ID | 140171 |
Title Proper | Party activists as campaign advertisers |
Other Title Information | the ground campaign as a principal-agent problem |
Language | ENG |
Author | Enos, Ryan D ; Hersh, Eitan D |
Summary / Abstract (Note) | As a key element of their strategy, recent Presidential campaigns have recruited thousands of workers to engage in direct voter contact. We conceive of this strategy as a principal-agent problem. Workers engaged in direct contact are intermediaries between candidates and voters, but they may be ill-suited to convey messages to general-election audiences. By analyzing a survey of workers fielded in partnership with the 2012 Obama campaign, we show that in the context of the campaign widely considered most adept at direct contact, individuals who were interacting with swing voters on the campaign’s behalf were demographically unrepresentative, ideologically extreme, cared about atypical issues, and misunderstood the voters’ priorities. We find little evidence that the campaign was able to use strategies of agent control to mitigate its principal-agent problem. We question whether individuals typically willing to be volunteer surrogates are productive agents for a strategic campaign. |
`In' analytical Note | American Political Science Review Vol. 109, No.2; May 2015: p.252-278 |
Journal Source | American Political Science Review 2015-06 109, 2 |
Key Words | Principal - Agent Problem ; Party Activists ; Campaign Advertisers ; Ground Campaign ; Obama Campaign ; Demographically Unrepresentative ; Ideologically Extreme |