Campaign reform : insights and evidence

270 Pages·2000·13.557 MB·English

by  Vavreck, Lynn, Bartels, Larry M.

Campaign Reform

Campaign Reform
Insights and Evidence
Edited by
Larry M. Bartels
and
Lynn Vavreck
Ann Arbor
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICIDGAN PREss
Copyright © by the University of Michigan 2000
All rights reserved
Published in the United States of America by
The University of Michigan Press
Manufactured in the United States of America
@ Printed on acid-free paper
2003 2002 2001 2000 432
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, or otherwise, without the written
permission of the publisher.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Campaign reform: insights and evidence / edited by Larry M. Bartels and
Lynn Vavreck.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-472-09731-8 (cloth: alk. paper) - ISBN 0-472-06731-1
(pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Political campaigns-United States. 2. Elections-United States.
I. Bartels, Larry M., 195&- II. Vavreck, Lynn, 1968-
JK2281 .C29 2000
324. T0973-dc21 00-044313
ISBN13 978-0-472-09731-9 (cloth)
ISBN13 978-0-472-06731-2 (paper)
ISBN13 978-0-472-02730-9 (electronic)
Contents
Preface vii
Chapter 1. Campaign Quality: Standards for
Evaluation, Benchmarks for Reform
Larry M. Bartels
Chapter 2. Assessing Attack Advertising: A Silver Lining 62
John G. Geer
Chapter 3. How Does It All "Turnout"? Exposure to
Attack Advertising, Campaign Interest, and Participation
in American Presidential Elections 79
Lynn Vavreck
Chapter 4. Watching the Adwatches 106
Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul A. Waldman
Chapter 5. Shifting the Balance: Journalist versus
Candidate Communication in the 1996 Presidential Campaign 122
Marion Just, Tami Buhr, and Ann Crigler
Chapter 6. Is Reform Really Necessary? A Closer Look
at News Media Coverage, Candidate Events, and
Presidential Votes 145
Daron R. Shaw
Chapter 7. Regime Support and Campaign Reform 173
Bruce Buchanan
Chapter 8. Campaign Reform: Insights and Evidence
Report of the Task Force on Campaign Reform 201
Task Force Members 249
Index 253

Preface
The Task Force on Campaign Reform was commissioned by The Pew
Charitable Trusts to contribute the scholarly expertise of leading political
scientists to the public debate on campaign reform. The task force gath
ered periodically over a fifteen-month period in Chicago, Washington, and
Princeton to deliberate about the state of the political process, the practi
cal implications of academic research on campaigns and elections, and the
likely consequences and prospects of proposed reforms of the campaign
process. This volume presents the fruits of those efforts.
Larry Bartels's introductory chapter on campaign quality provides a
theoretical and historical overview of the issues at stake in campaign
reform. Bartels develops a variety of normative standards for evaluating
campaign discourse and systematically applies those standards to data on
the content of campaigns and media coverage, citizens' attitudes, and vot
ers' behavior in presidential elections of the past five decades. This chapter
was originally presented at a roundtable session at the 1997 annual meet
ing of the American Political Science Association, with stimulating com
mentaries by E. J. Dionne Jr., Shanto Iyengar, Stanley Kelley Jr., and
Thomas Mann.
The subsequent chapters by John Geer; Lynn Vavreck; Kathleen
Jamieson and Paul Waldman; Marion Just, Tami Buhr, and Ann Crigler;
Daron Shaw; and Bruce Buchanan explore a variety of more specific issues
relevant to the reform agenda. All of these chapters were originally pre
sented and critiqued at a conference on campaign reform convened in
Princeton in June 1998.
Geer's chapter presents an ambitious, systematic examination of the
content of campaign advertising, finding a silver lining in the significant
issue content of attack ads, which many campaign observers have dis
missed as vacuous and corrosive. Vavreck estimates the impact of cam
paign negativity on public interest and electoral turnout in recent presi
dential elections, concluding that "attacks are not causing voters to stay
away from the polls, nor are they the roots of declining interest in cam
paigns." Jamieson and Waldman evaluate the impact of campaign
adwatches, providing strong circumstantial evidence from recent presiden-
Preface
V1I1
tial campaigns and from the campaign surrounding President Clinton's
proposed health care reform that such adwatches deter campaigners from
making false or unfair claims. Each of these chapters poses an important
challenge to conventional wisdom about the nature and impact of cam
paign advertising and helps to buttress the task force's rather unconven
tional views regarding the role of advertising in contemporary campaigns
and what to do about it.
Just, Buhr, and Crigler's and Shaw's chapters focus more broadly on
media coverage and campaign events. Just and her colleagues contrast the
"candidate agenda" in the 1996 presidential election with the "media
agenda": the authors' extensive content analysis demonstrates that "old"
and "new" media alike focused most of their attention on campaign strat
egy and process, whereas candidate-controlled communications (speeches,
ads, debates, and free airtime) were generally more substantive. Con
versely, Shaw examines the interaction between candidates' actions and
how the media report them, tracing changes in vote intentions in the 1992
and 1996 presidential campaigns to favorable media coverage of
significant campaign events. Together, these two analyses highlight what is
at stake in the struggle between candidates and journalists for control of
the campaign agenda as well as the limitations of what either side alone
can accomplish in a strategic environment marked by both conflict and
cooperation.
Buchanan's chapter takes up some of the broad institutional and cul
tural issues raised in Bartels's opening chapter. Buchanan argues that
declining turnout. trust in government, and faith in the electoral process
represent long-term threats to American democracy but that campaign
reform could contribute to effective political socialization by promoting
"civic investment" by citizens. He emphasizes the positive association
between investment behavior-learning and voting-on one hand and
regime-supportive attitudes on the other and advocates specific reforms
that show some promise of mobilizing citizens despite weak individual
incentives for participation and variable situational stimuli.
The capstone of our efforts, and of the present volume. is the collec
tive report of the Task Force on Campaign Reform. It draws on the
research of task force members presented in the preceding chapters but
also (and more importantly) on a much broader range of research by
scholars of electoral politics, voting behavior. and political communica
tion. It reflects the task force members' shared understanding of how well
contemporary political campaigns satisfy the needs of American democ
racy--and how they might do better. The task force report was released in
September 1998 and has been circulated widely among reformers, political
activists. journalists, and political scientists.
Preface ix
We are doubly grateful-first as the task force's chair and executive
director, respectively, and again as the editors of this volume-for the will
ingness of our distinguished colleagues to contribute so much time and
expertise to this long and multifaceted collective effort. The enthusiasm
and professionalism with which they applied themselves to the campaign
reform agenda and to the scholarly issues it raised will be evident to read
ers of the task force report and of the background papers collected here.
The task force was aided in its work by the students in a policy work
shop on campaign reform directed by the two of us in the fall of 1997 in
Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and Interna
tional Affairs. The workshop was composed of eight master's degree can
didates in the Woodrow Wilson School: Wendy C. Berry, DeAngela J.
Burns, Jennifer Kim, Jose Quinones, Richard S. Sheres, Daniel S. Volchok,
Christopher Walker, and Robert Witajewski. These students sampled the
academic literature on campaigns and elections; met with scholars, politi
cians, journalists, and political activists; produced background papers
addressing several key issues in the reform debate; and issued a collective
report summarizing their own conclusions and proposals. We are grateful
for their assistance and salute their energy, intelligence, and idealism.
We are also grateful to the many scholars, campaigners, journalists,
and political reformers who contributed to the task force's efforts by shar
ing ideas or evidence, pointing out flaws in our arguments, or pushing us
to consider new problems or proposed solutions. E. J. Dionne Jr. of the
Washington Post, Paul Taylor of the Alliance for Better Campaigns, and
Amy Gutmann of Princeton University's Center for Human Values
deserve special notes of thanks. Also at Princeton, Reggie Feiner Cohen,
Patricia Trinity, Patricia Cohen, and Dean Michael Rothschild of the
Woodrow Wilson School provided invaluable logistical support. And at
Dartmouth, Evan S. Greenbaum provided editing and indexing assistance.
Finally, we wish to record our heartfelt gratitude to The Pew Chari
table Trusts-and especially to Paul C. Light, the former director of the
trusts' Public Policy Program, and his staff-for the enthusiasm with
which they initiated our work and the generosity with which they sup
ported it. The Pew Charitable Trusts have recently sponsored a variety of
innovative projects in the general area of campaign discourse and civic cul
ture, ranging from direct political activism to data collection and evalua
tion projects to training seminars and outreach programs. We are pleased
and proud to contribute to their important efforts.
As social scientists, we especially commend the willingness of The
Pew Charitable Trusts to fund careful evaluations of the impact of cam
paign reform efforts. Too often, well-meaning foundations scurry rest
lessly from one promising initiative to another, never pausing long enough