Brookings Press Blog

Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed. Reviewed in The American Prospect

Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed., by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber, receives a glowing review in the July/August issue of The American Prospect. You can view the article online here.

The first edition of Get Out the Vote! broke ground by introducing a new scientific approach to the challenge of voter mobilization and profoundly influenced how campaigns operate. In this expanded and updated edition, the authors incorporate data from more than one hundred new studies, which shed new light on the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of various campaign tactics, including door-to-door canvassing, e-mail, direct mail, and telephone calls. Two new chapters focus on the effectiveness of mass media campaigns and events such as candidate forums and Election Day festivals. Available in time for the core of the 2008 presidential campaign, this practical guide on voter mobilization is sure to be an important resource for consultants, candidates, and grassroots organizations.

- Read Harold Meyerson's review, "Make it Personal: Two political scientists challenge the conventional wisdom about voter turnout," in The American Prospect.

- Learn more about Get Out the Vote, 2nd ed.

Early Buzz for a Workbook for the New President

What Do We Do Now? Will offer advice on everything from selecting a cabinet to picking a desk for the Oval Office

Psst…check out this “Washington Whisper” from the latest U.S. News & World Report. The post is titled “A Beginner’s Guide Clinton Really Needed” and it comes complete with a cartoon of Bill Clinton wearing a dunce cap. The piece is on a forthcoming Brookings Institution Press book by Stephen Hess, a presidential expert here at Brookings. What Do We Do Now? A Workbook for the President-Elect will be available in October, just in time for an election week publication.

- Check out the "Washington Whisper" column featuring What Do We Do Now?

Front-loading and the Presidential Primaries

The compression and hastening of the nomination season are changing the nature of the presidential selection process

The race for the White House may seem like a marathon, but the nomination process is becoming a sprint, with the starting gun fired earlier each time. Where state primaries and caucuses were once spread out over a period of three or four months, most are now crammed into a four—or five—week interval at the very beginning of the delegate selection calendar. Despite the importance of this issue in American politics, however, too little systematic analysis has been done on the topic. The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations, by William G. Mayer and Andrew E. Busch, offers a comprehensive examination of the front-loading problem in all its facets.

- Check out the Democratic primary schedule.

- Check out the Republican primary schedule.

- Recent and forthcoming Brookings books on campaigns and elections:

• NEW! The Swing Voter in American Politics, edited by William G. Mayer
• NEW! Voting Technology: The Not-So-Simple Act of Casting a Ballot, by Paul S. Herrnson, Richard G. Niemi, Michael J. Hanmer, and others
• COMING SOON! Get Out the Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout, 2nd edition, by Donald P. Green and Alan S. Gerber
• A Matter of Faith: Religion in the 2004 Presidential Election, edited by David E. Campbell
• The Marketplace of Democracy: Electoral Competition and American Politics, edited by Michael P. McDonald and John Samples

Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America's Next President

Brookings book launches an intense focus on issues, not partisanship

The book Opportunity 08 emerges from a special bipartisan project created by Brookings, in partnership with ABC News, to offer solutions to America’s most pressing policy challenges. This new book will help candidates, the media, and voters focus on the critical issues at stake in the first presidential election since 1928 that does not include an incumbent president or vice president.

The diverse roster of contributors to Opportunity 08 reflects an impressive breadth of expertise, opinions, and political beliefs. This team of experts addresses voters’ demand to hear more about issues and less about partisan politics by presenting authoritative analysis and innovative policy solutions on a wide array of domestic and foreign policy questions.

Furthermore, this volume contextualizes these crafted plans for action by explaining not simply what should be done but why it should be done. This framework serves as a launching pad for a sharp focus on specific issues, which shapes the three distinct sections of the book. Part One of the book is titled "Our World," and its topics include the challenge of dealing with Iran, the rise of China, climate change, oil dependence, Middle East peace and the future of Iraq. Part Two, "Our Society," features accessible treatment of domestic issues such as voting reform; housing policy; poverty, inequality, and upward economic mobility. Part III, "Our Prosperity," tackles vexing problems such as the budget deficit, health care access and quality, retirement security, and the challenge of strengthening information technology in the United States.

- Learn more about Opporunity 08.

- Learn more about the Opportunity 08 Research Project.

The Results Are In: Climate Change Tops the Charts

Our “issues election” at BookExpo America 2007 focused on the issues that most concern this year’s attendees

This year at BookExpo America, we polled the attendees about which issues were most important to them. In keeping with the idea of the forthcoming book Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America’s Next President, the poll focused the discussion on today’s pertinent issues rather than the presidential candidates and their views. Members of the Press whittled the 26 topics presented in Opportunity 08 down to 5: climate change, health care, homeland security, immigration, and Iraq.

Our booth at BEA had five canisters, each labeled with one of the five topics. Attendees were asked to place a marble in the canister for the issue that was of most importance to them; this type of voting eliminated the possibly partisan stance of the voter and solely measured the amount of interest in the topic itself. Climate change, the winner of our marble poll, received 31.55% percent of the votes, beating out Iraq by 3 percentage points. Health care came in third with 26.13% of the votes. Surprisingly (to us, at least), immigration received just 7.82% of the votes and homeland security garnered only 6.04%.

The goal of our issues election was to focus on the issues that matter to voters in this unusually wide-open presidential election. The results indicate substantial interest in more dialogue on climate change, the situation in Iraq, and the health care system.

Citizens are clearly saying they want to hear more from candidates about the issues and less about partisan politics. Opportunity 08 aims to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation, providing ideas, policy forums, and information on a broad range of domestic and foreign policy questions.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the book.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the project.

- Learn more about BookExpo America.

Candid Candidates

Presidential Contenders Talk about Religion at the Sojourners Presidential Forum

On June 4, Sojourners hosted three leading contenders for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination—John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton—for the first-ever candidates’ forum on faith and values. In this forum, which illustrated the potential role that religion could play in the 2008 race, the candidates spoke with remarkable frankness as a panel of religious leaders questioned their personal experiences with religion and the effect of faith on their political views.

The discussion touched on a number of religious themes. When asked about the greatest sin he has committed, Edwards replied, “If I have had a day in my 54 years where I haven't sinned multiple times, I would be amazed.” Senator Obama spoke of people’s “mutual responsibilities” that “have to express themselves, not just through our churches, and our synagogues, and our mosques, and our temples, not only in our own families, but they have to express themselves through our government.” Senator Clinton responded to questions about infidelity in her marriage by saying, “I had a grounding in faith that gave me the courage and the strength to do what I thought was right, regardless of what the world thought.”

After the 2004 presidential election, many analysts argued that the election had been decided along religious lines, pointing to exit polls, strong turnout among evangelicals, and controversy over gay marriage. In A Matter of Faith, editor David E. Campbell and additional contributors assess the role religion played in the 2004 election and explore its significance for future contests. While we have yet to see the extent of religion’s impact on the 2008 election, this book suggests that religion has the potential to wield a powerful influence. Surely yesterday’s forum was just the beginning.

- Read the transcript of the Sojourners Presidential Forum.

- Learn more about A Matter of Faith.

2008’s Super-Duper Tuesday

Essential Reading to Understand the Effects of the Front-Loaded Primary Season

With New York state signing legislation earlier this week, nearly twelve states are now scheduled to hold their presidential primaries as early as February 5th. According to pollster Maurice Carroll in today’s Washington Post, the effect of such a hastened nomination process and elongated general election season will be, "Chaos and stupidity and poll-driven politics.”

The presidential selection process—the most visible pillar of American democracy—is changing drastically and many are worrying about how the issue will affect American politics. Today’s Washington Post article hints at this problem, but for a more detailed account of the consequences, check out William G. Mayer and Andrew E. Busch’s book, The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations. Mayer and Busch define the parameters of the front-loading question as well as its impact. They trace the history that shaped the current nomination system and explain why it is such a critical element of presidential elections.

- Read the Washington Post article, "New York State Joins Slate of Feb. 5 Primaries."

- Learn more about The Front-Loading Problem in Presidential Nominations.

Is There a Culture War?

Authors of New Brookings Book Say "Yes" and "No"

The bitterness of the 2006 midterm elections seems to demonstrate the increasingly polarized nature of American politics. Phrases such as “Religious Right” and the “Liberal Media,” have been used to characterize today’s political players. But the authors of a new Brookings volume say it is debatable whether the country is so clearly and bitterly divided. Is There a Culture War? A Dialogue on Values and American Public Life (Brookings, 2006), written by two leading political analysts, James Davison Hunter, executive director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, and Alan Wolfe, director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, brings together the scholars for the first time to clarify their political philosophies and to search for the truth about America’s cultural condition.

- Learn more about Is There a Culture War?.