CSDP Conferences
Email CSDP
  • CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICS - CONFERENCES AND WORKSHOPS
    • WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES 2019-2020 >
      • Survey of the New American Electorate Workshop
      • Politics of Judicial Nominations conference
      • Interest Groups, Policy Outcomes, and Representation in U.S. Politics Workshop
    • Workshops and Conferences 2017-2018 >
      • US Presidency in Crisis?
      • Workshop on the Presidency and the Administrative State
      • 2017 PRINCETON CONFERENCE ON IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY
    • Workshops and Conferences 2016-2017 >
      • Real-World Impacts of Political and Legal Texts
      • Rethinking Ways to Increase Voter Turnout
      • Research Workshop: How Do Politicians Learn?
      • SSRC Anxieties of Democracy Institutions Working Group
      • 2016 PRINCETON CONFERENCE ON IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY
    • Workshops and Conferences 2015-2016 >
      • Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age -- Salganik Manuscript Workshop May 13, 2016
      • PRINCETON CONFERENCE ON IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY >
        • PAPERS 2015 Princeton Conference on Identity and Inequality
      • Conference on Experimental Approaches to the Study of Democratic Politics May 6, 2016
      • Conference on the Political Economy of Judicial Politics April 1, 2016
    • WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES 2018-2019 >
      • 2018 PRINCETON CONFERENCE ON IDENTITY AND INEQUALITY >
        • Papers 2018 Identity and Inequality conference
      • Workshop on Candidates and Competition in American Elections
      • Workshop on Democracy in the US States
      • Politics and YouTube: The Next Big Social Network
      • Workshop on Lobbying and Institutional Performance
      • Accountability and Public Policy: Festschrift in Honor of R. Douglas Arnold >
        • Papers: Accountability and Public Policy conference R. Douglas Arnold Festschrift
    • WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCES 2014-2015 >
      • Workshop on Wealth, Inequality, and Representation May 18, 2015
      • Hirano/Snyder Manuscript Workshop October 24, 2014
      • Political Polarization: Media and Communication Influences May 1, 2015
      • The Political Economy of Bureaucrats: Careers, Incentives, Rules, and Behavior May 8, 2015
    • WORKSHOPS and CONFERENCES 2013-2014 >
      • MONEY IN POLITIC$ Conference May 16, 2014
      • Political Impact of Media conference May 10-11, 2013
      • Historical Development of Modern Political Institutions March 1, 2013
      • Identifying and Addressing Challenges in Survey Research May 1-2, 2014
    • Workshops 2020-2021 >
      • Racial Attitudes in a Time of Growing Partisan Polarization
  • Workshops and Conferences 2021-2022
    • Conference on Housing Politics and Policy >
      • Panelists Housing Politics and Policy
    • Workshop: Black Politics and American Democracy >
      • Panelists
by invitation only
Picture


Electoral competition between candidates and parties is a necessary condition for democracy. This workshop will assemble papers that examine the state of competition in U.S. elections. The papers will address a variety of broad yet basic questions that have important implications for our understanding of elections, including how to measure a political candidate, why the attributes of competitors vary over time, and how changes in competition matter for the quality of American democracy. Although the papers will focus on the U.S., the themes are relevant across contexts in which competition among candidates and parties is central to political legitimacy.

​
Organized by
Danielle Thomsen
and
Nolan McCarty

8:30 – 9:00am   Breakfast        
 

9:00 – 9:15am   Opening Remarks
 

9:15 – 10:15am               
Sarah Treul, University of North Carolina
Candidate Inexperience in Congressional Primaries

Discussant: Patricia Kirkland, Princeton University
 

10:15 – 11:15am            
Adam Bonica, Stanford University
Why Are There So Many Lawyers in Congress?ajk.pdf

Discussant: Hye Young You, New York University  
 

11:15 – 11:30am   Break
 

11:30 – 12:30pm           
Stephen Ansolabehere, Harvard University
Representation, the Constituents' Perspective

Discussant: Sebastian Thieme, Princeton/CSDP Fellow
 

12:30 – 1:30pm   Lunch
 

1:30 – 2:30pm                 
Danielle Thomsen, Princeton/CSDP and University of California Irvine
Dropout Decisions in U.S. House Elections

Discussant: Nolan McCarty, Princeton University
 

2:30 – 3:30pm                
Seth Masket, University of Denver  
​The Persistence of Faction: Clinton and Sanders Supporters in the 2018 Gubernatorial Primaries

Discussant: Brandice Canes-Wrone, Princeton University
 

3:30 – 3:45pm   Break
 

3:45 – 4:30pm                 
Discussion and Concluding Remarks