Vavreck's creative theorizing and informative historical analysis will change the way political scientists think about presidential campaigns. While giving campaign strategists their overdue due, she also sheds invaluable light on how political contexts shape their strategies and their odds of success. -- Larry M. Bartels, author of "Unequal Democracy" Lynn Vavreck's message matters. She explains how and when candidate messages can clarify distinctions and gain vote share over the course of a campaign. Moving beyond puerile arguments about whether campaigns matter, Vavreck identifies critical differences among issues--and between incumbents and challengers--that determine which messages are persuasive. -- Samuel L. Popkin, University of California, San Diego I have not read a book of comparable elegance of argument and mastery of analysis in years. It is outstanding on three dimensions. In its combination of analytical depth and economy, it is a model for research on election campaigns. In its fusion of theory and empirics, it is a model for research in political science. In its principled, persistent, ingenious efforts to turn up evidence against its own hypotheses, it is a model for the social sciences. -- Paul M. Sniderman, Stanford University Professor Vavreck shows, for the first time, how the economy plays for or against political candidates in the context of their campaigns. The work is a monumental theoretical and empirical achievement that promises to become a political science classic. -- Michael S. Lewis-Beck, author of "Economics and Elections" A pathbreaking contribution to the study of American politics, The Message Matters provides new insights into how campaigns affect the magnitude of the economic vote. It will be required reading for anyone doing serious work in the field of campaigns. -- Raymond Duch, Nuffield College, University of Oxford
List of Figures xi List of Tables xiii Acknowledgments xvii Prologue xxi CHAPTER ONE: Presidential Campaigns 1 Basic Questions 2 What's Coming 3 PART I CHAPTER TWO: How and Why Campaigns Matter 9 The Challenge 10 Something's Happening in America 11 The Importance of the Economy 12 The Importance of the Media 14 A Theory of Campaign Effects 15 Integrating Literatures 16 Spatial Voting: The Past as Predictor of the Future 18 Retrospective Voting and Campaign Effects 22 Individual-Level Characteristics and Campaign Effects 23 CHAPTER THREE: Context Matters: A Campaign Typology 26 Theoretical Predictions 28 A Campaign Typology 31 Clarifying Campaigns 31 Insurgent Campaigns 32 When the Economy Is Mixed 33 Predicting Campaign Types, 1952-2000 35 PART II CHAPTER FOUR: The Media Disconnect:Media and Candidate Messages 43 Candidates' Messages and How to Measure Them 46 Advertisements and Speeches 46 Newspaper Coverage 48 Coding the Ads, Speeches, and News Coverage 53 The Content of Modern Campaigns 57 The Media Disconnect 58 CHAPTER FIVE: The Message Matters: Candidate-Level Tests of the Theory 67 Clarifying Campaigns: Dominating Economic Discussion 69 Insurgent Campaigns: Issue Selection Matters 71 Stevenson 1952 and 1956: Second Time Same as the First 76 Goldwater 1964: Just Enough Power to Get the Job Done 78 Carter 1980 and Mondale 1984:War through Strength 80 Dukakis 1988: An Unfocused American Dream 82 Insurgent Candidates Making Wise Choices 83 Kennedy 1960: High Hopes 83 Nixon 1968: Freedom from Fear or Racial Appeal? 86 Carter 1976: Outside and Honest 90 Two More Tests of the Theory at the Candidate Level 105 A More Rigorous Test of Compliance 105 Explaining the Errors in Forecasting Models 107 PART III CHAPTER SIX: The Message Matters:Microlevel Tests of the Theory 113 Clarifying Candidate Campaign Effects: Do Campaign Messages Shape Voters' Evaluations of Candidates? 115 High Fidelity? 116 Ads:Messages That Matter 120 Clarifying Candidate Campaign Effects: Do Campaign Messages Help Voters Learn about Candidates' Issue Positions? 123 Measuring Uncertainty 125 Reducing Uncertainty 128 Campaign Learning about the Economy 131 Insurgent-Candidate Campaign Effects: Changing the Debate by Increasing the Importance of Issues 134 The Most Important Problem in the Nation 137 Most Important Problem and Vote Choice 140 Insurgent Candidate Campaign Effects: Being Closer to Most Voters on the Insurgent Issue 144 The Difference in Distances 144 Differences in Distances and Vote Choice 151 The Message and Its Effects 155 CHAPTER SEVEN: Candidates Creating Context 159 Can Candidates Create the Context? 160 Creating Salience: Finding the Right Insurgent Issue 163 Appendix 167 References 191 Index 199
Lynn Vavreck is associate professor of political science at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is coeditor of Campaign Reform: Insights and Evidence and coprincipal investigator of the Cooperative Campaign Analysis Project.
"This is not just another book about the impact of the economy on elections. The Message Matters breaks new ground in showing how presidential candidates effectively use the economy when it works in their favor and how some candidates win even when the economy is working against them."--Stanley B. Greenberg, American Prospect "Lucid writing sheds light on a subject often neglected, and readers can glean some useful information."--Choice "This is an impressive book. Vavreck's main contributions are to offer a coherent theory of how economic context should condition campaign effects, to document what types of campaigns presidential candidates have run, and to show that those candidates running the campaigns she suggests have influenced the election in their favor."--Jonathan Nagler, Political Science Quarterly "Vavreck's book is an interesting and very readable contribution for people with an interest in media and election studies. The themes candidates use within American election cycles are now much better illuminated and Vavreck opens the door for a host of exciting analyses that will likely be built on The Message Matters' foundation."--Anders B. Rasmussen, MedieKultur
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