Political Science

Watch video from the January 9 Lunch and Learn event with David Lewis. David Lewis, assistant chair of political science, spoke on “What to Expect in Obama’s Second Term”. President Obama was reelected with 332 Electoral College votes and 50.6% of the popular vote. Internationally, he faces a number of… Read More

Tennessee voters prefer the state run the online Health Care Exchange required by the Affordable Health Care Act, according to a new poll from Vanderbilt University. More than 45 questions were asked of voters on a variety of subjects. Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast: Amazing Vanderbilt research you have to see to believe! How this “wearable robot” helps paraplegics walk! How winning a football game could influence who wins the presidency. [vucastblurb]… Read More

This Week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s online newscast: Why our obsession with stock prices is killing U.S. companies. How powerful is the shrinking undecided voter? Vanderbilt takes you from farm to fork [vucastblurb]… Read More

Mitt Romney can still win the presidential election if he can convince Americans he has the best plan to reinvigorate the economy, according to analysis by Vanderbilt professor John Geer of two new ads released by Romney’s campaign. Read More

There now is only a small and ever dwindling chance that the remaining undecided voters might influence the outcome of the presidential election, said a Vanderbilt University political scientist. Read More

Watch video from the September 21 Lunch and Learn event with John Geer. John Geer, chair of political science, spoke on “Negativity and the 2012 Presidential Campaign: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” This presidential campaign will be the most negative in modern history. Geer argued why that is… Read More

The latest political ad to be rated by the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows former president Bill Clinton doing a better job of rallying Democratic voters to re-elect President Obama than the president himself. Read More

One of Mitt Romney’s latest campaign commercials against President Barack Obama seems to be hitting a nerve among independent voters, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project shows. Read More

Positive ads from President Obama won't get the job done of defeating challenger Mitt Romney in the presidential race, data from the Vanderbilt/YouGov Ad Rating Project continues to suggest. Read More

Nearly a third of American voters finds a new ‘positive’ ad by President Obama contrasting his approach to the economy with that of Mitt Romney to be 'disgusting.' Read More

Voter reaction to campaign advertisements by the presidential candidates will be evaluated this fall through a partnership between Vanderbilt University and YouGov, a prominent research firm. Read More

The flag of the Dominican Republic (Paul Stein) One of the most important factors influencing citizens to participate actively in political campaigns in the Americas is education, according to a survey conducted by Vanderbilt University. “Working for a political party or campaign is uncommon,” the researchers wrote in a… Read More

The latest Vanderbilt poll shows Republican Mitt Romney firmly in position to win the state of Tennessee in the presidential election in November. Read More

The latest Vanderbilt Poll shows that there is a divide between the priorities of state lawmakers and the citizens they serve. Read More

How the media covers campaign advertising can influence election results. Associate professor and co-director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, Josh Clinton explains his research on the 2004 “swift boat” ads and how media coverage impacted the election. Read More

Withholding aid from governments with a reputation for corruption can have a "vicious cycle" effect that makes it very difficult for them to progress, according to analysis from the 2010 AmericasBarometer survey by The Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University. Read More

The responsibilities of family life tend to impede political participation by women in the Americas, a new study from the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University shows. Read More

This week on VUCast, Vanderbilt’s weekly newscast  highlighting research, experts, students, sports and everything Vanderbilt: Provocative Politics: the power of a sensational ad See the Civil War through the eyes of those who stayed at home Vanderbilt Emergency Medicine goes hip hop [vucastblurb]… Read More

Because racial identification is much more fluid in Latin America and the Caribbean than it is in the United States, researchers with Vanderbilt’s Latin American Public Opinion Project used actual skin color rather than racial identity to examine the effect of ethnicity on equality issues like class and educational attainment. Read More