Read my recent Monkey Cage (Washington Post) analysis showing that the electoral penalty for ideological immoderation is alive and well. (These writings present political science analysis and not political advocacy.)
Published Research
Atkinson, Matthew D., Christopher Mann, Santiago Olivella, Arthur Simon, and Joseph Uscinski. 2014. "(Where) Do Campaigns Matter? The Impact of National Party Convention Location." Journal of Politics 76(4).
Uscinski, Joseph, Casey Klofstad, and Matthew D. Atkinson. Forthcoming. "What Drives Conspiratorial Beliefs? The Role of Informational Cues and Predispositions." Political Research Quarterly. (Pre-publication Draft)
Atkinson, Matthew D., Maria Deam, and Joseph Uscinski. 2014. "What's a Dog Story Worth?" PS: Political Science and Politics 47(4).
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Anthony Fowler. 2014. "Social Capital and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Saint's Day Fiestas in Mexico." British Journal of Political Science 44(1).
Atkinson, Matthew D., Ryan D. Enos, and Seth J. Hill. 2009. "Candidate Faces and Election Outcomes: Is the Face–-Vote Correlation Caused by Candidate Selection?" Quarterly Journal of Political Science 4(3).
Invited to Revise and Resubmit
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Snubbing Seth Rogen: Does celebrity testimony increase congressional hearing attendance?" Granted R&R at PS: Political Science and Politics.
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Celebrity Political Endorsements Matter." Granted R&R at Celebrity Studies.
Under Review
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Does Celebrity Issue Advocacy Mobilize Issue Publics?"
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt, "Informational Cascades and Conspiracy Theories." In Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them, ed. Joseph E. Uscinski, currently under consideration at Oxford University Press
Dissertation/Book Project
Political Alignments in America
Working Papers (available upon request)
"Senator Time Allocation Across the Election Cycle: Balancing Governance and Electoral Responsibilities in the Era of the Permanent Campaign" (with Darin DeWitt)
"The Bigger Sort: Partisanship, Residential Choice, and Political Polarization" (with Michael Tesler)
"Political Generations in America"
"What's Wrong with Our Politics?: Ideological Constraint, Retrospective Voting, and Political Dysfunction in America"
"Partisanship and Economic News Reporting"
"The Party (Alignment) Keeps On Going: Abortion and the Civil Rights Realignment"
"The Structure of Conflict and Cooperation in American Politics: The Electoral College and Its Implications"
"The Mutual Accommodation Premise of Political Parties"
- "If Republicans nominate a strong conservative, it could hurt them on Election Day. A lot."
- "If conservatives want the most conservative president, they should get behind Jeb Bush"
Published Research
Atkinson, Matthew D., Christopher Mann, Santiago Olivella, Arthur Simon, and Joseph Uscinski. 2014. "(Where) Do Campaigns Matter? The Impact of National Party Convention Location." Journal of Politics 76(4).
Uscinski, Joseph, Casey Klofstad, and Matthew D. Atkinson. Forthcoming. "What Drives Conspiratorial Beliefs? The Role of Informational Cues and Predispositions." Political Research Quarterly. (Pre-publication Draft)
Atkinson, Matthew D., Maria Deam, and Joseph Uscinski. 2014. "What's a Dog Story Worth?" PS: Political Science and Politics 47(4).
- Maria Deam collaborated with me as an undergraduate research assistant at the University of Miami.
- This article was the subject of a segment on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams.
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Anthony Fowler. 2014. "Social Capital and Voter Turnout: Evidence from Saint's Day Fiestas in Mexico." British Journal of Political Science 44(1).
Atkinson, Matthew D., Ryan D. Enos, and Seth J. Hill. 2009. "Candidate Faces and Election Outcomes: Is the Face–-Vote Correlation Caused by Candidate Selection?" Quarterly Journal of Political Science 4(3).
Invited to Revise and Resubmit
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Snubbing Seth Rogen: Does celebrity testimony increase congressional hearing attendance?" Granted R&R at PS: Political Science and Politics.
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Celebrity Political Endorsements Matter." Granted R&R at Celebrity Studies.
Under Review
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt. "Does Celebrity Issue Advocacy Mobilize Issue Publics?"
Atkinson, Matthew D. and Darin DeWitt, "Informational Cascades and Conspiracy Theories." In Conspiracy Theories and the People Who Believe Them, ed. Joseph E. Uscinski, currently under consideration at Oxford University Press
Dissertation/Book Project
Political Alignments in America
- Abstract This dissertation is about how issues get organized into partisan conflict in Congress. In the dissertation, I argue that the evolution of new presidential cleavages is the dominant cause of change in the alignments of all societal interests – even interests whose demands are unrelated to the evolutionary issue. The dissertation develops in three parts. The first part presents the theory of political alignments. Central to this theory are the ideas (a) that the parties facilitate logrolling among policy demanders and (b) that each group’s participation in a logrolling effort is contingent upon compatibility between the group’s policy demands and the preferences of other groups in the logroll. The second part of the dissertation tests the proposition that the party coalitions in Congress serve as “habitual channels of mutual accommodation” in which legislators accommodate the interests of their co-partisan colleagues. The final part of the dissertation tests the idea that continuity and change in the composition of the major parties is overwhelmingly explained by how evolutionary issues transform the compatibilities between policy demanding groups and their potential coalitional partners. I test this idea by analyzing how all the major issue domains in American politics were affected by the civil rights issue evolution (1960s), and by evaluating how the organization of defense policy into partisan conflict was affected in five different instances of a new presidential cleavage. Although most of my analysis is focused on the case of the civil rights issue evolution and on the organization of defense policy into partisan conflict, the argument I make is cast in general terms and can account for continuity and change in how all the major issue domains – and the policy demanding groups associated with them – are organized into American political conflict.
Working Papers (available upon request)
"Senator Time Allocation Across the Election Cycle: Balancing Governance and Electoral Responsibilities in the Era of the Permanent Campaign" (with Darin DeWitt)
"The Bigger Sort: Partisanship, Residential Choice, and Political Polarization" (with Michael Tesler)
"Political Generations in America"
"What's Wrong with Our Politics?: Ideological Constraint, Retrospective Voting, and Political Dysfunction in America"
"Partisanship and Economic News Reporting"
"The Party (Alignment) Keeps On Going: Abortion and the Civil Rights Realignment"
"The Structure of Conflict and Cooperation in American Politics: The Electoral College and Its Implications"
"The Mutual Accommodation Premise of Political Parties"