Jennifer Lewallen
Biographic Data
| ID | 291256 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jennifer Lewallen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jennifer |
| FAMILY NAME | Lewallen |
| SIGNATURE | LEWALLEN J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Tampa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2772-1807 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 87 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Muddle and Match
The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) provides a systematic means of using narrative elements to describe how policymakers define issues, including characters, plot, and setting. In this article I introduce the concept of narrative coherence: the extent to which different narrative elements “fit” together in a logical way. Narrative coherence operates at three levels: facial validity across narrative elements, agreement across policy narrators, an…
Big & rich
Policy process scholars often are interested in the relative diversity or concentration of attention across issues, or the relative participation of different groups and information sources within an issue domain or policy venue. Are policymakers devoting lots of attention to a small set of issues or dividing their attention more evenly across a larger agenda? Are a few groups dominating deliberation or is participation more evenly distributed am…
The influence of conflict on agenda setting in the US Congress
Agenda setting involves prioritisation: paying attention to some issues means others go unaddressed. Institutions develop divisions of labour to increase their attention capacity but making a decision requires focusing on one issue at a time, a move called the ‘serial shift’. Issues also represent different conflicts and ways of organising disagreement, so the serial shift involves prioritising and legitimising some disagreements above others. Th…
Try, Try Again
Views on the hill
Setting the decision agenda requires restricting information and focusing attention on specific issue dimensions. Agenda setting also carries opportunity costs: focusing on some issues and proposals means others go unaddressed. Agenda setting thus generates conflict about the choice of issues and selection of alternatives and proposals. Using data on “views” attached to U.S. Senate committee reports and Volden and Wiseman's legislative effectiven…
The decline of incrementalism in U.S. lawmaking
Punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) posits that policy change is incremental for long periods of time with occasional shifts in problem definition and governing authority that produce large changes. Incrementalism results from shared norms and standard operating procedures within policy subsystems. The U.S. Congress experienced a series of institutional changes in the 1990s that both introduced more partisanship into subsystem interactions and ma…
Not just the nation's hostess
The position of First Lady is typically viewed as ceremonial and a reflection of marital and maternal roles: some combination of “the president's wife,” the “nation's social hostess,” and the “Mom‐in‐Chief.” Yet modern First Ladies often develop their own policy priorities and programs, and the Office of the First Lady is integral to modern presidential administrations. We make a case for studying First Ladies as policy actors by systematically m…
The politics of problems versus solutions
Several theories of policy change posit that the politics of defining and prioritizing problems differs from the politics of devising and selecting solutions. The former involves simplifying through heuristics like indicators and ideology while the latter incorporates policy analysis and expertise to a greater degree. By employing two large datasets of U.S. congressional hearings to analyze policymakers' behavior of sending political messages, wh…
Expertise for emerging technology
Policy makers often struggle to adapt and respond to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with new and emerging technologies. In such situations decision makers often widen their search for information and acquire more expertise in order to better define complex problems and to understand the potential consequences of proposed alternatives. I argue that acquiring information also carries social and symbolic value: having reports and other…
Subsystems and ill‐fitting problems
Policy process scholars are increasingly attentive to issues that engage multiple subsystems, though they disagree on what the unit of analysis should be. Researchers have used the term “boundary spanning,” which already refers to a different class of institutions and actors, as well as variants of the terms wicked and messy problems without incorporating their full definitions. In this article, I argue that trans‐subsystem issues are better unde…
Emerging technologies and problem definition uncertainty
For governments to regulate, they must first define the problem and decide which policymakers have the authority to make decisions. Technological development can disrupt the authority‐allocation process by fostering uncertainty about which actors are responsible for making policy. This article examines the role that changing technology has played in the development of cybersecurity policy in the United States. New technologies have increased the …
Booster seats
Recent years have seen increased attention to legislative capacity and performance, including the development of individual Legislative Effectiveness (LE) scores for the US Congress. In comparing new committee chairs' scores to their scores prior to becoming chair I find significant variation in the 'boost' that committees impart to their chairs' LE, including several committees that do not significantly boost their chairs' LE scores at all. This…
Nothing on the Floor
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE MANY WAYS TO ACHIEVE their multiple goals of being reelected, making policy, and gaining power and prestige within their institution. Of these, roll call voting is the most visible and, many scholars argue, the most important signal that legislators send to their constituents, colleagues, and interest groups about their positions and achievements.1 Yet since 1790, and permanently since 1794, the U.S. Congress has included…
Congressional Attention and Opportunity Structures
This article examines the role that overlapping committee jurisdictions play in fostering or hindering attention to environmental and energy issues in the U.S. Congress. The Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, created by House Democrats in , and its chairman Rep. Ed Markey took advantage of opportunities within the existing jurisdictional arrangement to increase attention to these issues despite lacking any legislative author…
From Rules to Representation
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Issue Politics of Presidential Veto Threats
The heart of agenda setting lies in defining public problems and setting governmental priorities. Veto threats represent conflict between Congress and the president over how to shape policy, yet we know little about the issues on which veto politics take place or longitudinal changes to these dynamics. When a president threatens to veto a bill, he raises its visibility and scope and thus helps shape the federal government's issue agenda. This art…
Congressional dysfunction
The public's approval of Congress is at an all time low. The parties seem to have taken the legislative process hostage for their own electoral gain. Whereas traditional arguments about congressional dysfunction focus on polarized voting coalitions or outputs – particularly legislation – in this article we highlight congressional information processing and how it has changed in this highly partisan era. By coding congressional hearings according …
Legislative Error and the “Politics of Haste
Legislative error is an important and understudied element of the policy process. Even simple clerical mistakes—if unnoticed before enactment—can lead to ambiguity about a law’s meaning, spark political battles concerning rulemaking and implementation, and involve the courts in statutory interpretation. Understanding how and why error occurs can help us better understand how political institutions are intertwined in the design, enactment, and imp…
Pinterest or Thinterest
Social media have become increasingly popular mechanisms for communication. Past research suggests a link between using social media, upward social comparison, and negative affect. This online experiment of US women ( N = 118) takes a media psychology approach to understanding how fitness images on the social networking website Pinterest contribute to social comparison as well as intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Findings sug…
Real mean girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults
The popularity of reality TV programming exceeds that of any other genre, particularly among young female viewers. Past research suggests a link between viewing reality TV, gender stereotyping, and social aggression among young women, but little is known theoretically about this relationship. The present study of U.S. female emerging adults (N 174) takes a media psychology approach to understand how reality TV may contribute to gender stereotypin…
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
The present study used cultivation theory to explore the relationships between celebrity media diet and materialism for a sample of 224 emerging adults. Results indicated main effects between both celebrity magazine consumption and celebrity TV news consumption on materialism. Total celebrity media diet was also significantly related to materialism. Findings suggest that a media diet high in celebrity culture and lifestyle has significant impact …
Emerging technologies and problem definition uncertainty
For governments to regulate, they must first define the problem and decide which policymakers have the authority to make decisions. Technological development can disrupt the authority‐allocation process by fostering uncertainty about which actors are responsible for making policy. This article examines the role that changing technology has played in the development of cybersecurity policy in the United States. New technologies have increased the …
Congressional dysfunction
The public's approval of Congress is at an all time low. The parties seem to have taken the legislative process hostage for their own electoral gain. Whereas traditional arguments about congressional dysfunction focus on polarized voting coalitions or outputs – particularly legislation – in this article we highlight congressional information processing and how it has changed in this highly partisan era. By coding congressional hearings according …
Pinterest or Thinterest
Social media have become increasingly popular mechanisms for communication. Past research suggests a link between using social media, upward social comparison, and negative affect. This online experiment of US women ( N = 118) takes a media psychology approach to understanding how fitness images on the social networking website Pinterest contribute to social comparison as well as intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Findings sug…
Booster seats
Recent years have seen increased attention to legislative capacity and performance, including the development of individual Legislative Effectiveness (LE) scores for the US Congress. In comparing new committee chairs' scores to their scores prior to becoming chair I find significant variation in the 'boost' that committees impart to their chairs' LE, including several committees that do not significantly boost their chairs' LE scores at all. This…
Congressional Attention and Opportunity Structures
This article examines the role that overlapping committee jurisdictions play in fostering or hindering attention to environmental and energy issues in the U.S. Congress. The Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, created by House Democrats in , and its chairman Rep. Ed Markey took advantage of opportunities within the existing jurisdictional arrangement to increase attention to these issues despite lacking any legislative author…
The Issue Politics of Presidential Veto Threats
The heart of agenda setting lies in defining public problems and setting governmental priorities. Veto threats represent conflict between Congress and the president over how to shape policy, yet we know little about the issues on which veto politics take place or longitudinal changes to these dynamics. When a president threatens to veto a bill, he raises its visibility and scope and thus helps shape the federal government's issue agenda. This art…
The politics of problems versus solutions
Several theories of policy change posit that the politics of defining and prioritizing problems differs from the politics of devising and selecting solutions. The former involves simplifying through heuristics like indicators and ideology while the latter incorporates policy analysis and expertise to a greater degree. By employing two large datasets of U.S. congressional hearings to analyze policymakers' behavior of sending political messages, wh…
Real mean girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults
The popularity of reality TV programming exceeds that of any other genre, particularly among young female viewers. Past research suggests a link between viewing reality TV, gender stereotyping, and social aggression among young women, but little is known theoretically about this relationship. The present study of U.S. female emerging adults (N 174) takes a media psychology approach to understand how reality TV may contribute to gender stereotypin…
Try, Try Again
From Rules to Representation
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The decline of incrementalism in U.S. lawmaking
Punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) posits that policy change is incremental for long periods of time with occasional shifts in problem definition and governing authority that produce large changes. Incrementalism results from shared norms and standard operating procedures within policy subsystems. The U.S. Congress experienced a series of institutional changes in the 1990s that both introduced more partisanship into subsystem interactions and ma…
Subsystems and ill‐fitting problems
Policy process scholars are increasingly attentive to issues that engage multiple subsystems, though they disagree on what the unit of analysis should be. Researchers have used the term “boundary spanning,” which already refers to a different class of institutions and actors, as well as variants of the terms wicked and messy problems without incorporating their full definitions. In this article, I argue that trans‐subsystem issues are better unde…
Nothing on the Floor
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE MANY WAYS TO ACHIEVE their multiple goals of being reelected, making policy, and gaining power and prestige within their institution. Of these, roll call voting is the most visible and, many scholars argue, the most important signal that legislators send to their constituents, colleagues, and interest groups about their positions and achievements.1 Yet since 1790, and permanently since 1794, the U.S. Congress has included…
Legislative Error and the “Politics of Haste
Legislative error is an important and understudied element of the policy process. Even simple clerical mistakes—if unnoticed before enactment—can lead to ambiguity about a law’s meaning, spark political battles concerning rulemaking and implementation, and involve the courts in statutory interpretation. Understanding how and why error occurs can help us better understand how political institutions are intertwined in the design, enactment, and imp…
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
The present study used cultivation theory to explore the relationships between celebrity media diet and materialism for a sample of 224 emerging adults. Results indicated main effects between both celebrity magazine consumption and celebrity TV news consumption on materialism. Total celebrity media diet was also significantly related to materialism. Findings suggest that a media diet high in celebrity culture and lifestyle has significant impact …
Real mean girls? Reality television viewing, social aggression, and gender-related beliefs among female emerging adults
The popularity of reality TV programming exceeds that of any other genre, particularly among young female viewers. Past research suggests a link between viewing reality TV, gender stereotyping, and social aggression among young women, but little is known theoretically about this relationship. The present study of U.S. female emerging adults (N 174) takes a media psychology approach to understand how reality TV may contribute to gender stereotypin…
Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous
The present study used cultivation theory to explore the relationships between celebrity media diet and materialism for a sample of 224 emerging adults. Results indicated main effects between both celebrity magazine consumption and celebrity TV news consumption on materialism. Total celebrity media diet was also significantly related to materialism. Findings suggest that a media diet high in celebrity culture and lifestyle has significant impact …
Congressional dysfunction
The public's approval of Congress is at an all time low. The parties seem to have taken the legislative process hostage for their own electoral gain. Whereas traditional arguments about congressional dysfunction focus on polarized voting coalitions or outputs – particularly legislation – in this article we highlight congressional information processing and how it has changed in this highly partisan era. By coding congressional hearings according …
Legislative Error and the “Politics of Haste
Legislative error is an important and understudied element of the policy process. Even simple clerical mistakes—if unnoticed before enactment—can lead to ambiguity about a law’s meaning, spark political battles concerning rulemaking and implementation, and involve the courts in statutory interpretation. Understanding how and why error occurs can help us better understand how political institutions are intertwined in the design, enactment, and imp…
Pinterest or Thinterest
Social media have become increasingly popular mechanisms for communication. Past research suggests a link between using social media, upward social comparison, and negative affect. This online experiment of US women ( N = 118) takes a media psychology approach to understanding how fitness images on the social networking website Pinterest contribute to social comparison as well as intentions to engage in extreme weight-loss behaviors. Findings sug…
Congressional Attention and Opportunity Structures
This article examines the role that overlapping committee jurisdictions play in fostering or hindering attention to environmental and energy issues in the U.S. Congress. The Select Energy Independence and Global Warming Committee, created by House Democrats in , and its chairman Rep. Ed Markey took advantage of opportunities within the existing jurisdictional arrangement to increase attention to these issues despite lacking any legislative author…
From Rules to Representation
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The Issue Politics of Presidential Veto Threats
The heart of agenda setting lies in defining public problems and setting governmental priorities. Veto threats represent conflict between Congress and the president over how to shape policy, yet we know little about the issues on which veto politics take place or longitudinal changes to these dynamics. When a president threatens to veto a bill, he raises its visibility and scope and thus helps shape the federal government's issue agenda. This art…
Nothing on the Floor
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS HAVE MANY WAYS TO ACHIEVE their multiple goals of being reelected, making policy, and gaining power and prestige within their institution. Of these, roll call voting is the most visible and, many scholars argue, the most important signal that legislators send to their constituents, colleagues, and interest groups about their positions and achievements.1 Yet since 1790, and permanently since 1794, the U.S. Congress has included…
Booster seats
Recent years have seen increased attention to legislative capacity and performance, including the development of individual Legislative Effectiveness (LE) scores for the US Congress. In comparing new committee chairs' scores to their scores prior to becoming chair I find significant variation in the 'boost' that committees impart to their chairs' LE, including several committees that do not significantly boost their chairs' LE scores at all. This…
Emerging technologies and problem definition uncertainty
For governments to regulate, they must first define the problem and decide which policymakers have the authority to make decisions. Technological development can disrupt the authority‐allocation process by fostering uncertainty about which actors are responsible for making policy. This article examines the role that changing technology has played in the development of cybersecurity policy in the United States. New technologies have increased the …
Subsystems and ill‐fitting problems
Policy process scholars are increasingly attentive to issues that engage multiple subsystems, though they disagree on what the unit of analysis should be. Researchers have used the term “boundary spanning,” which already refers to a different class of institutions and actors, as well as variants of the terms wicked and messy problems without incorporating their full definitions. In this article, I argue that trans‐subsystem issues are better unde…
Views on the hill
Setting the decision agenda requires restricting information and focusing attention on specific issue dimensions. Agenda setting also carries opportunity costs: focusing on some issues and proposals means others go unaddressed. Agenda setting thus generates conflict about the choice of issues and selection of alternatives and proposals. Using data on “views” attached to U.S. Senate committee reports and Volden and Wiseman's legislative effectiven…
The decline of incrementalism in U.S. lawmaking
Punctuated equilibrium theory (PET) posits that policy change is incremental for long periods of time with occasional shifts in problem definition and governing authority that produce large changes. Incrementalism results from shared norms and standard operating procedures within policy subsystems. The U.S. Congress experienced a series of institutional changes in the 1990s that both introduced more partisanship into subsystem interactions and ma…
Not just the nation's hostess
The position of First Lady is typically viewed as ceremonial and a reflection of marital and maternal roles: some combination of “the president's wife,” the “nation's social hostess,” and the “Mom‐in‐Chief.” Yet modern First Ladies often develop their own policy priorities and programs, and the Office of the First Lady is integral to modern presidential administrations. We make a case for studying First Ladies as policy actors by systematically m…
The politics of problems versus solutions
Several theories of policy change posit that the politics of defining and prioritizing problems differs from the politics of devising and selecting solutions. The former involves simplifying through heuristics like indicators and ideology while the latter incorporates policy analysis and expertise to a greater degree. By employing two large datasets of U.S. congressional hearings to analyze policymakers' behavior of sending political messages, wh…
Expertise for emerging technology
Policy makers often struggle to adapt and respond to the uncertainties and ambiguities associated with new and emerging technologies. In such situations decision makers often widen their search for information and acquire more expertise in order to better define complex problems and to understand the potential consequences of proposed alternatives. I argue that acquiring information also carries social and symbolic value: having reports and other…
Big & rich
Policy process scholars often are interested in the relative diversity or concentration of attention across issues, or the relative participation of different groups and information sources within an issue domain or policy venue. Are policymakers devoting lots of attention to a small set of issues or dividing their attention more evenly across a larger agenda? Are a few groups dominating deliberation or is participation more evenly distributed am…
The influence of conflict on agenda setting in the US Congress
Agenda setting involves prioritisation: paying attention to some issues means others go unaddressed. Institutions develop divisions of labour to increase their attention capacity but making a decision requires focusing on one issue at a time, a move called the ‘serial shift’. Issues also represent different conflicts and ways of organising disagreement, so the serial shift involves prioritising and legitimising some disagreements above others. Th…
Try, Try Again
Muddle and Match
The Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) provides a systematic means of using narrative elements to describe how policymakers define issues, including characters, plot, and setting. In this article I introduce the concept of narrative coherence: the extent to which different narrative elements “fit” together in a logical way. Narrative coherence operates at three levels: facial validity across narrative elements, agreement across policy narrators, an…
Political science (18 works) · Law (16 works) · Law (13 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (10 works) · Politics (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Public Administration (9 works) · Policy Transfer and Learning (8 works) · Public Administration (8 works) · Legislature (7 works)