review Essay
Campaigns for Campaigners: A Review Essay
ECENT elections to the Congress of the United States have been marked by a dramatic increase in the money raised and spent on congressional campaigns. As shown in Table 1, the average total contributions made to House candidates in 1972 of $51,752 more than quadrupled by 1984 to $215,238. But another item on the campaign ledger presented in the table has not increased: the number of competitive House races. In 1972, 72 percent of winners in incum…
Presidential Speechmaking and the Public Audience: Individual Presidents and Group Attitudes
The study examines the impact of the major prime-time addresses of individual presidents from Johnson through Reagan on the attitudes of party and income groups within the public from 1965 to 1983. Three patterns of group effects are hypothesized: (1) an inclusive pattern in which a president improves his popularity among a broad range of groups, including critics and backers, (2) a discordant pattern in which a president improves his standing wi…
Representatives' Actions and Challengers' Reactions: Limits to Candidate Connections in the House
The study examines the relationships between House incumbents and challengers by considering three ways in which the resources of one candidate may affect the strength of the other. Using data from the 1978 and 1980 elections, the analysis first considers the effects of various incumbent activities in the interelection year (e.g., trips to the district, the cosponsorship of bills, visibility on national news broadcasts, committee prestige, leader…
Lyn Ragsdale Named William A. Steiger Congressional Fellow
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
The "Post-Modern" Presidency. A New Presidential Epoch: A Review Essay
A Report on the Congressional Fellowship Program, 1989–90 and 1990–91
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Strong feelings: Emotional responses to presidents
A Report on the Congressional Fellowship Program, 1990–91 and 1991–92
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Who Are Nonvoters? Profiles from the 1990 Senate Elections
This study offers the first exploration of types of nonvoters. Heretofore, researchers have analyzed factors that distinguish voters from nonvoters, but they have not studied factors that reveal distinctions among nonvoters. Scholars view nonvoters as a large monolith, assuming that they respond (or fail to respond) to politics in the same way. This paper develops a campaign attention model of nonvoting that proposes that variations in individual…
Activities and Appointments
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
Candidates, Issues, and Participation in Senate Elections
The study provides the first thorough empirical examination of how individuals' knowledge of and opinions about the candidates and issues of a campaign affect participation. The study proposes a campaign attention model in which people assess whether there is someone for whom to vote before deciding whether to vote. More specifically, the model posits three candidate-based conditions for participation: knowledge, distinctiveness, and preference. …
Barbara Hinckley
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button
The Institutionalization of the American Presidency, 1924-92
Theory: The institutionalization of the presidency involves the process by which the office as an organization attains stability and value as an end in itself. Stability denotes that the entity cannot be easily altered or eliminated, while value involves the entity acquiring a distinctive identity. More specifically, the presidency becomes institutionalized when it attains high levels of four features: autonomy (the independence of the presidency…
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity
Defining Americans: The Presidency and National Identity. By Mary E. Stuckey. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004. 404p. $35.00. This is a powerful, ambitious book on the connection between American presidents and American identity. Mary Stuckey argues that through their rhetoric, American presidents reduce an often contradictory and always complex set of national identities into a single overarching one. Presidents present this idealized …
Casting Votes: The National Campaign Context and State Turnout, 1920–2008
This study examines voter turnout in the American states in U.S. presidential and House elections from 1920 through 2008. A model predicts turnout as the sum of the national campaign context, state autonomy, and electoral continuity. The national campaign context encompasses conditions that prompt turnout to shift similarly across states. State autonomy involves state-specific factors that prompt turnout to vary across states. Electoral continuit…
The American Nonvoter
The book explores the impact of uncertainty in the national campaign context on nonvoting in presidential and midterm House elections from 1920 through 2012. While previous studies have focused on individuals' motivations to vote and candidates' mobilization efforts, this book considers how uncertain national circumstances in the months before the election affect whether people vote or not. Uncertainty is defined as decision makers being unable t…
A Period of Government Reassessment: 1974–1990
This chapter examines the period after Watergate, during which nonvoting increased. The chapter finds that the introduction of cable television into American homes was principally associated with this increase. With cable television, people could avoid politics by selecting channels that were expressly not political. In contrast, the uncertainty defined by the stagflation of the period—in which both inflation and unemployment increased in tandem—…
Who Are Nonvoters?
Examining nonvoting at the individual level, this chapter identifies four types of nonvoters in both presidential and midterm elections. The chapter draws a theoretical distinction between external uncertainty found in the national campaign context and internal uncertainty among eligible citizens about whether a specific candidate will adequately address the external uncertainty. The four types of nonvoters respond to this internal uncertainty di…
Campaign Context, Uncertainty, and Nonvoting
The chapter introduces the specific indicators of uncertainty in the national campaign context, which include economic volatility, technology shock (with the invention of new mass communication devices, including radio, television, cable television, and the Internet), dramatic national events such as US involvement in major international conflicts, and federal expansion of the franchise. The more change in each indicator, the greater the increase…
Political science (21 works) · Law (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Politics (12 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (10 works) · Law (9 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Computer Science (7 works) · Presidential system (7 works)