This dissertation consists of three essays that address the roles that political parties play in aggregating individual preferences into aggregate choices and the methods used to draw the inferences. The first essay addresses the many scholars who suggest proportional representation increases party mobilization by creating nationally competitive districts that give parties an incentive to mobilize everywhere. This chapter provides theoretical and empirical evidence that brings this claim into question. I propose, unlike earlier scholars, that the positive effect of district competitiveness on party mobilization efforts increases as electoral districts become more \textit{dis}proportional, arguing that disproportionality itself encourages mobilization and exaggerates the impact of competitiveness on mobilization. Game-theoretic predictions tested with individual-level survey data from national legislative elections show mobilization levels are much higher and that district competitiveness has a much larger positive effect on parties' mobilization efforts in single-member districts. Overall, the theoretical and empirical evidence suggests that proportional electoral rules give parties no strong incentive to mobilize anywhere. The second essay addresses a sizable literature in comparative electoral institutions that argues that proportional electoral rules lead to higher voter turnout. However, recent work finds little evidence that the effect generalizes beyond western Europe, and the theoretical arguments remain sparse, incomplete, and contradictory. Using a unique data set to resolve problems of omitted variable bias and methods recently introduced to political scientists to address model uncertainty and evaluate evidence both for and against null hypotheses, I find strong evidence that the proportionality of electoral rules exerts no meaningful effect on turnout or any of the theoretical mechanisms I test. The third essay uses an influential study of political parties to discuss methods of testing hypotheses. A substantial number of important hypotheses in political science suggest that potential explanatory variables should have no meaningful effect on an outcome of interest. Without testing these hypotheses, empirical evaluation of many theoretical arguments remains incomplete, but the political methodology literature has not offered a compelling approach. As a solution, I introduce a method for testing hypotheses of no meaningful effect that meets political scientists' conventional expectations for tests and can be easily implemented using already available software. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Political Science in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 11, 2013. / political methodology, political parties / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert Jackson, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; David A. Siegel, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Deb Sinha, University Representative; Jason Barabas, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183867 |
| Contributors | Rainey, Robert Carlisle (authoraut), Jackson, Robert (professor co-directing dissertation), Siegel, David A. (professor co-directing dissertation), Sinha, Deb (university representative), Barabas, Jason (committee member), Department of Political Science (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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