Dissertation Project
"Against and Alongside the Bully Pulpit: How Members of Congress Publicly Respond to Presidential Appeals."
Abstract: Drawing upon a new collection of House members's press release data, this project evaluates how partisan, ideological, and electoral considerations figure into each legislator’s propensity to offer support, opposition, or say nothing at all in the aftermath of a presidential appeal. Analyses of the press release data from the 111th and 115th sessions of Congress suggest that moderates and those who are cross-pressured by the parties and constituents, are notably less likely to respond to presidential speeches; and when they do respond, they tend to remain neutral. Legislators at the extremes of the ideological spectrum, by contrast, respond with greater frequency and deliver statements of clear support or opposition.
By running topic models on House members' press release responses to the State of the Union addresses and comparing the initial years of the Obama administration and the Trump administration, I find that at the beginning of the Obama presidency, although House members expressed fewer responses to presidential appeals, neutral responses appeared more frequently than during the initial Trump years. Furthermore, the cross-pressured moderate representatives in a decade ago are more willing to take a stance in response to presidential appeals. Lastly, more Republican legislators affirmed Obama's appeals than Democratic legislators favored Trump. In other words, however stridently Republicans opposed to Obama, Democrats now are even more unified in their rejection of Trump's agenda. These findings, I suggest, have important implications for a more polarizing trend of partisan disagreement within Congress.
Working Papers
"Policy without Partisanship: The Direct Appeals of First Ladies," 2019 (under review), with Meg Savel.
"Presidential Partisan Particularism: A Reconsideration," 2018.
"Effects of Elite Cues on American Foreign Policy Attitudes toward China," 2016.
"Impacts of Imperial College Student Opinion on Foreign Policy Making in the Song Dynasty (宋代太学生舆论对国家战和决策的相关性分析)," 2015, with Chuanjie Zhang.
"Against and Alongside the Bully Pulpit: How Members of Congress Publicly Respond to Presidential Appeals."
Abstract: Drawing upon a new collection of House members's press release data, this project evaluates how partisan, ideological, and electoral considerations figure into each legislator’s propensity to offer support, opposition, or say nothing at all in the aftermath of a presidential appeal. Analyses of the press release data from the 111th and 115th sessions of Congress suggest that moderates and those who are cross-pressured by the parties and constituents, are notably less likely to respond to presidential speeches; and when they do respond, they tend to remain neutral. Legislators at the extremes of the ideological spectrum, by contrast, respond with greater frequency and deliver statements of clear support or opposition.
By running topic models on House members' press release responses to the State of the Union addresses and comparing the initial years of the Obama administration and the Trump administration, I find that at the beginning of the Obama presidency, although House members expressed fewer responses to presidential appeals, neutral responses appeared more frequently than during the initial Trump years. Furthermore, the cross-pressured moderate representatives in a decade ago are more willing to take a stance in response to presidential appeals. Lastly, more Republican legislators affirmed Obama's appeals than Democratic legislators favored Trump. In other words, however stridently Republicans opposed to Obama, Democrats now are even more unified in their rejection of Trump's agenda. These findings, I suggest, have important implications for a more polarizing trend of partisan disagreement within Congress.
Working Papers
"Policy without Partisanship: The Direct Appeals of First Ladies," 2019 (under review), with Meg Savel.
"Presidential Partisan Particularism: A Reconsideration," 2018.
"Effects of Elite Cues on American Foreign Policy Attitudes toward China," 2016.
"Impacts of Imperial College Student Opinion on Foreign Policy Making in the Song Dynasty (宋代太学生舆论对国家战和决策的相关性分析)," 2015, with Chuanjie Zhang.
