Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: While the significance of issue ownership in voter choice and party strategy has been increasingly recognized, scholars have not paid enough attention to the questions of whether and how strategic party behaviors actually alter issue ownership. Unlike the extant literature that leaves strategic party behaviors out in determination of issue ownership, we formulate a dynamic approach to issue ownership that takes strategically-oriented policy moves by political parties as the core determinant of issue ownership. Based on the insight of the literature on policy feedback, we argue that political parties attempt to alter issue ownership though the mass policy feedback effects of strategically-oriented policy actions. We illustrate our approach in analysis of the Labour Party’s efforts under the leadership of Neil Kinnock to change the ownership of foreign and security policy, which the Conservative Party had been conventionally regarded as most competent.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This study examines the way the U.S. Federal Communications Commission is approaching its review of broadcast ownership regulations. We focus our analysis on how the twelve studies the FCC used in its review focus predominantly on economic aspects of the issue. This is troubling because it appears that the notion of the “public interest” may be relegated to questions regarding market efficiencies in this debate, as well as future policymaking decisions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: This paper examines how candidate strategy and news reporting interact to shape the content of election news. Specifically, I ask whether the issue-handling advantages that undergird the theory of "issue ownership" influence the favorability with which the news media treat candidates. Analyzing newspaper content from the 1992, 1996, and 2000 presidential campaigns, I find that press coverage for candidates improves when their party’s issues are at the center of the news. While the influence of issue ownership on favorability is not enormous, the effects are fairly consistent across the three election years and persist even when controlling for other factors. The findings suggest important implications for candidate behavior and suggest that the media may play a role in the perpetuation of partisan issue-handling reputations.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Most scholars assume firms are politically unified - at least at the industry-level. Yet recent
contributions data reveal considerable variation in political preferences exhibited among
firms in the same industry. This paper investigates what drives this intra-industry variation
in partisan preferences among corporations in the same industry. Analyzing fourteen diverse
industries during the 2006 electoral cycle, I find that firms break into two groups in their
contribution patterns. In the same industry, one type of firm contributes in a highly partisan
manner, while another type appears indifferent or contributes close to the average ration for
its industry, as existing theories predict. I develop testable hypotheses to determine whether
ownership structure helps predict which firms will be the most partisan and the greatest
deviators from their industry. I find that firms with a principal owner deviate more from
their respective industry than firms without a principal owner, regardless of the source of
capital. I conclude that the ownership structure of a firm, identifiable only through firmlevel
analysis, explains much of the variation in political behavior and therefore should be
included in formal models and empirical studies of corporate political behavior in the future.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: ABSTRACT

The Southeast U.S. has the highest HIV rates in the nation for both men and women. Domestic violence and sexual abuse are important correlates of HIV risk in women. This paper examines the links between HIV risk and domestic violence in women in a southern state. Two focus groups were convened to develop the construction of domestic violence as HIV risk and 25 personal interviews of HIV-positive women were subsequently conducted for specific information on domestic violence and HIV risk. A final focus group was conducted for verification and feedback. The theoretical framework incorporated Connell’s (1987) concept of cathexis, in which gender inequality is produced by “hostile attachments” in dyadic relationships, and also West and Zimmerman’s (1987) concept of “doing gender” through domestic violence. The interview data revealed that male partners abused women in highly sexualized ways that included rape and sexual coercion, and through jealousy, sexual name-calling and sexual threats. The structure of these sexual relationships was based on male privilege, which included access to concurrent partners for both status and power reasons, while restricting the lives of women they “owned.” Enforced ownership through rape, violence, isolation, and sexual denigration emerged as a powerful indicator of HIV risk in women.

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