Research

On a substantive level, my research focuses on conservative groups, ideas, institutions, and rhetoric in modern American politics.  My first book (University of Chicago Press, 2000) investigated the political activities of business, finding that business unifies only on issues that also present strong incentives for officeholders to respond to constituent sentiment and that make election outcomes important determinants of policy change.  Business's political fortunes under those conditions depend more on a favorable climate of public opinion than on its own efforts to advance its interests, though business associations also gain noticeable returns from shaping public opinion.  My second book (Princeton University Press, 2007) studies how, why, and with what effects conservative intellectuals and leaders of the Republican party, from the early 1970s to the present, reformulated their rhetoric to incorporate a stronger economic component.  A long-term rise of economic insecurity prompted the right to highlight the potential economic benefits of its policies on taxation, regulation, and the welfare state while downplaying arguments conservatives formerly made that rested on other grounds.  In my current project I am examining the Christian right, showing how its political stances have reflected a tension between a literal interpretation of Biblical passages and the pragmatic need to remain within the confines of enduring American values.

On a theoretical level, my research examines the connections between elite politics and mass politics.  The public sometimes influences government policies through political participation and through the responsiveness of officeholders to constituent opinions.  At the same time, citizen opinions and behaviors react to, and are formulated within, the political system and communication environment in which people find themselves.  Politicians, interest groups, and issue activists strive to mold and channel public opinion in attempting to build electoral coalitions and mobilize support for proposals.  The most interesting questions for me involve these processes of mutual influence among the public and political elites. In my various works, I have sought to determine the conditions under which public opinion does and does not affect public policy; the ways interest groups can alternatively block or facilitate the translation of mass views into government policies; how intellectuals, parties, and other political entities adapt their messages to fit the possibilities and constraints of public opinion; and how rhetorical messages that change in response to conditions and events in society become more likely to attract popular support.

Within the categories used in political science, my research can be characterized as centering on American politics with an emphasis on public opinion, political communication, interest groups, political economy, American political development, and religion and politics.