The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior
Oxford Handbooks Series

The Oxford Handbook of American Elections and Political Behavior offers comprehensive coverage of the various theoretical approaches to the study of American elections and political behavior. The chapters are thoughtful and creative, providing broad overviews of intellectual developments and challenges, as well as incisive commentary on the accomplishments of, and challenges facing, scholars of American politics. Substantively, the Handbook includes chapters focusing on various approaches and issues in research design, political participation, vote choice, presidential and non-presidential elections, and issues, interests and elites as influences on individuals' political behaviour. Each of the chapters offers a working research bibliography, as well as retrospective evaluations of research and discussions of fruitful paths for future research. The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics are a set of reference books offering authoritative and engaging critical overviews of the state of scholarship on American politics. Each volume focuses on a particular aspect of the field. The project is under the General Editorship of George C. Edwards III, and distinguished specialists in their respective fields edit each volume. The Handbooks aim not just to report on the discipline, but also to shape it as scholars critically assess the scholarship on a topic and propose directions in which it needs to move. The series is an indispensable reference for anyone working in American politics. General Editor for The Oxford Handbooks of American Politics: George C. Edwards III

Part I: Introduction. 1. Introduction. Part II: Research Design. 2. The State of Survey Research as a Research Tool in American Politics. 3. Optimizing Survey Questionnaire Design in Political Science: Insights from Psychology. 4. Field Experiments and the Study of Political Behavior. 5. Formal Modeling, Strategic Behavior, and the Study of American Elections. Part III: Participation. 6. Why Is American Turnout So Low, and Why Should We Care?. 7. American Voter Turnout in Historical Perspective. 8. Expanding the Possibilities: Reconceptualizing Political Participation as a Tool Box. 9. Voter Registration: Turnout, Representation, and Reform. 10. Early, Absentee, and Mail-In Voting. 11. Digital Democracy: How Politics Online is Changing Electoral Participation. 12. Voting Technology. Part IV: Vote Choice. 13. The Study of Electoral Behavior. 14. The American Voter. 15. Politics, Expertise, and Interdependence within Electorates. 16. Constructing the Vote: Media Effects in a Constructionist Model. 17. Campaign Effects on Vote Choice. 18. Forecasting U.S. Presidential Elections. Part V: Interests, Self- and Otherwise. 19. Economics, Elections and Voting Behavior. 20. Latinos and Political Behavior: Defining Community to Examine Critical Complexities. 21. Organizing American Politics, Organizing Gender. 22. Gauging the God Gap: Religion and Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections. Part VI: Elections Other than Presidential. 23. Local and National Forces in Congressional Elections. 24. The Study of Local Elections in American Politics. 25. Studying State Judicial Races in a Transformed Electoral Environment. 26. Primary Elections. 27. Direct Democracy in the United States. Part VII: Elites and Institutions. 28. Voters in Context: The Politics of Citizen Behavior. 29. Getting Up Off the Canvass: Rethinking the Study of Mobilization. 30. Parties, Elections, and Democratic Politics. 31. Organized Interests: Evolution and Influence. 32. Money and American Elections. 33. Redistricting. 34. American Electoral Practices in Comparative Perspective. Part VIII: Reflections. 35. On Participation: Individuals, Dynamic Categories, and the Context of Power. 36. Studying American Elections. 37. In Search of Representation Theory.

Jan E. Leighley, Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona, has published in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, and American Politics Quarterly, among others. Her two books include Strength in Numbers? The Political Mobilization of Racial and Ethnic Minorities, published by Princeton University Press, and Mass Media and Politics: A Social Science Perspective. She served as editor (with Kim Quaile Hill) of the American Journal of Political Science, a leading general journal in political science, from 2000-2004 and has served on two advisory panels at the National Science Foundation.