William O’brochta
Biographic Data
| ID | 4122384 |
|---|---|
| NAME | William O’brochta |
| GIVEN NAMES | William |
| FAMILY NAME | O’brochta |
| SIGNATURE | O’BROCHTA W |
| AFFILIATIONS | Washington University in St. Louis |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-9907-301X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
How Human Coding Is Used and Described
Human coding remains an important part of the data-generating process for many political scientists. Yet, we lack a systematic understanding of how researchers approach and describe the human coding process. I analyze published articles in major political science journals from 2010 to 2024 that mention human coders ( N = 258). While articles largely state some form of intercoder reliability measure, a substantial percentage of articles lack minim…
Social Benefits Motivate Young Adult Civic Engagement
Civic engagement benefits both participants and society, but what motivates young adults to decide to become civically engaged? A cost-benefit analysis concludes that resumé-building is a major motivator for young adult civic engagement participation because it has more visible short-term impacts compared to social or community motivators. Using a preregistered survey experiment and follow-up focus groups fielded to college students, I demonstrat…
Language Cues and Perceptions of Nationalism
How do people respond to symbols related to nationalism, and does having political context matter? We argue that nationalist symbols influence perceptions when in a political context. Leveraging that the Serbian language can be rendered in Cyrillic and Latin, and Cyrillic is associated with nationalism, we examine the use of linguistic symbols in Serbia. Using social media data, we demonstrate that politicians employ Cyrillic to discuss topics tr…
Gendered ideologies, gendered perceptions
Politicians and parties employ nationalist symbols to attract public support in elections worldwide. Robust evidence indicates that the public perceives women politicians as more liberal than men politicians. The association between politicians' gender and perceived ideology, combined with the close relationship between nationalism and radical right parties, prompts the question: how do individuals evaluate women politicians when they use nationa…
Public discourse about autonomous regions and de facto states
Public discourse about autonomous regions and de facto ‐‐‐ or unrecognized ‐‐‐ states can influence the policies that parent states adopt to respond to these entities. I theorize that public discourse about autonomous regions will underscore commonalities with the parent state. Public discourse about de facto states will treat the state as a separate entity. I employ newspaper data as a measure of public discourse about Adjara and Abkhazia, Georg…
Lower-Stakes Legislative Collaborations, Ethnicity, and Gender
How do legislators decide with whom to collaborate? I argue that legislative collaborations are shaped by ethnicity and gender, with legislators from dominant ethnic groups and men legislators having more opportunities to collaborate than non-dominant legislators. These dynamics are likely present even when the nature of the collaboration is not particularly electorally salient. I test this hypothesis using newly collected data on question-asking…
Quantifying and Contextualizing Violent Collective Action Event Datasets
How does newspaper-based event data compare to a government data source? While scholars have long recognized the importance of and biases present in newspaper-based event data, few studies have compared newspaper reports with official government data to better understand the severity and impact of such biases. We develop this comparison in the context of riots, a form of violent collective action that represents an important middle ground between…
Elite Responses to Ethnic Diversity and Interethnic Contact
Can Policy Responses to Pandemics Reduce Mass Fear
To successfully address large-scale public health threats such as the novel coronavirus outbreak, policymakers need to limit feelings of fear that threaten social order and political stability. We study how policy responses to an infectious disease affect mass fear using data from a survey experiment conducted on a representative sample of the adult population in the USA (N = 5,461). We find that fear is affected strongly by the final policy outc…
Small-Scale Civic Engagement with Big Impacts
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
Politicians' complaint response
When do politicians respond to individuals' public service complaints? Technological solutions—termed e‐governance—have been shown to help increase responsiveness in some developing nations where they serve to connect individuals, politicians, and bureaucrats for the first time. I argue that in country‐contexts like India, where personal connections to bureaucrats and politicians are common, politicians are less responsive to complaints registere…
Ethnic representational priorities and political engagement in deeply divided societies
When do individuals in deeply divided societies participate in political activities aimed at increasing ethnic representation in cabinet ministries? I develop a cost–benefit framework to explain political engagement based on individuals' ethnic group membership and preferences for descriptive and substantive representation in cabinet ministries. Drawing on an original survey in North Macedonia, I find that ethnic Macedonians who value substantive…
Western Political Rhetoric and Radicalization
Does anti-Muslim rhetoric by Western politicians breed radical attitudes among European Muslims? This article explores this question by conducting an experimental study in Bosnia – a European democracy, where, unlike the rest of Europe, Muslims are neither immigrants nor socio-economically disadvantaged. This helps clearly identify the radicalization potential of Western rhetoric alone, absent contextual factors such as social inferiority. Experi…
Do Peers respond? Attendance and critical events
Signaling Democratic Progress through Electoral System Reform in Post-Communist States
The international community invests heavily in democracy promotion, but these efforts sometimes embolden leaders not interested in true democratic reform. We develop and test a formal model explaining why this occurs in the context of electoral system reform—one of the most important signals of democratic quality. Our formal model characterizes leaders as either truly reform minded or pseudo-reformers, those who increase electoral system proporti…
Citizen Responses to Ethnic Representation
Can country leaders improve citizens’ ethnic outgroup views by changing ethnic representation in government? Years of pressure from the international community calling for leaders to make particularly their cabinets more ethnically representative seems to suggest that ethnic representation—conceptualized as descriptive and substantive representation and ministerial cooperation—is key to improving citizens’ outgroup views. I argue that increasing …
Technology and Collective Action Event Size
Ethnic diversity in central government cabinets
Why is there so much variation in the ethnic composition of cabinets? Previous work has focused on cabinet policy alignment, largely overlooking the role of identity-based characteristics like ethnicity. I theorize that country leaders make ethnic cabinet appointments to gain political support, both when country-level ethnic diversity is high and when ethnic groups rely on leader decisions in order to receive resources. Cabinet appointments offer…
A meta-analysis of natural resources and conflict
The relationship between natural resource wealth and civil conflict remains unclear, despite prolonged scholarly attention. Conducting a meta-analysis—a quantitative literature review—can help synthesize this broad and disparate field to provide clearer directions for future research. Meta-analysis tools determine both the aggregate effect of natural resources on conflict and whether any particular ways in which variables are measured systematica…
Regional autonomy in rich regions
Previous models of individuals’ preferences for decentralization have focused on either economic- or identity-based motivations. In some cases, however, elites in rich regions with high inequality prefer decentralization contrary to their economic preferences. This paper proposes a model to explain these instances by focusing on the preferences of self-interested elites who manipulate a strong regional identity for personal gain. I develop the hy…
Did natural resource wealth motivate fighting in the Bosnian War
Ethnic diversity in central government cabinets
Why is there so much variation in the ethnic composition of cabinets? Previous work has focused on cabinet policy alignment, largely overlooking the role of identity-based characteristics like ethnicity. I theorize that country leaders make ethnic cabinet appointments to gain political support, both when country-level ethnic diversity is high and when ethnic groups rely on leader decisions in order to receive resources. Cabinet appointments offer…
A meta-analysis of natural resources and conflict
The relationship between natural resource wealth and civil conflict remains unclear, despite prolonged scholarly attention. Conducting a meta-analysis—a quantitative literature review—can help synthesize this broad and disparate field to provide clearer directions for future research. Meta-analysis tools determine both the aggregate effect of natural resources on conflict and whether any particular ways in which variables are measured systematica…
Language Cues and Perceptions of Nationalism
How do people respond to symbols related to nationalism, and does having political context matter? We argue that nationalist symbols influence perceptions when in a political context. Leveraging that the Serbian language can be rendered in Cyrillic and Latin, and Cyrillic is associated with nationalism, we examine the use of linguistic symbols in Serbia. Using social media data, we demonstrate that politicians employ Cyrillic to discuss topics tr…
Gendered ideologies, gendered perceptions
Politicians and parties employ nationalist symbols to attract public support in elections worldwide. Robust evidence indicates that the public perceives women politicians as more liberal than men politicians. The association between politicians' gender and perceived ideology, combined with the close relationship between nationalism and radical right parties, prompts the question: how do individuals evaluate women politicians when they use nationa…
Elite Responses to Ethnic Diversity and Interethnic Contact
Politicians' complaint response
When do politicians respond to individuals' public service complaints? Technological solutions—termed e‐governance—have been shown to help increase responsiveness in some developing nations where they serve to connect individuals, politicians, and bureaucrats for the first time. I argue that in country‐contexts like India, where personal connections to bureaucrats and politicians are common, politicians are less responsive to complaints registere…
Ethnic representational priorities and political engagement in deeply divided societies
When do individuals in deeply divided societies participate in political activities aimed at increasing ethnic representation in cabinet ministries? I develop a cost–benefit framework to explain political engagement based on individuals' ethnic group membership and preferences for descriptive and substantive representation in cabinet ministries. Drawing on an original survey in North Macedonia, I find that ethnic Macedonians who value substantive…
Western Political Rhetoric and Radicalization
Does anti-Muslim rhetoric by Western politicians breed radical attitudes among European Muslims? This article explores this question by conducting an experimental study in Bosnia – a European democracy, where, unlike the rest of Europe, Muslims are neither immigrants nor socio-economically disadvantaged. This helps clearly identify the radicalization potential of Western rhetoric alone, absent contextual factors such as social inferiority. Experi…
Do Peers respond? Attendance and critical events
Citizen Responses to Ethnic Representation
Can country leaders improve citizens’ ethnic outgroup views by changing ethnic representation in government? Years of pressure from the international community calling for leaders to make particularly their cabinets more ethnically representative seems to suggest that ethnic representation—conceptualized as descriptive and substantive representation and ministerial cooperation—is key to improving citizens’ outgroup views. I argue that increasing …
Did natural resource wealth motivate fighting in the Bosnian War
Regional autonomy in rich regions
Previous models of individuals’ preferences for decentralization have focused on either economic- or identity-based motivations. In some cases, however, elites in rich regions with high inequality prefer decentralization contrary to their economic preferences. This paper proposes a model to explain these instances by focusing on the preferences of self-interested elites who manipulate a strong regional identity for personal gain. I develop the hy…
A meta-analysis of natural resources and conflict
The relationship between natural resource wealth and civil conflict remains unclear, despite prolonged scholarly attention. Conducting a meta-analysis—a quantitative literature review—can help synthesize this broad and disparate field to provide clearer directions for future research. Meta-analysis tools determine both the aggregate effect of natural resources on conflict and whether any particular ways in which variables are measured systematica…
Ethnic diversity in central government cabinets
Why is there so much variation in the ethnic composition of cabinets? Previous work has focused on cabinet policy alignment, largely overlooking the role of identity-based characteristics like ethnicity. I theorize that country leaders make ethnic cabinet appointments to gain political support, both when country-level ethnic diversity is high and when ethnic groups rely on leader decisions in order to receive resources. Cabinet appointments offer…
Do Peers respond? Attendance and critical events
Signaling Democratic Progress through Electoral System Reform in Post-Communist States
The international community invests heavily in democracy promotion, but these efforts sometimes embolden leaders not interested in true democratic reform. We develop and test a formal model explaining why this occurs in the context of electoral system reform—one of the most important signals of democratic quality. Our formal model characterizes leaders as either truly reform minded or pseudo-reformers, those who increase electoral system proporti…
Citizen Responses to Ethnic Representation
Can country leaders improve citizens’ ethnic outgroup views by changing ethnic representation in government? Years of pressure from the international community calling for leaders to make particularly their cabinets more ethnically representative seems to suggest that ethnic representation—conceptualized as descriptive and substantive representation and ministerial cooperation—is key to improving citizens’ outgroup views. I argue that increasing …
Technology and Collective Action Event Size
Can Policy Responses to Pandemics Reduce Mass Fear
To successfully address large-scale public health threats such as the novel coronavirus outbreak, policymakers need to limit feelings of fear that threaten social order and political stability. We study how policy responses to an infectious disease affect mass fear using data from a survey experiment conducted on a representative sample of the adult population in the USA (N = 5,461). We find that fear is affected strongly by the final policy outc…
Small-Scale Civic Engagement with Big Impacts
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
Politicians' complaint response
When do politicians respond to individuals' public service complaints? Technological solutions—termed e‐governance—have been shown to help increase responsiveness in some developing nations where they serve to connect individuals, politicians, and bureaucrats for the first time. I argue that in country‐contexts like India, where personal connections to bureaucrats and politicians are common, politicians are less responsive to complaints registere…
Ethnic representational priorities and political engagement in deeply divided societies
When do individuals in deeply divided societies participate in political activities aimed at increasing ethnic representation in cabinet ministries? I develop a cost–benefit framework to explain political engagement based on individuals' ethnic group membership and preferences for descriptive and substantive representation in cabinet ministries. Drawing on an original survey in North Macedonia, I find that ethnic Macedonians who value substantive…
Western Political Rhetoric and Radicalization
Does anti-Muslim rhetoric by Western politicians breed radical attitudes among European Muslims? This article explores this question by conducting an experimental study in Bosnia – a European democracy, where, unlike the rest of Europe, Muslims are neither immigrants nor socio-economically disadvantaged. This helps clearly identify the radicalization potential of Western rhetoric alone, absent contextual factors such as social inferiority. Experi…
Elite Responses to Ethnic Diversity and Interethnic Contact
Gendered ideologies, gendered perceptions
Politicians and parties employ nationalist symbols to attract public support in elections worldwide. Robust evidence indicates that the public perceives women politicians as more liberal than men politicians. The association between politicians' gender and perceived ideology, combined with the close relationship between nationalism and radical right parties, prompts the question: how do individuals evaluate women politicians when they use nationa…
Public discourse about autonomous regions and de facto states
Public discourse about autonomous regions and de facto ‐‐‐ or unrecognized ‐‐‐ states can influence the policies that parent states adopt to respond to these entities. I theorize that public discourse about autonomous regions will underscore commonalities with the parent state. Public discourse about de facto states will treat the state as a separate entity. I employ newspaper data as a measure of public discourse about Adjara and Abkhazia, Georg…
Lower-Stakes Legislative Collaborations, Ethnicity, and Gender
How do legislators decide with whom to collaborate? I argue that legislative collaborations are shaped by ethnicity and gender, with legislators from dominant ethnic groups and men legislators having more opportunities to collaborate than non-dominant legislators. These dynamics are likely present even when the nature of the collaboration is not particularly electorally salient. I test this hypothesis using newly collected data on question-asking…
Quantifying and Contextualizing Violent Collective Action Event Datasets
How does newspaper-based event data compare to a government data source? While scholars have long recognized the importance of and biases present in newspaper-based event data, few studies have compared newspaper reports with official government data to better understand the severity and impact of such biases. We develop this comparison in the context of riots, a form of violent collective action that represents an important middle ground between…
How Human Coding Is Used and Described
Human coding remains an important part of the data-generating process for many political scientists. Yet, we lack a systematic understanding of how researchers approach and describe the human coding process. I analyze published articles in major political science journals from 2010 to 2024 that mention human coders ( N = 258). While articles largely state some form of intercoder reliability measure, a substantial percentage of articles lack minim…
Social Benefits Motivate Young Adult Civic Engagement
Civic engagement benefits both participants and society, but what motivates young adults to decide to become civically engaged? A cost-benefit analysis concludes that resumé-building is a major motivator for young adult civic engagement participation because it has more visible short-term impacts compared to social or community motivators. Using a preregistered survey experiment and follow-up focus groups fielded to college students, I demonstrat…
Language Cues and Perceptions of Nationalism
How do people respond to symbols related to nationalism, and does having political context matter? We argue that nationalist symbols influence perceptions when in a political context. Leveraging that the Serbian language can be rendered in Cyrillic and Latin, and Cyrillic is associated with nationalism, we examine the use of linguistic symbols in Serbia. Using social media data, we demonstrate that politicians employ Cyrillic to discuss topics tr…
Political science (19 works) · Law (15 works) · Law (15 works) · Politics (15 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Electoral Systems and Political Participation (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Ethnic group (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works)