Overview

"The increase in the ""incumbency effect"" has long dominated as a research focus and as a framework for interpreting congressional elections. This important new book challenges the empirical claim that incumbents are doing better and the research paradigm that accompanied the claim. It also offers an alternative interpretation of House elections since the 1960s. In a style that is provocative yet fair, learned, and transparent, Jeffrey Stonecash makes a two-pronged argument: frameworks and methodologies suffer when they stop being critically considered, and patterns of House elections over the long term actually reflect party change and realignment. A must-read for scholars and students of congressional elections."

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9781138479869

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Praise for Interpreting Congressional Elections In this provocative book, Jeffrey Stonecash challenges one of American political science's central findings of the past half-century: the increased safety of congressional incumbents. Demonstrating that powerful normative assumptions have been built around what is essentially a data artifact, he persuasively argues that incumbency advantages are repeatedly misidentified and miscalculated by ignoring strategic retirements, partisan differences, and long-term realignment. Seth Masket, University of Denver

Author Information

Jeffrey M. Stonecash is Emeritus Maxwell Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University. He is the author or editor of over twenty books on American political parties, polling, and elections.

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