Thomas Gray

Biographic Data

ID3967802
NAMEThomas Gray
GIVEN NAMESThomas
FAMILY NAMEGray
SIGNATUREGRAY T
AFFILIATIONSThe University of Texas at Dallas
ORCID0000-0003-0281-4123
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS40
TOTAL CITATIONS43
AUTHOR COUNT40
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR1742
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2025
H-INDEX4

  • Estimating Disenfranchisement in US Elections, 1870–1970

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEPerspectives on Politics2025Cited by: 1References: 21

    While it is commonly understood that the poll tax and literacy tests, among other measures, were used effectively in the South to disenfranchise Black voters from the late nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century, what is not well known is how much those disenfranchising laws mattered. Specifically, how much did the enactment of poll taxes or literacy tests affect turnout in federal and state elections? And how much did those disenfranchising…

  • The Twitter Blackout: Do congressional rules influence the cyberworld

    Open AccessCarlos Daniel Gutierrez Mannix, Thomas Gray et al.ARTICLESocial Science Quarterly2024References: 24

    Intro Communication is understood to be a pillar of democracy. Therefore, governments around the world enact laws which make it easier for politicians to communicate with their constituents. However, some governments also restrict this ability during campaign seasons as a way of unclogging the media. In the United States, congressional election blackout dates are periods in which politicians are not allowed to engage in mass unsolicited mailing o…

  • Retrospective Voting in the Premodern World: The Case of Natural Disasters in the Roman Republic

    Thomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEJournal of Historical Political…2022

    Political scientists frequently debate how “blind” retrospective voting is in the modern world, and the extent to which voters punish or reward officials for things beyond their control, such as disastrous flooding. Results vary based on the time and location of the study, as well as methodology. We test these arguments in a radically different time and place: the Roman Republic between 218 and 166 B.C.E. We articulate a clear theoretical expecta…

  • Spillover Effects in Political Advertising: Evidence from Judicial Elections

    Thomas Gray, Adam G HughesARTICLEJournal of Political Marketing2022References: 19

    We develop a simple theory of information spillovers within political advertising: individuals use information conveyed by candidate-specific ads to evaluate other candidates seeking different offices. We test the theory by linking state court of last resort election returns with a complete set of gubernatorial, congressional, and state supreme court political advertisements in 2010. We show that up-ballot advertisements about crime have spillove…

  • The direct election of senators and the emergence of the modern presidency

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEPolitical Science Research and…2022References: 19

    Research on presidential power delineates between a modern era of relative autonomy and an earlier period of congressional dominance. What drove this change? Unlike prior arguments about presidential entrepreneurship and the rise of the United States as a global power, we attribute the emergence of the modern presidency partially to an institutional change—the adoption of direct election of senators that culminated in the 17th Amendment. With dir…

  • Messaging, policy and “credible” votes: Do members of Congress vote differently when policy is on the line

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Policy2022Cited by: 2References: 15

    Many recorded roll calls in Congress each year are votes on bills that have no chance of becoming law, or are purely symbolic, or are procedural without policy content. Yet models of voting and measurement models of member preferences make assumptions that vote choices are largely about utility derived from policies. We consider the possibility that votes plausibly connected to policy and votes not plausibly connected to policy may have different…

  • Lineage or Legions? Explaining Imperial Rule Duration in the Roman Empire

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEInternational Studies Quarterly2022Cited by: 1References: 46

    One widely derided aspect of autocratic regimes is that they frequently feature nepotistic systems for political organization and management of power transfers, with inexperienced or unqualified individuals taking power solely because of their familial relation to the prior ruler. Such systems are thought to be more unstable and ineffective, reducing desirable outcomes for autocratic leaders, as well as the states they govern. We argue that this …

  • Swineherds and Hogs on Ice: Leadership Impacts for State Chief Judges

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Banks MillerARTICLEAmerican Politics Research2021References: 15

    Chief judges stand as visible leaders of their courts. Analyses of the Supreme Court focus on the role of the chief justice as an institution-builder seeking out public-facing consensus to protect Court legitimacy. Studying the powers of chief judges and political leadership in general is difficult. Analyzing all 50 states over 16 years we find no evidence that the identity of chief judges explains consensus behavior any better than random chance…

  • Twitter and the electoral connection

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Carlos Daniel Gutierrez Mannix et al.ARTICLESocial Science Quarterly2021Cited by: 1References: 18

    Objective U.S. politicians use social media to engage directly with citizens, though the motivations that determine the choice to use social media remain opaque. We argue that there is a clear “electoral connection” in using social media that exceeds the influence of other motivations. Politicians use social media to cultivate support from electorally relevant actors. Methods We analyze Twitter usage from 2017 to 2020 by state attorneys general (…

  • Congress and the Political Economy of the National Endowment for the Arts

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLESocial Science Quarterly2021References: 5

    Objective We examine the relationship between the Congress and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), from the agency's inception in the mid‐1960s to the present. The NEA has seen its fortunes rise and fall over time, as congressional appropriations and scrutiny have fluctuated with ideological and partisan change in the House and Senate. Methods We use Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and logistic regression models to examine the politics of the…

  • Vox Populi: Popular Politics before Liberal Democracy

    Thomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEThe Journal of Politics2020Cited by: 1References: 15

  • A Bridge Too Far? Examining Bridging Assumptions in Common‐Space Estimations

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLELegislative Studies Quarterly2020Cited by: 2References: 15

    While most common‐space estimations rely upon members who served in both the House and Senate as “bridges” to scale the remaining members, this assumes that these “bridge members” do not change their preferences when they change chambers. Such an assumption conflicts with standard notions of representation, that is, that legislators’ votes reflect (at least to some degree) the wishes of their constituents. We examine the constancy of this common‐…

  • Congress and the Political Economy of Daylight Saving Time, 1918–1985

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLESocial Science Quarterly2019References: 12

    Objective Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a government policy regulating the timing of daylight during the summer months. While DST's existence is taken for granted in modern American life, the adoption and expansion of the policy was heavily debated, with strong opposition that persists to the present day—a full century after its inception as a World War I energy‐efficiency program. After reviewing the history of DST, we analyze the political econ…

  • Pivotal Politics and the ideological content of Landmark Laws

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEJournal of Public Policy2019Cited by: 7References: 34

    The Pivotal Politics model (Krehbiel) has significantly influenced the study of American politics, but its core empirical prediction – that the size of the gridlock interval is negatively related to legislative productivity – has not found strong empirical support. We argue that previous research featured a disconnect between the exclusively ideological theory and tests that relied on outcome variables that were not purely ideological. We remedy …

  • Gray to West

    Thomas Gray, PAGET TOYNBEE et al.CHAPTERCorrespondence of Thomas Gray2018

    "110*. Gray to West" published on by null.

  • Gray to Mason

    Thomas Gray, PAGET TOYNBEE et al.CHAPTERCorrespondence of Thomas Gray2018

    "165.* Gray to Mason" published on by null.

  • Advertising Ideology: Using Crowd-Sourced Measurement to Understand Campaigns

    Andrew J Clarke, Thomas Gray et al.ARTICLEJournal of Political Marketing2018References: 20

    We develop a subjective measure of candidate ideology in political communication, based on human coders evaluations of ideological position-taking in campaign advertisements. Our dynamic measure allows researchers to track campaign strategies within an election cycle and across ideologically distinct groups of voters. As an application of our approach, we analyze candidates ideological brand building in US House and Senate elections in 2010 and f…

  • Causal Inference from Pivotal Politics Theories

    Andrew J Clarke, Thomas Gray et al.ARTICLEThe Journal of Politics2018Cited by: 6References: 18

    We review attempts to evaluate Pivotal Politics and related theories in light of the social sciences’ movement toward causal empiricism. To accommodate limitations of available data, most existing empirical approaches require additional assumptions about key variables. Moreover, it is difficult to find sources of exogenous variation in causal factors of interest. Although causal empiricism and pivotal politics theories share a focus on counterfac…

  • Public Perception of the Presidential Toolkit

    Open AccessKenneth Lowande, Thomas GrayARTICLEPresidential Studies Quarterly2017Cited by: 14References: 14

    Studies of unilateral power typically analyze a single tool of presidential action (e.g., executive orders, memoranda, proclamations, and signing statements) in relative isolation. But scholars have long recognized that presidents boast a diverse toolkit with particular actions possessing variable suitability for a given political circumstance. We investigate one mechanism by which presidents may choose one tool over another: political cost. Spec…

  • Unpacking pivotal politics: Exploring the differential effects of the filibuster and veto pivots

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Thomas R Gray et al.ARTICLEPublic Choice2017Cited by: 1References: 10

  • The Influence of Legislative Reappointment on State Supreme Court Decision-Making

    Open AccessThomas GrayARTICLEState Politics & Policy Quarterly2017Cited by: 6References: 27

    Most state supreme court justices have time-bound terms that require them to be reappointed or reelected after a certain amount of time. In three American states, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia, the legislature has the sole power to retain justices. Legislatures, and their specialized judiciary committees, are well positioned to monitor judicial behavior and can reject retention for justices who are unacceptable. This turns the legislature…

  • Implementing Innovations: A Model to Bridge the Gap Between Diffusion and Utilization

    Open AccessCynthia Roberts‐Gray, Cynthia Roberts-Gray et al.ARTICLEKnowledge1983Cited by: 1References: 11

    In this article a schematic model is developed to describe the processes, determinants, and required elements of support for programmed implementation of innovations in organizational settings. Implications for planning and managing programmed implementation are discussed. Integration of this model, or similar ones, into the normal practices for knowledge creation and diffusion should result in improved utilization and thereby improved return on …

  • Land Reform in Pakistan: A Critical Issue for Future Development

    Salman Aziz, Thomas Gray et al.ARTICLEComparative Studies of South Asia…1981References: 1

    Research Article| August 01 1981 Land Reform in Pakistan: A Critical Issue for Future Development? Salman Aziz; Salman Aziz Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Thomas Gray Thomas Gray Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East (1981) 1 (2): 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1215/07323867-1-2-36 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Mai…

  • Structuring Bureaucratic Rules to Enhance Compliance

    Open AccessThomas Gray, Cynthia Roberts‐Gray et al.ARTICLEPsychological Reports1979

    To test the hypothesis that certain structural characteristics of bureaucratic rules affect their ability to control participants' behavior, two experiments were conducted to measure compliance with rules of different structural types. In both experiments the rule types were the simple rule statement, statement plus designation of an enforcing agent, plus sanctions for compliance, plus sanctions for enforcement. In the first experiment faculty an…

  • The Complete Poems of Thomas Gray: English, Latin and Greek: English, Latin and Greek

    Thomas Gray, H W Starr et al.BOOKComplete Poems (Oxford English…1966