Suchergebnisse

Fundraising ability is important for career advancement in Congress. What is unknown, however, is whether party leaders reward strong fundraisers with the po- sitions that they want, or leaders strategically place strong fundraisers in positions to optimize fundraising for their party. Using data on legislators' committee requests and assignments from the 102nd to the 110th Congress, I show that the members who bring in the most money for their party are those that are most likely to be placed on lucrative committees despite their requested committee preferences. This finding clarifies the role of fundraising in committee assignment decisions and highlights the extent to which party leaders are willing to exercise their power to the advance their collective interests.

Do pledges to reject corporate PAC contributions minimize corporate influence in elections? I address this question with campaign finance data for Congressional candidates in the 2018 elections. While I find that candidates who pledge to reject corporate PAC contributions receive fewer contributions from business PACs, I also find that they substitute these funds with small-dollar contributions, large-dollar contributions from individuals affiliated with business interests, and large-dollar contributions from individuals outside their districts. These findings support the claim that voters are motivated to donate by anti-corporate PAC pledges, as candidates hope, but that these candidates likely substitute corporate PAC contributions with funds from sources beyond small-dollar donations. This study is the first to examine the effects of rejecting corporate PAC contributions on contribution patterns and the first test of the claim that anti-corporate PAC pledges will increase small-dollar donations.

Do congressional candidates benefit electorally from the public's disdain of political action committees (PACs)? Despite the large sums of money given by PACs, an increasing number of candidates have sworn off corporate PAC money. In this research note we investigate whether the decision to accept or reject PAC contributions in general affects voters' evaluation of candidates and their willingness to vote for them. To test these questions, we use a pre-registered candidate evaluation survey experiment that was fielded as part of the 2020 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. We find that voters are more likely to vote for, donate to, and trust candidates that reject PAC contributions. Surprisingly, we fail to find evidence that this effect is moderated by party ID. The evidence indicates that Republican and Democratic voters alike penalize candidates that accept PAC money. This study is among the first to investigate how candidates' campaign financing choices influence their perceptions among voters.

This article explores the use of vignettes in qualitative research from a post-humanist and multi-species perspective. Drawing on methodological principles espoused by Karen Barad and Donna Haraway, as well as empirical data from the Dementia Dog pilot project in Scotland, UK, we explore the use of vignettes as a technique for understanding human–dog relations in dementia. In so doing, we outline an approach to using vignettes that is guided by principles of diffraction, which is contrasted with humanist principles of interpretivism, reflection and representation. Moving away from humanist methodology, we argue, calls for new approaches to evaluating the quality of vignettes. This involves disrupting conventional approaches, within which vignettes are defined by their purpose and evaluated according to fixed criteria (e.g. validity, authenticity and trustworthiness). In their place, we argue for an approach to evaluating vignettes that is rooted in performativity and guided by the question: What can a vignette do?

Drawing on core principles of public sociology, this article discusses the creation of four theatrical vignettes about living with early onset dementia (symptoms of dementia pre-65). The vignettes were developed through an Image Theatre workshop, involving families living with early onset dementia. They were designed to capture key themes, issues and experiences that emerged from the group's collective experience. While the content of the vignettes speaks to a range of key sociological debates (especially in relation to the lived experience of time, risk, social exclusion and stigma in dementia) the process of creating and using the vignettes represents the first empirical application of a (public) sociological approach to 'person-centredness' in dementia; which views persons as 'dividual' and selves as transactive. We conclude by advocating for a rich and diverse public sociology of dementia in the 21st century.

The article draws on two separate studies employing developmental vignettes (hypothetical scenarios which unfold through a series of stages) to interview research participants. One study used the 'Davie' vignette, which was a conventional fixed narrative, while in the second, the 'Jack and Jenny' vignettes were made interactive by hyperlinking a series of PowerPoint scenarios and making the choice of the succeeding slide dependent on the interviewee's reaction to its predecessor. Our analytic standpoint, in respect of both vignettes, is that of Schutzian phenomenology. We point to differences in both topical and motivational relevances in the processes of interpretation undergone by participants in considering the vignette scenario and in the situation of action. However, we show that research participants' responses to vignettes can yield data of interest in their own right as participants perform 'Thou-orientations' and 'They-orientations' in their consideration of the stimuli. We close with a comparative evaluation of the fixed 'Davie' and the interactive 'Jack and Jenny' vignettes.