Objective How does economic inequality shape participation in political campaigns? Previous research has found that higher inequality makes people of all incomes less likely to participate in politics, consistent with relative power theory, which holds that greater inequality enables wealthier citizens to more fully reshape the political landscape to their own advantage. Campaign activities, however, demand more time and money than previously examined forms of participation and so might better conform to the predictions of resource theory, which focuses narrowly on the ramifications of inequality for individuals’ resources. Methods We combine individual‐level data on donations, meeting attendance, and volunteer work for political campaigns with measures of state‐level income inequality to construct a series of multilevel models. Results The analyses reveal that, where inequality is higher, campaign participation is lower among individuals of all incomes. Conclusions Patterns of participation in even resource‐intensive campaign activities provide support for the relative power theory.

The aim of this study is to examine whether Americans have a latent attitude toward comprehensive electoral reform the determinants of this attitude. Methods: The article creates and validates an index of election reform attitudes; examines the independent and interactive roles of partisanship, political interest, electoral fortunes, and satisfaction with democracy on these attitudes. Results: While a majority of Americans favor comprehensive election reform, this desire is strongest among Democrats, independents, people who feel they regularly lose in elections, and individuals who are dissatisfied with democracy, with no independent effect of political interest. Multivariate results find the effect of partisanship is conditioned by whether the respondent feels they generally win or lose in elections and satisfaction with democracy. Partisanship also interacts with political interest. More interested Democrats (Republicans) are more (less) supportive of comprehensive reform. Independents who are electoral losers or dissatisfied with government strongly favor election reform and resemble Democrats, while independents who feel they regularly win or are more satisfied are more opposed and resemble Republicans. Conclusion: Two-thirds of Americans favor modernizing and updating U.S. election laws, but these attitudes are colored by partisanship, with evidence suggesting both elite messaging and expected electoral advantage as potential influences. Additionally, asymmetric partisan interactive effects are uncovered.

During the process of emotion management, individuals perceive that they are feeling emotions that differ from what is expected within the situation. Consequently, they use cognitive, physical, and/or other means either to display more appropriate emotions or to change their emotions on a deeper level to be consistent with what is customarily expressed. Beginning with the first examinations of emotion management in 1979 by the pioneer Arlie Hochschild, emotion scholars have produced over 6,000 studies of this phenomenon. We join this vibrant research program by proposing new avenues of research using an interdisciplinary strategy. First, we explore possibilities for emotion management research within its “home base” of sociology; then, we branch out to the areas of morality and political science. In so doing, we craft new and unexpected pathways for advancements in theory, theory adjudication, and methodology, for the future of emotion management research.

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Early studies of the effects of voter laws on turnout often showed that early voting, absentee, and mail voting had limited impacts on voter turnout, with only same day registration consistently linked to higher turnout. Much of the previous research measured these laws in isolation (although most states have combinations of the laws), omitted measurement of election administration, did not account for possible selection bias in state adoption of the laws, focused on overall voter turnout rather than that for disadvantaged groups, and did not measure the effects of the laws on campaign mobilization strategies. Census data used in previous studies omitted variables (e.g., political interest and partisanship) known to influence voting decisions. Building on research from 2000s and 2010s, Chapter 3 emphasizes how causal inference research design and national voter files can lead to more precise estimations of the effects of convenience voting laws and election administration on voter turnout.