Scholars of American politics have long been skeptical of ordinary citizens' capacity to
influence, let alone control, their governments. Drawing on over eight decades of state-level …

The link between public opinion and public policy is of special importance in representative
democracies, as we expect elected officials to care about what voters think. Not surprisingly …

Around the world, there are increasing concerns about the accuracy of media coverage. It is
vital in representative democracies that citizens have access to reliable information about …

This article advances a theory that brings real-world outcomes into our current
understanding of the dynamic relationship between public opinion and policy. It examines a …

How do conflicts within a country's borders affect its behavior beyond them? We argue that
fighting insurgencies at home shapes a country's human rights posture at the UN Human …

Public evaluations of the economy are key for understanding how citizens develop policy
opinions and monitor government performance. But what drives economic evaluations? In …

Political candidates communicate across a wide number of platforms during their
campaigns, including television, Facebook, Twitter, debates, radio, and newspapers …

This dissertation advances a theory that brings real-world outcomes into our current
understanding of the public opinion--policy responsiveness dynamic in both democratic and …

Most issues of hyper partisanship, such as health care, yield a strong constituency for action
on the issue; the low salience of climate change, however, has failed to produce much …