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Scott McClurg

Southern Illinois University, Political Science, Faculty Member

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My research interests lie in the areas of political participation, electoral behavior, political geography, and campaign dynamics. I have published work on political participation and electoral mobilization in Political Research Quarterly, American Journal of Political Science, Political Behavior, and American Politics Research. His current research interests center on the relationship between campaign environments, social networks, and political choice. Work-in-progress includes an extended study of campaign effects in the US since 2000, a book on state supreme courts, and experiments on social influence in politics.
Supervisors: John Sprague

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University of Essex

University of Oxford

University of Lausanne

Valparaiso University

Rodrigo Castro Cornejo

Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas

Michigan State University

Wojciech Rafałowski

University of Sharjah

Robert Grafstein

Mark Schlesinger

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Papers by Scott McClurg

British Journal of Political Science

An interested and engaged electorate is widely believed to be an indicator of democratic health. ... more An interested and engaged electorate is widely believed to be an indicator of democratic health. As such, the aggregate level of political interest of an electorate – macrointerest – is an essential commodity in a democracy, and understanding the forces that change macrointerest is important for diagnosing the health of a democracy. Because being interested in politics requires time and effort, the article theorizes that the electorate's level of political interest will be highest when the electorate believes the government cannot be trusted or is performing poorly. To test hypotheses derived from a proposed theory against rival explanations, the study develops a measure of macrointerest using a quarterly time series of aggregated survey items (1973–2014) of political interest. The authors find support for the theory that the electorate responds as reasonable agents when determining how closely to monitor elected officials: interest is positively related to decreases in trust in...

The Effect of Presidential Campaigning in Midterm Elections: The 2002 and 2006 Midterm Senate Elections

Presidential elections: campaigning within a segmented electorate

Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement

American Journal of Political Science, 2008

Since Aristotle, who observed that great economic inequality leads the wealthy to seek a share of... more Since Aristotle, who observed that great economic inequality leads the wealthy to seek a share of power matching their share of resources and so to subvert democratic government, scholars of politics have theorized that the proper functioning of a democracy depends on a relatively equal distribution of economic resources. Inequality, though, has been rising in the nearly all of the world's rich and upper-middle-income democracies since the at least the mid-1980s, and in many countries this trend began in the early 1970s. Examining individual behavior in twenty-four countries at multiple points in time, this paper investigates whether increases in economic inequality have had a negative effect on the functioning of democracy, focusing specifically on citizens' political engagement. It finds that contexts of greater income inequality reduce interest in politics, views of government responsiveness, and participation in elections.

How Institutions Affect Gender Gaps in Public Opinion Expression

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2015

The expression of opinions in ordinary political discussions between citizens is essential to pub... more The expression of opinions in ordinary political discussions between citizens is essential to public opinion dynamics such as opinion leadership, false consensus, or pluralistic ignorance. One of the main predictors of expressiveness in citizens’ discussions is gender. Although research documents consistent gaps between men’s and women’s expressiveness through political discussion, most insights are based on the United States. Absent a comparative perspective, little consideration has been given to major differences across countries in men’s and women’s access to various institutions, and whether this access correlates with gender gaps in discursive expression. Access affects opportunities of women and men to encounter politically relevant information and connect with potential discussants. The present article tests whether greater egalitarianism in political representation, education, and workforce participation reduces gender gaps in political discussion. Multilevel analyses of the International Social Survey Program data set (approximately N = 36,600; 33 countries) show that several country-level features affect the contribution of gender to political discussion, but in ways that suggest a trade-off between gender equality and opinion expressiveness.

Patterns of Policy Making across State Supreme Courts SCOTT A . COMPARATO , SCOTT D . McCLURG , AND

New Directions in Judicial Politics, 2012

OpenSIUC Working Papers Political Networks Paper Archive Winter 2012 Gender , Social Networks , and Voting Behavior

This paper examines how interpersonal social networks help explain the voting behavior of men and... more This paper examines how interpersonal social networks help explain the voting behavior of men and women. We argue that the gender gap in voting is influenced by the partisan and gender composition of networks, rather than just the latter. Building on this foundation, we explain how gendering in network construction and impact helps create a cleavage between men and women even under conditions that are often close to "random mixing." Analysis of the 2000 American National Election Study shows the voting gap is related to men excluding women from political networks, men being less exposed to females who support Democrats, and men being more strongly influence by women who support Republicans. The principal conclusion of the paper is that the role of social networks in explaining gendered voting is a function of combined partisan and gender segregation, principally by men. 1 There appear to be three ways in which social relations contribute to the maintenance of political dif...

Personality, Interpersonal Disagreement, and Electoral Information

The Journal of Politics, 2016

Interpersonal disagreement has been linked to a variety of democratic outcomes, and classic theor... more Interpersonal disagreement has been linked to a variety of democratic outcomes, and classic theories of social influence place it at the heart of opinion formation. We examine the relationship between exposure to disagreement and information seeking during elections, while developing and testing a theory of heterogeneous effects based on recent work on personality and discussion (e.g., Gerber et al. 2012). Using a simulated campaign experiment (Lau and Redlawsk 2006) and data from the 2008-9 ANES panel study, we find consistent evidence that personality conditions responses to disagreement in expected ways-it enhances effects for those with certain traits, while suppressing it for those with others. We close by reflecting on this pattern of results, discussing broader implications while moving toward a more general theory of social influence. S ocial scientists have long placed political communication at the center of democratic politics. One important type of communication comes in interpersonal discussion (Downs 1957; Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955), particularly as it involves exposure to different points of view (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet 1968). Indeed, the study of socially supplied political disagreement has deep roots (see, e.g., Zuckerman 2005) and has been linked to a variety of behavioral outcomes (e.g., Klofstad, Sokhey, and McClurg 2013; Sinclair 2012), including higher propensities to vote across party lines (e.g., Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995). Although scholars have long posited that disagreement has important political consequences, Mutz's works (2002a, 2002b, 2006) have advanced this point especially forcefully, arguing that interpersonal disagreement presents a mix of positive and negative results-a "democratic dilemma"for the mass public, simultaneously promoting levels of tolerance while suppressing levels of political participation. Others have helped keep attention focused squarely on disagreement , even while striking a less cautionary tone about its role in democratic functioning (e.g., Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004) or positing that any deleterious effects on participation may be minimal (Nir 2005), conditional (Bello 2012; Nir 2011), potentially reversed (Jang 2009), or countered by discussant expertise (McClurg 2006a). At present, the consequences of disagreement remain the subject of intense scholarly debate. We join this conversation but follow recent efforts in recognizing the potential for heterogeneous effects. While the literature has noted that social influence works differently based on the interplay of individual choice and constraint (Klofstad et al. 2013; McClurg 2006b; Sokhey and Djupe 2011), much of the work in this vein focuses on the construction of social "barriers" with respect to coercive environments, such as those in majority/minority contexts (Finifter 1974; Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995; McClurg 2006a). We advance a conditional approach that stresses the contribution of individual traits in moderating interpersonal disagreement

The Political Consequences of Gender in Social Networks

British Journal of Political Science, 2016

Recent research on political discussion has focused on whether aspects of interaction create a ‘d... more Recent research on political discussion has focused on whether aspects of interaction create a ‘democratic dilemma’ for the mass public in which people face a choice between political participation and political tolerance. This article argues that there are important variations in how people react to their immediate social contacts. It explores this idea by studying how social disagreement and expertise interact with gender to explain variance in political participation. First, it shows that there are conflicting expectations in the literature about how such dynamics should manifest, despite agreement that men and women should experience different kinds and degrees of social influence. Secondly, it examines these expectations by revisiting prominent, network-based explanations of political participation; it finds that these relationships do not display consistency across sex differences. The results point to the existence of varied ‘social logics’ for men and women, and suggest the ...

Campaigns as Facilitators: Presidential Campaigns & Correct Voting in 2000 & 2004

Separation of diode array chips during fabrication thereof

Indirect MobilizationThe Social Consequences of Party Contacts in an Election Campaign

Am Polit Res, 2004

Editors' Introduction: A Relational Political Science

Political Science and Politics

Measurement of Political Discussion Networks: A Comparison of Two "Name Generator" Procedures

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2009

Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom in... more Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom individuals discuss politics. Some surveys ask respondents to provide information about the people with whom they discuss "important matters," while other studies ask for information specifically on the individual's political discussants. Drawing on three of the most recently collected sources of data on this subject, we compare social network data that have been collected in these two different ways. The majority of our results show that the network data provided by survey respondents are very similar regardless of which network generator procedure is used. These results suggest that we do not consciously select specific individuals with whom to discuss politics. Instead, the individuals with whom we choose to discuss politics are the same people with whom we discuss other important matters in our lives. This finding has significant methodological and substantive implications for studies of social influence.

The Partisan Content of Candidate Messages in US Senate Elections

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2015

Abstract This paper analyzes the partisan messages of US Senate campaign advertisements. Using da... more Abstract This paper analyzes the partisan messages of US Senate campaign advertisements. Using data from 2000 to 2004, we measure the levels of partisan cues and “owned” issue mentions in US Senate campaigns. We hypothesize that campaigns are likely to use campaign communications involving partisan cues and owned issues when national and local conditions favor one of the parties. Our results recognize some variation in campaign strategies, providing strong evidence that candidates, political parties, and outside groups respond differently to local and national conditions when cueing party labels and party-owned issues.

The Contradictory Consequences of Ambivalence for Political Engagement

ABSTRACT Abstract will be provided by author.

Economic Inequality and Trust in Government: The Us in Comparative Perspective

Political Networks

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2011

Social Networks and Correct Voting

The Journal of Politics, 2012

Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voti... more Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voting behavior. However, recent work concerning the nexus between deliberation and democratic practice-particularly in the American context-has re-focused attention on the normative consequences of sociallydriven political behavior. Among the most common criticisms of interpersonal networks are that most people have very insular social circles, and that when they do not they are unlikely to engage in politics. In this paper we provide evidence that such pessimistic assessments are unwarranted, though for somewhat unexpected reasons. Using data from the American Component of the 1992 Cross-National Election Project and the 2000 American National Election Study, we examine whether and under what conditions social networks facilitate interest-based voting. Our findings indicate that when networks provide unambiguous signals regarding candidates, that they serve as potentially useful information shortcuts, facilitating connections between individuals' vote decisions and their underlying preferences. And, because many Americans reside in reasonably supportive social environments, networks often help citizens make "correct" voting decisions (Lau and Redlawsk 1997). In the end, social networks appear to help shoulder the demands of democratic theory, but not by helping people learn about politics in any traditional sense.

Lawrence R. Jacobs, Fay Lomax Cook, and Michael X. Delli Carpini. Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2009

Deliberative democracy is one of the most promising topics of conversation in the field of public... more Deliberative democracy is one of the most promising topics of conversation in the field of public opinion and behavior. Not only does it join theorists and empiricists together in a common intellectual pursuit, but interest in deliberation extends into the realm of practical politics and creates real opportunities for scholarship to affect the quality of citizenship. Nevertheless, very little effort has been devoted to understanding foundational questions, such as how deliberation gets practiced in America, by whom, and to what end. By ...

British Journal of Political Science

An interested and engaged electorate is widely believed to be an indicator of democratic health. ... more An interested and engaged electorate is widely believed to be an indicator of democratic health. As such, the aggregate level of political interest of an electorate – macrointerest – is an essential commodity in a democracy, and understanding the forces that change macrointerest is important for diagnosing the health of a democracy. Because being interested in politics requires time and effort, the article theorizes that the electorate's level of political interest will be highest when the electorate believes the government cannot be trusted or is performing poorly. To test hypotheses derived from a proposed theory against rival explanations, the study develops a measure of macrointerest using a quarterly time series of aggregated survey items (1973–2014) of political interest. The authors find support for the theory that the electorate responds as reasonable agents when determining how closely to monitor elected officials: interest is positively related to decreases in trust in...

The Effect of Presidential Campaigning in Midterm Elections: The 2002 and 2006 Midterm Senate Elections

Presidential elections: campaigning within a segmented electorate

Economic Inequality and Democratic Political Engagement

American Journal of Political Science, 2008

Since Aristotle, who observed that great economic inequality leads the wealthy to seek a share of... more Since Aristotle, who observed that great economic inequality leads the wealthy to seek a share of power matching their share of resources and so to subvert democratic government, scholars of politics have theorized that the proper functioning of a democracy depends on a relatively equal distribution of economic resources. Inequality, though, has been rising in the nearly all of the world's rich and upper-middle-income democracies since the at least the mid-1980s, and in many countries this trend began in the early 1970s. Examining individual behavior in twenty-four countries at multiple points in time, this paper investigates whether increases in economic inequality have had a negative effect on the functioning of democracy, focusing specifically on citizens' political engagement. It finds that contexts of greater income inequality reduce interest in politics, views of government responsiveness, and participation in elections.

How Institutions Affect Gender Gaps in Public Opinion Expression

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2015

The expression of opinions in ordinary political discussions between citizens is essential to pub... more The expression of opinions in ordinary political discussions between citizens is essential to public opinion dynamics such as opinion leadership, false consensus, or pluralistic ignorance. One of the main predictors of expressiveness in citizens’ discussions is gender. Although research documents consistent gaps between men’s and women’s expressiveness through political discussion, most insights are based on the United States. Absent a comparative perspective, little consideration has been given to major differences across countries in men’s and women’s access to various institutions, and whether this access correlates with gender gaps in discursive expression. Access affects opportunities of women and men to encounter politically relevant information and connect with potential discussants. The present article tests whether greater egalitarianism in political representation, education, and workforce participation reduces gender gaps in political discussion. Multilevel analyses of the International Social Survey Program data set (approximately N = 36,600; 33 countries) show that several country-level features affect the contribution of gender to political discussion, but in ways that suggest a trade-off between gender equality and opinion expressiveness.

Patterns of Policy Making across State Supreme Courts SCOTT A . COMPARATO , SCOTT D . McCLURG , AND

New Directions in Judicial Politics, 2012

OpenSIUC Working Papers Political Networks Paper Archive Winter 2012 Gender , Social Networks , and Voting Behavior

This paper examines how interpersonal social networks help explain the voting behavior of men and... more This paper examines how interpersonal social networks help explain the voting behavior of men and women. We argue that the gender gap in voting is influenced by the partisan and gender composition of networks, rather than just the latter. Building on this foundation, we explain how gendering in network construction and impact helps create a cleavage between men and women even under conditions that are often close to "random mixing." Analysis of the 2000 American National Election Study shows the voting gap is related to men excluding women from political networks, men being less exposed to females who support Democrats, and men being more strongly influence by women who support Republicans. The principal conclusion of the paper is that the role of social networks in explaining gendered voting is a function of combined partisan and gender segregation, principally by men. 1 There appear to be three ways in which social relations contribute to the maintenance of political dif...

Personality, Interpersonal Disagreement, and Electoral Information

The Journal of Politics, 2016

Interpersonal disagreement has been linked to a variety of democratic outcomes, and classic theor... more Interpersonal disagreement has been linked to a variety of democratic outcomes, and classic theories of social influence place it at the heart of opinion formation. We examine the relationship between exposure to disagreement and information seeking during elections, while developing and testing a theory of heterogeneous effects based on recent work on personality and discussion (e.g., Gerber et al. 2012). Using a simulated campaign experiment (Lau and Redlawsk 2006) and data from the 2008-9 ANES panel study, we find consistent evidence that personality conditions responses to disagreement in expected ways-it enhances effects for those with certain traits, while suppressing it for those with others. We close by reflecting on this pattern of results, discussing broader implications while moving toward a more general theory of social influence. S ocial scientists have long placed political communication at the center of democratic politics. One important type of communication comes in interpersonal discussion (Downs 1957; Katz and Lazarsfeld 1955), particularly as it involves exposure to different points of view (Lazarsfeld, Berelson, and Gaudet 1968). Indeed, the study of socially supplied political disagreement has deep roots (see, e.g., Zuckerman 2005) and has been linked to a variety of behavioral outcomes (e.g., Klofstad, Sokhey, and McClurg 2013; Sinclair 2012), including higher propensities to vote across party lines (e.g., Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995). Although scholars have long posited that disagreement has important political consequences, Mutz's works (2002a, 2002b, 2006) have advanced this point especially forcefully, arguing that interpersonal disagreement presents a mix of positive and negative results-a "democratic dilemma"for the mass public, simultaneously promoting levels of tolerance while suppressing levels of political participation. Others have helped keep attention focused squarely on disagreement , even while striking a less cautionary tone about its role in democratic functioning (e.g., Huckfeldt, Johnson, and Sprague 2004) or positing that any deleterious effects on participation may be minimal (Nir 2005), conditional (Bello 2012; Nir 2011), potentially reversed (Jang 2009), or countered by discussant expertise (McClurg 2006a). At present, the consequences of disagreement remain the subject of intense scholarly debate. We join this conversation but follow recent efforts in recognizing the potential for heterogeneous effects. While the literature has noted that social influence works differently based on the interplay of individual choice and constraint (Klofstad et al. 2013; McClurg 2006b; Sokhey and Djupe 2011), much of the work in this vein focuses on the construction of social "barriers" with respect to coercive environments, such as those in majority/minority contexts (Finifter 1974; Huckfeldt and Sprague 1995; McClurg 2006a). We advance a conditional approach that stresses the contribution of individual traits in moderating interpersonal disagreement

The Political Consequences of Gender in Social Networks

British Journal of Political Science, 2016

Recent research on political discussion has focused on whether aspects of interaction create a ‘d... more Recent research on political discussion has focused on whether aspects of interaction create a ‘democratic dilemma’ for the mass public in which people face a choice between political participation and political tolerance. This article argues that there are important variations in how people react to their immediate social contacts. It explores this idea by studying how social disagreement and expertise interact with gender to explain variance in political participation. First, it shows that there are conflicting expectations in the literature about how such dynamics should manifest, despite agreement that men and women should experience different kinds and degrees of social influence. Secondly, it examines these expectations by revisiting prominent, network-based explanations of political participation; it finds that these relationships do not display consistency across sex differences. The results point to the existence of varied ‘social logics’ for men and women, and suggest the ...

Campaigns as Facilitators: Presidential Campaigns & Correct Voting in 2000 & 2004

Separation of diode array chips during fabrication thereof

Indirect MobilizationThe Social Consequences of Party Contacts in an Election Campaign

Am Polit Res, 2004

Editors' Introduction: A Relational Political Science

Political Science and Politics

Measurement of Political Discussion Networks: A Comparison of Two "Name Generator" Procedures

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2009

Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom in... more Social scientists use two different methods for collecting information on the people with whom individuals discuss politics. Some surveys ask respondents to provide information about the people with whom they discuss "important matters," while other studies ask for information specifically on the individual's political discussants. Drawing on three of the most recently collected sources of data on this subject, we compare social network data that have been collected in these two different ways. The majority of our results show that the network data provided by survey respondents are very similar regardless of which network generator procedure is used. These results suggest that we do not consciously select specific individuals with whom to discuss politics. Instead, the individuals with whom we choose to discuss politics are the same people with whom we discuss other important matters in our lives. This finding has significant methodological and substantive implications for studies of social influence.

The Partisan Content of Candidate Messages in US Senate Elections

Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, 2015

Abstract This paper analyzes the partisan messages of US Senate campaign advertisements. Using da... more Abstract This paper analyzes the partisan messages of US Senate campaign advertisements. Using data from 2000 to 2004, we measure the levels of partisan cues and “owned” issue mentions in US Senate campaigns. We hypothesize that campaigns are likely to use campaign communications involving partisan cues and owned issues when national and local conditions favor one of the parties. Our results recognize some variation in campaign strategies, providing strong evidence that candidates, political parties, and outside groups respond differently to local and national conditions when cueing party labels and party-owned issues.

The Contradictory Consequences of Ambivalence for Political Engagement

ABSTRACT Abstract will be provided by author.

Economic Inequality and Trust in Government: The Us in Comparative Perspective

Political Networks

PS: Political Science & Politics, 2011

Social Networks and Correct Voting

The Journal of Politics, 2012

Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voti... more Decades of research suggest that social interaction influences opinion formation and affects voting behavior. However, recent work concerning the nexus between deliberation and democratic practice-particularly in the American context-has re-focused attention on the normative consequences of sociallydriven political behavior. Among the most common criticisms of interpersonal networks are that most people have very insular social circles, and that when they do not they are unlikely to engage in politics. In this paper we provide evidence that such pessimistic assessments are unwarranted, though for somewhat unexpected reasons. Using data from the American Component of the 1992 Cross-National Election Project and the 2000 American National Election Study, we examine whether and under what conditions social networks facilitate interest-based voting. Our findings indicate that when networks provide unambiguous signals regarding candidates, that they serve as potentially useful information shortcuts, facilitating connections between individuals' vote decisions and their underlying preferences. And, because many Americans reside in reasonably supportive social environments, networks often help citizens make "correct" voting decisions (Lau and Redlawsk 1997). In the end, social networks appear to help shoulder the demands of democratic theory, but not by helping people learn about politics in any traditional sense.

Lawrence R. Jacobs, Fay Lomax Cook, and Michael X. Delli Carpini. Talking Together: Public Deliberation and Political Participation in America

Public Opinion Quarterly, 2009

Deliberative democracy is one of the most promising topics of conversation in the field of public... more Deliberative democracy is one of the most promising topics of conversation in the field of public opinion and behavior. Not only does it join theorists and empiricists together in a common intellectual pursuit, but interest in deliberation extends into the realm of practical politics and creates real opportunities for scholarship to affect the quality of citizenship. Nevertheless, very little effort has been devoted to understanding foundational questions, such as how deliberation gets practiced in America, by whom, and to what end. By ...

Social Networks and Voter Decision-Making

Social Expertise and the Foundations of Individual Involvement

Social Networks and Political Choices in American Democracy

This talk summarizes the context and content of my social network research agenda for an audience... more

Social Networks and Political Choices in American Democracy

This talk summarizes the context and content of my social network research agenda for an audience... more

American Political Parties

Political Behavior (Graduate)

Political Networks: Theory, Concepts, and Methods

Research Design (Graduate)

The class is a graduate-level introduction to empirical research in political science. Students w... more The class is a graduate-level introduction to empirical research in political science. Students will learn how to pose focused research questions, develop answers with theoretical frameworks, formulate and refine concepts, construct valid and reliable measures, and finally to gather data. While other methodology courses teach students how to analyze data, this class emphasizes the process of developing research questions and gathering high quality data for answering them. My goals are for students to understand 1) different styles of political science research, 2) the primary methodological issues surrounding each style of research, and 3) general standards for evaluating research.