Jeffrey Stonecash

Degree

Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1975

Specialties

Political parties, realignment of their electoral bases, and the impact of changing alignments on the nature of policy debates

Courses

Biography

Degrees :

B.A., Muskingum College, Economics and Political Science, 1969
M.A., University of Virginia, Economics, 1970
M.A., Northwestern University, Political Science, 1973 
Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1975

Publications

Research Projects

The Curious Pursuit of the Incumbency Effect.  In the 1970s academics began a persistent effort to explain the rising incumbency effect, or the ability of incumbents to increase their vote percentage and ward off challengers.  The presumption was that an increase began in the 1960s.  Subsequent analyses indicate that there was little increase and that which did occur was only for Republicans.  It was partisan and not general.  The focus of this book is how and why could academics have spent 40 years seeking to explain a change that did not occur.  It is a study of the sociology of knowledge and how that creates a consensus on research questions, even when supporting empirical evidence is questionable.