Donald Green Bücher

What are the most cost-effective ways to increase voter turnout? Whether the ambition is to win elections, promote civic engagement, or bolster the legitimacy of democratic institutions, this question is of enormous significance to those who run and study campaigns. Since the original edition appeared in 2004 Get Out the Vote has become the indispensable guide to understand how to mobilize voters. Combining information from their own extensive field research and the rapidly expanding number of studies conducted by a growing network of scholars and campaign consultants, Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber bring scientific rigor to the subject, challenging much of the conventional wisdom about what works and what doesn't in political campaigns. Updated to include the newest research and published in time for the 2024 election cycle, Get Out the Vote will again be the indispensable guide to voter mobilization for campaign managers, consultants, and activists across the political spectrum. In addition, Green and Gerber provide students an accessible introduction to campaign research methodology.

This comprehensive critical evaluation examines the use of rational choice explanations in political science. In an accessible style, the authors assess rational choice theory's effectiveness in studying collective action, political party behavior, and phenomena like voting cycles and Prisoner's Dilemmas. Their critique reveals that the celebrated successes of rational choice theory are questionable and that a fundamental rethinking is necessary for meaningful contributions to political understanding. They highlight methodological defects in empirical tests of rational choice theories, stemming from the theory's tendency to defend universal political models. Consequently, many tests are poorly executed and irrelevant for evaluating these models. Properly conducted tests often undermine rational choice theories or support trivial propositions. The authors suggest ways to reformulate rational choice propositions into testable hypotheses for political study. In the concluding chapter, they address various counterarguments from rational choice theorists, initiating a dialogue that is likely to persist.

A treatment of party identification, in which three political scientists argue that identification with political parties powerfully determines how citizens look at politics and cast their ballots. They build a case for the continuing theoretical and political significance of partisan identities.

Unlike most social science textbooks on experiments, this book uses non- technical, lively examples and hands-on exercises to engage the reader. The book introduces and illustrates core principles of experimental design and analysis for audiences with no background in statistics or programming.