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SAGE Journal Articles

SJ-userguide.pdf

Article 1: Osborn, T. (June 2014). Women State Legislators and Representation: The Role of Political Parties and Institutions. State and Local Government Review 46(2). 146-155.

This article discusses the research on women legislators in the United States and how that research has made significant progress toward understanding how women legislators affect public policies. The author contributes to the research by examining legislative variations and how they affect policy making.

Questions to Consider:

1. Do parties matter?
2. How can leadership help women increase their institutional power?
3. What challenges for future research were identified by the author?

Learning objective: Describe the role parties play in making government policy; Give examples of ways in which parties serve (or fail to serve) citizens in the American electorate

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Article 2: Nownes, A. J. (May 2012). An Experimental Investigation of the Effects of Celebrity Support for Political Parties in the United States. American Politics Research 40(3). 476-500.

In this article, the author discusses the effects of celebrity support for political parties in the U.S. Using results from a pretest-posttest control group experiment, the author finds that celebrity political activity is more likely to influence citizens views of political parties than it is to affect either citizens’ vote choices or views of individual candidates.

Questions to Consider:

1. Do you believe celebrities matter? Are celebrity endorsements significant for candidates?
2. Identify the author’s hypotheses. What methodology is used to test these hypotheses?
3. How does meaning transfer theory affect party identification?

Learning objective: Explain how parties connect citizens and government; Describe the role parties play in making government policy

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Article 3: Oliver, W. M. and Marion, N. E. (December 2008). Political Party Platforms: Symbolic Politics and Criminal Justice Policy. Criminal Justice Policy Review 19(4). 397-413.

This article discusses political parties and their use of platforms to make symbolic statements. In using data from the American Presidency Project and the American Reference Library the authors were able to conduct an analysis of part platforms as they relate to criminal justice issues.

Questions to Consider:

1. What are symbolic policies? Identify their functions.
2. How is symbolic language used by parties and their platforms?
3. How much influence can political parties have on issues such as crime?

Learning objective: Describe the role parties play in making government policy; Give examples of ways in which parties serve (or fail to serve) citizens in the American electorate

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CQ Researcher

• Parties and Polarization

Learning objective: Give examples of ways in which parties serve (or fail to serve) citizens in the American electorate