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5 results

  • Does (Non-)Localness Affect MPs’ Levels of Responsiveness? Evidence from a UK Field Experiment

  • Diane Bolet, Rosie Campbell
  • Journal:
    British Journal of Political Science , First View
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    03 May 2024, pp. 1-11
    • Article
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  • Does an MP's localness affect their behaviour towards constituents? Existing research has shown biases in MPs' responsiveness to citizens based on citizens' sociodemographic and political traits and voters’ tendency to prefer ‘local’ MPs. Yet, we know little about whether MPs' localness affects their responsiveness to constituents. MPs' localness may influence their behaviour for strategic reasons and/or because of homophily. To explore this relationship, we conducted a field experiment in the United Kingdom where we asked legislators about their policy priorities regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that local MPs do not differentiate in their responsiveness to constituents. However, non-local MPs are motivated by party affiliation and gender in their responsiveness to constituents, with ethnicity and class playing insignificant roles. Non-local MPs respond more to co-partisans than non-partisans and women non-local MPs are more responsive to women constituents. This experiment underscores the impact of (non-)localness on MPs' interactions with constituents.

Experimental Thinking
  • A Primer on Social Science Experiments
  • James N. Druckman
  • Published online:
    12 May 2022
    Print publication:
    12 May 2022
  • Experiments are a central methodology in the social sciences. Scholars from every discipline regularly turn to experiments. Practitioners rely on experimental evidence in evaluating social programs, policies, and institutions. This book is about how to “think” about experiments. It argues that designing a good experiment is a slow moving process (given the host of considerations) which is counter to the current fast moving temptations available in the social sciences. The book includes discussion of the place of experiments in the social science process, the assumptions underlying different types of experiments, the validity of experiments, the application of different designs, how to arrive at experimental questions, the role of replications in experimental research, and the steps involved in designing and conducting “good” experiments. The goal is to ensure social science research remains driven by important substantive questions and fully exploits the potential of experiments in a thoughtful manner.

  • 4 - Innovations in Experimental Designs

  • James N. Druckman, Northwestern University, Illinois
  • Book:
    Experimental Thinking
    Published online:
    12 May 2022
    Print publication:
    12 May 2022, pp 85-116

  • Summary

    Chapter 4 turns to experimental designs, focusing on three designs that have gained prominence in many social science applications in the last decade: audit field experiments, conjoint survey experiments, and lab-in-the-field experiments. These three designs also provide readers with examples of a type of field experiment, survey experiment, and lab experiment, respectively – the three conventional “types” of experiments employed in the social sciences. The chapter reviews the basics of each design and provides prominent examples. Importantly, it also discusses limitations and challenges of the designs, or put another way, how to think about these new designs. This chapter includes a brief overview of “public policy experiments”: It does so given the recent rise in studies of political elites, which ultimately connect to policymaking and responsiveness. The chapter makes clear that the substantive questions being explored should drive experimental design choices and not vice versa.

Advances in Experimental Political Science
  • Edited by James N. Druckman, Donald P. Green
  • Published online:
    08 March 2021
    Print publication:
    01 April 2021
  • Experimental political science has changed. In two short decades, it evolved from an emergent method to an accepted method to a primary method. The challenge now is to ensure that experimentalists design sound studies and implement them in ways that illuminate cause and effect. Ethical boundaries must also be respected, results interpreted in a transparent manner, and data and research materials must be shared to ensure others can build on what has been learned. This book explores the application of new designs; the introduction of novel data sources, measurement approaches, and statistical methods; the use of experiments in more substantive domains; and discipline-wide discussions about the robustness, generalizability, and ethics of experiments in political science. By exploring these novel opportunities while also highlighting the concomitant challenges, this volume enables scholars and practitioners to conduct high-quality experiments that will make key contributions to knowledge.

  • Service Representation in a Federal System: A Field Experiment

  • Peter John Loewen, Michael Kenneth MacKenzie
  • Journal:
    Journal of Experimental Political Science / Volume 6 / Issue 2 / Summer 2019
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    21 November 2018, pp. 93-107

  • Federal systems can also provide citizens with multiple avenues to obtain service representation. In shared issue areas, citizens are officially represented by two sets of politicians. When politicians are willing to cross jurisdictional boundaries, citizens might also obtain help or information from more than one set of politicians, even in areas of exclusive jurisdiction. We report an experiment designed to examine responses to requests for assistance in different issue areas. Our sample includes 202 Canadian politicians, each of whom received two requests for assistance from fictional constituents. We show that federal arrangements can enhance service representation. On average, politicians are as helpful on issues of shared jurisdiction as issues of exclusive jurisdiction. They are less helpful for issues outside of their jurisdiction. These results suggest that federal arrangements can work to provide citizens with multiple access points to their representative, even in areas that fall outside their representatives’ jurisdictional purviews.