Mallory E Sorelle
Biographic Data
| ID | 1165459 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mallory E Sorelle |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mallory E |
| FAMILY NAME | Sorelle |
| SIGNATURE | SORELLE M E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Duke University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4478-8146 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 97 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Election Administration and Voting Behavior among Americans of Color
Several U.S. states expanded vote-by-mail in 2020, while other states made no changes. This uneven expansion occurred in a highly racialized policy context. We explore how the United States’ history of race-based disenfranchisement, racialized elite rhetoric, and the uneven policy expansion interact to shape voting methods and trust in government across racial groups. Using data from three national surveys and coarsened exact matching, we compare…
The racial politics of student debt relief policy
Voting access reforms and policy feedback effects on political efficacy and trust
In 2020, states pursued divergent voting access reforms in an effort to facilitate a safe and secure election in the midst of a global pandemic. For some voters, options like mail‐in or no‐excuse absentee voting were familiar; for others, they were novel. While scholars have explored how election reforms affect turnout, we know less about how state‐level electoral policies influence people's political efficacy and trust, and how political context…
The policy acknowledgement gap: Explaining (mis)perceptions of government social program use
Nearly, all Americans have received social policy benefits, yet many do not acknowledge “using government social programs.” Why? Work on the submerged state proposes that people who receive social assistance through market mechanisms do not realize that the benefits they get are the result of government policy, and therefore, they do not acknowledge receiving government assistance. Others point to motivated reasoning or social desirability bias t…
The policy feedback effects of preemption
Scholars have charted a dramatic rise in the use of preemption both at the federal and state levels since the 1970s, with courts and politicians from both parties enacting preemptions across a range of contentious issues. Thus, preemption is a critical feature of American policymaking—one that almost certainly shapes the political choices of policymakers, organized interests, and voters across levels of government. Despite its significance to the…
Deservingness and the Politics of Student Debt Relief
As the pandemic accelerated calls to provide relief to millions of student borrowers, President Biden announced executive action to cancel $10,000 of student debt for most federal student loan holders. Both prior to and following his announcement, policymakers have debated the merits and details of student debt relief, focusing particular attention on the perceived deservingness of student loan borrowers. But we have little systematic evidence ab…
The political benefits of student loan debt relief
Are people likely to reward politicians who support canceling student loan debt? This paper draws on original conjoint and survey experimental data to assess the effects of student debt relief proposals on voter behavior. Using data collected 3 months prior to Biden’s announcement of a specific plan for broad-based student debt relief, the paper addresses two interrelated questions: How do policy details—such as eligibility restrictions and the a…
Privatizing Financial Protection: Regulatory Feedback and the Politics of Financial Reform
Consumer credit is a crucial source of financial support for most Americans-part of what scholars dub the "credit-welfare state." Yet, borrowers have been reluctant to take political action to demand better consumer financial protection, even as subprime lending proliferates. This paper articulates a broad theory of regulatory feedback effects, proposing specific mechanisms through which regulatory policy making shapes consumers' politics. Drawin…
Politics, power, and precarity: How tenant organizations transform local political life
From the Margins to the Center: A Bottom-Up Approach to Welfare State Scholarship
In this article we reassess conceptions of the welfare state with an eye towards the limits of current scholarly approaches. In particular, we propose centering the study of the welfare state around those who occupy the margins of American society. We argue that concentrating on populations at the proverbial “bottom” of standard economic and political hierarchies productively reorients research on social policy and politics by bringing crucial bu…
From Personal Responsibility to Political Mobilization: Using Attribution Frames to Overcome Policy Feedback Effects
Public policies that promote personal responsibility while minimizing government responsibility are a key feature of modern American political economy. They can decrease Americans’ political participation on a given issue, with detrimental consequences for the wellbeing of economically insecure families. Can this pattern be overcome? I argue that attribution frames highlighting government’s role in and responsibility for policies may increase peo…
The paradox of policy advocacy: Philanthropic foundations, public interest groups, and second-order policy feedback effects
Good Enough for Government Work: The Public Reputation Crisis in America (And What We can do to Fix it)
Policy Feedback Theory
Policy Feedback Theory sits at the intersection of the two approaches: it brings political considerations to bear on policy analysis, assessing how policies affect crucial aspects of governance. It can also enrich studies of the policy process by highlighting how policies created previously affect the likelihood and form of future policy creation. The initial impetus for studies of policy feedback emerged from the historical institutionalist trad…
Partisan Preemption: The Strategic use of Federal Preemption Legislation
Federal preemption by both parties has risen dramatically since the 1960s. Scholars note that Democrats and Republicans routinely employ preemption to advance partisan political goals, but we know very little about how each party uses this tool of federal power. Are policymakers from both parties employing preemption in similar ways, or do strategic partisan differences exist? Using an original dataset, we show that Democrats and Republicans syst…
From the Margins to the Center: A Bottom-Up Approach to Welfare State Scholarship
In this article we reassess conceptions of the welfare state with an eye towards the limits of current scholarly approaches. In particular, we propose centering the study of the welfare state around those who occupy the margins of American society. We argue that concentrating on populations at the proverbial “bottom” of standard economic and political hierarchies productively reorients research on social policy and politics by bringing crucial bu…
Politics, power, and precarity: How tenant organizations transform local political life
Privatizing Financial Protection: Regulatory Feedback and the Politics of Financial Reform
Consumer credit is a crucial source of financial support for most Americans-part of what scholars dub the "credit-welfare state." Yet, borrowers have been reluctant to take political action to demand better consumer financial protection, even as subprime lending proliferates. This paper articulates a broad theory of regulatory feedback effects, proposing specific mechanisms through which regulatory policy making shapes consumers' politics. Drawin…
Partisan Preemption: The Strategic use of Federal Preemption Legislation
Federal preemption by both parties has risen dramatically since the 1960s. Scholars note that Democrats and Republicans routinely employ preemption to advance partisan political goals, but we know very little about how each party uses this tool of federal power. Are policymakers from both parties employing preemption in similar ways, or do strategic partisan differences exist? Using an original dataset, we show that Democrats and Republicans syst…
The policy feedback effects of preemption
Scholars have charted a dramatic rise in the use of preemption both at the federal and state levels since the 1970s, with courts and politicians from both parties enacting preemptions across a range of contentious issues. Thus, preemption is a critical feature of American policymaking—one that almost certainly shapes the political choices of policymakers, organized interests, and voters across levels of government. Despite its significance to the…
Deservingness and the Politics of Student Debt Relief
As the pandemic accelerated calls to provide relief to millions of student borrowers, President Biden announced executive action to cancel $10,000 of student debt for most federal student loan holders. Both prior to and following his announcement, policymakers have debated the merits and details of student debt relief, focusing particular attention on the perceived deservingness of student loan borrowers. But we have little systematic evidence ab…
From Personal Responsibility to Political Mobilization: Using Attribution Frames to Overcome Policy Feedback Effects
Public policies that promote personal responsibility while minimizing government responsibility are a key feature of modern American political economy. They can decrease Americans’ political participation on a given issue, with detrimental consequences for the wellbeing of economically insecure families. Can this pattern be overcome? I argue that attribution frames highlighting government’s role in and responsibility for policies may increase peo…
The policy acknowledgement gap: Explaining (mis)perceptions of government social program use
Nearly, all Americans have received social policy benefits, yet many do not acknowledge “using government social programs.” Why? Work on the submerged state proposes that people who receive social assistance through market mechanisms do not realize that the benefits they get are the result of government policy, and therefore, they do not acknowledge receiving government assistance. Others point to motivated reasoning or social desirability bias t…
The paradox of policy advocacy: Philanthropic foundations, public interest groups, and second-order policy feedback effects
Voting access reforms and policy feedback effects on political efficacy and trust
In 2020, states pursued divergent voting access reforms in an effort to facilitate a safe and secure election in the midst of a global pandemic. For some voters, options like mail‐in or no‐excuse absentee voting were familiar; for others, they were novel. While scholars have explored how election reforms affect turnout, we know less about how state‐level electoral policies influence people's political efficacy and trust, and how political context…
Partisan Preemption: The Strategic use of Federal Preemption Legislation
Federal preemption by both parties has risen dramatically since the 1960s. Scholars note that Democrats and Republicans routinely employ preemption to advance partisan political goals, but we know very little about how each party uses this tool of federal power. Are policymakers from both parties employing preemption in similar ways, or do strategic partisan differences exist? Using an original dataset, we show that Democrats and Republicans syst…
Policy Feedback Theory
Policy Feedback Theory sits at the intersection of the two approaches: it brings political considerations to bear on policy analysis, assessing how policies affect crucial aspects of governance. It can also enrich studies of the policy process by highlighting how policies created previously affect the likelihood and form of future policy creation. The initial impetus for studies of policy feedback emerged from the historical institutionalist trad…
Good Enough for Government Work: The Public Reputation Crisis in America (And What We can do to Fix it)
The paradox of policy advocacy: Philanthropic foundations, public interest groups, and second-order policy feedback effects
Politics, power, and precarity: How tenant organizations transform local political life
From the Margins to the Center: A Bottom-Up Approach to Welfare State Scholarship
In this article we reassess conceptions of the welfare state with an eye towards the limits of current scholarly approaches. In particular, we propose centering the study of the welfare state around those who occupy the margins of American society. We argue that concentrating on populations at the proverbial “bottom” of standard economic and political hierarchies productively reorients research on social policy and politics by bringing crucial bu…
From Personal Responsibility to Political Mobilization: Using Attribution Frames to Overcome Policy Feedback Effects
Public policies that promote personal responsibility while minimizing government responsibility are a key feature of modern American political economy. They can decrease Americans’ political participation on a given issue, with detrimental consequences for the wellbeing of economically insecure families. Can this pattern be overcome? I argue that attribution frames highlighting government’s role in and responsibility for policies may increase peo…
The political benefits of student loan debt relief
Are people likely to reward politicians who support canceling student loan debt? This paper draws on original conjoint and survey experimental data to assess the effects of student debt relief proposals on voter behavior. Using data collected 3 months prior to Biden’s announcement of a specific plan for broad-based student debt relief, the paper addresses two interrelated questions: How do policy details—such as eligibility restrictions and the a…
Privatizing Financial Protection: Regulatory Feedback and the Politics of Financial Reform
Consumer credit is a crucial source of financial support for most Americans-part of what scholars dub the "credit-welfare state." Yet, borrowers have been reluctant to take political action to demand better consumer financial protection, even as subprime lending proliferates. This paper articulates a broad theory of regulatory feedback effects, proposing specific mechanisms through which regulatory policy making shapes consumers' politics. Drawin…
The policy acknowledgement gap: Explaining (mis)perceptions of government social program use
Nearly, all Americans have received social policy benefits, yet many do not acknowledge “using government social programs.” Why? Work on the submerged state proposes that people who receive social assistance through market mechanisms do not realize that the benefits they get are the result of government policy, and therefore, they do not acknowledge receiving government assistance. Others point to motivated reasoning or social desirability bias t…
The policy feedback effects of preemption
Scholars have charted a dramatic rise in the use of preemption both at the federal and state levels since the 1970s, with courts and politicians from both parties enacting preemptions across a range of contentious issues. Thus, preemption is a critical feature of American policymaking—one that almost certainly shapes the political choices of policymakers, organized interests, and voters across levels of government. Despite its significance to the…
Deservingness and the Politics of Student Debt Relief
As the pandemic accelerated calls to provide relief to millions of student borrowers, President Biden announced executive action to cancel $10,000 of student debt for most federal student loan holders. Both prior to and following his announcement, policymakers have debated the merits and details of student debt relief, focusing particular attention on the perceived deservingness of student loan borrowers. But we have little systematic evidence ab…
Voting access reforms and policy feedback effects on political efficacy and trust
In 2020, states pursued divergent voting access reforms in an effort to facilitate a safe and secure election in the midst of a global pandemic. For some voters, options like mail‐in or no‐excuse absentee voting were familiar; for others, they were novel. While scholars have explored how election reforms affect turnout, we know less about how state‐level electoral policies influence people's political efficacy and trust, and how political context…
Election Administration and Voting Behavior among Americans of Color
Several U.S. states expanded vote-by-mail in 2020, while other states made no changes. This uneven expansion occurred in a highly racialized policy context. We explore how the United States’ history of race-based disenfranchisement, racialized elite rhetoric, and the uneven policy expansion interact to shape voting methods and trust in government across racial groups. Using data from three national surveys and coarsened exact matching, we compare…
The racial politics of student debt relief policy
Political science (12 works) · Economics (11 works) · Politics (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (8 works) · Social Policy and Reform Studies (7 works) · Law and economics (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Public Administration (5 works)