1st Edition
Competitive Elections and Democracy in America The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
1. Are You Ready to Rumble? It is Election Season Again! 2. The "Good": How Competitive Elections Positively Affect Citizens and Democracy. 3. The "Bad": How Competitive Elections Negatively Affect Citizens and Democracy. 4. The "Ugly": Competitive Elections are More Negative, Even on Twitter. 5. Final Thoughts on Competition
Biography
Heather K. Evans is an Assistant Professor at Sam Houston State University. Her research interests include youth political engagement, elections, female representation in the discipline, and the effect of entertainment media on political attitudes. Her research has been published in PS: Political Science and Politics and the Journal of Political Science Education.
"Competitive Elections: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly examines an important topic that has far-reaching consequences for democracy. Evans does a great job discussing competing perspectives of competitive elections and brings unique data to bear on these questions. This book offers significant contributions to the study of American politics."
—Jennifer Hayes Clark, University of Houston
"Heather Evans provides a fresh perspective about the role of competition in American congressional elections. While she supports the conventional wisdom that competitiveness can be very healthy for American democracy, she supplies evidence for some of the less heralded downsides it generates in politics as well. Evans successfully points out that understanding both sides of this equation is crucial to fairly evaluate the quality of the electoral system in the United States."
—Brian Frederick, Bridgewater State University
