國立虎尾科技大學 |

How Americans Think About Democracy.

Record Type:	Language materials, manuscript : Monograph/item
Title/Author:	How Americans Think About Democracy./
Author:	Aldridge, Alejandra Teresita Gimenez.
Description:	1 online resource (120 pages)
Notes:	Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-04, Section: A.
Contained By:	Dissertations Abstracts International84-04A.
Subject:	Democracy. -
Online resource:	click for full text (PQDT)
ISBN:	9798352604809

How Americans Think About Democracy.
Aldridge, Alejandra Teresita Gimenez.

How Americans Think About Democracy. - 1 online resource (120 pages)

Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-04, Section: A.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2022.

Includes bibliographical references

The health of democracy worldwide, and specifically in the United States, has been a recent area of great concern. A myriad of books and articles have been written in the past 10 years, many of them aiming to answer the question "How much has democracy eroded, and how do we stop further erosion?" This dissertation contributes to those larger questions by answering three specific questions:1. What are the parts of democracy that people think about the most?2. How supportive are respondents of specific democratic principles?3. How do presidents influence attitudes around democratic norms? And how does partisanship moderate this influence?These three questions each rely on insights from democratic theory, survey methodology, and motivated reasoning related to partisanship to help answer the larger questions around democratic erosion.1.1 Studying Democracy With PrecisionDemocracy is a complicated idea. It is multi-layered and has many parts to it. Some things that might be mentioned as part of democracy may include the right to vote, the ability to protest the government, the ability to run for office, and that decisions are made by majority rule. This list of items that could be part of democracy is certainly not comprehensive; such a comprehensive list would be incredibly long and nearly impossible to complete perfectly. As it turns out, there is no single agreed-upon definition of democracy. Classic thinkers ranging from Thomas Jefferson, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Alexis de Tocqueville have each put effort into defining democracy, and modern political scientists such as Verba and Nie, and Linz have similarly offered definitions. Even across all of these thinkers, there is variation in what they emphasize builds into a democracy. Dahl aptly describes the challenge of defining democracy: "ˆatoday the term democracy is like an ancient kitchen midden packed with assorted leftovers from twenty-five hundred years of nearly continuous usage" (Dahl 1982: 5).So, why does it matter whether or not democracy is complicated? From an intellectual standpoint, we could forever discuss the merits of certain components. However, we are interested in thinking about democracy's complexity in order to best measure voter attitudes around democracy. A key principle in survey methodology is that questions need to be written in such a way that both the respondent and the researcher interpret the question in the same way (Groves et al. 2009). If the question is not written in this way, then the researcher may assume the respondent was thinking about the question one way when they actually thought about the question differently. This principle is particularly important when asking about complicated concepts; if the question is not carefully written, then the data may not be useful due to the discrepancy between researcher and respondent understanding.Democracy is a complicated concept, so carefully crafting questions is very important to obtaining a complete understanding of respondent views. This dissertation takes this challenge seriously and approaches it from two directions: applying text analysis to openended question responses, and asking carefully crafted closed-ended questions. Using both of these approaches helps us get closer to a clearer understanding what parts of democracy are important to voters.

Electronic reproduction.
Ann Arbor, Mich. :
ProQuest,
2024

Mode of access: World Wide Web

ISBN: 9798352604809Subjects--Topical Terms:

557320
Democracy.
Index Terms--Genre/Form:

554714
Electronic books.

How Americans Think About Democracy.
LDR:04543ntm a22003257 4500 001 1143283
005 20240517100354.5
006 m o d
007 cr mn ---uuuuu
008 250605s2022 xx obm 000 0 eng d
020 $a 9798352604809
035 $a (MiAaPQ)AAI29342238
035 $a (MiAaPQ)STANFORDjh766jq1724
035 $a AAI29342238
040 $a MiAaPQ $b eng $c MiAaPQ $d NTU
100 1 $a Aldridge, Alejandra Teresita Gimenez. $3 1467917
245 1 0 $a How Americans Think About Democracy.
264 0 $c 2022
300 $a 1 online resource (120 pages)
336 $a text $b txt $2 rdacontent
337 $a computer $b c $2 rdamedia
338 $a online resource $b cr $2 rdacarrier
500 $a Source: Dissertations Abstracts International, Volume: 84-04, Section: A.
500 $a Advisor: Grimmer, Justin;Jefferson, Hakeem;Moe, Terry.
502 $a Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2022.
504 $a Includes bibliographical references
520 $a The health of democracy worldwide, and specifically in the United States, has been a recent area of great concern. A myriad of books and articles have been written in the past 10 years, many of them aiming to answer the question "How much has democracy eroded, and how do we stop further erosion?" This dissertation contributes to those larger questions by answering three specific questions:1. What are the parts of democracy that people think about the most?2. How supportive are respondents of specific democratic principles?3. How do presidents influence attitudes around democratic norms? And how does partisanship moderate this influence?These three questions each rely on insights from democratic theory, survey methodology, and motivated reasoning related to partisanship to help answer the larger questions around democratic erosion.1.1 Studying Democracy With PrecisionDemocracy is a complicated idea. It is multi-layered and has many parts to it. Some things that might be mentioned as part of democracy may include the right to vote, the ability to protest the government, the ability to run for office, and that decisions are made by majority rule. This list of items that could be part of democracy is certainly not comprehensive; such a comprehensive list would be incredibly long and nearly impossible to complete perfectly. As it turns out, there is no single agreed-upon definition of democracy. Classic thinkers ranging from Thomas Jefferson, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Alexis de Tocqueville have each put effort into defining democracy, and modern political scientists such as Verba and Nie, and Linz have similarly offered definitions. Even across all of these thinkers, there is variation in what they emphasize builds into a democracy. Dahl aptly describes the challenge of defining democracy: "ˆatoday the term democracy is like an ancient kitchen midden packed with assorted leftovers from twenty-five hundred years of nearly continuous usage" (Dahl 1982: 5).So, why does it matter whether or not democracy is complicated? From an intellectual standpoint, we could forever discuss the merits of certain components. However, we are interested in thinking about democracy's complexity in order to best measure voter attitudes around democracy. A key principle in survey methodology is that questions need to be written in such a way that both the respondent and the researcher interpret the question in the same way (Groves et al. 2009). If the question is not written in this way, then the researcher may assume the respondent was thinking about the question one way when they actually thought about the question differently. This principle is particularly important when asking about complicated concepts; if the question is not carefully written, then the data may not be useful due to the discrepancy between researcher and respondent understanding.Democracy is a complicated concept, so carefully crafting questions is very important to obtaining a complete understanding of respondent views. This dissertation takes this challenge seriously and approaches it from two directions: applying text analysis to openended question responses, and asking carefully crafted closed-ended questions. Using both of these approaches helps us get closer to a clearer understanding what parts of democracy are important to voters.
533 $a Electronic reproduction. $b Ann Arbor, Mich. : $c ProQuest, $d 2024
538 $a Mode of access: World Wide Web
650 4 $a Democracy. $3 557320
650 4 $a Voting rights. $3 1467918
650 4 $a Partisanship. $3 1372777
650 4 $a Political science. $3 558774
655 7 $a Electronic books. $2 local $3 554714
690 $a 0615
710 2 $a ProQuest Information and Learning Co. $3 1178819
710 2 $a Stanford University. $3 1184533
773 0 $t Dissertations Abstracts International $g 84-04A.
856 4 0 $u http://pqdd.sinica.edu.tw/twdaoapp/servlet/advanced?query=29342238 $z click for full text (PQDT)