This recording features a panel of faculty who have successfully navigated promotion and tenure p... more This recording features a panel of faculty who have successfully navigated promotion and tenure processes at the University of Maine offering strategies, tips and their best advice to colleagues preparing for promotion and/or tenure.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/risingtide_videos/1002/thumbnail.jp
This paper argues that distrust in government is not an inadvertent byproduct of economic change,... more This paper argues that distrust in government is not an inadvertent byproduct of economic change, scandals, and cultural and identity politics, but rather grows out of strategic efforts to promote and harness it for political purposes. Elites encouraging distrust interact with grassroots movements, which they can only loosely direct and control. Identifying four strategic benefits of distrust: organizational, electoral, institutional and policy, the paper discusses how Republicans and conservative movement organizations in the Tea Party age used distrust to develop groups and achieve coherence, try to influence primaries and win elections, argue for the constitutional powers of institutions they control, and seek to influence public policy. Paying special attention to health policy, we examine how, after distrust was successfully used to thwart President Bill Clinton’s proposed reforms, it was employed to try to stop and then to exact a price for President Barack Obama’s passage of ...
Page 1. Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988* John L. Sullivan, University... more Page 1. Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988* John L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota Amy Fried, Colgate University Mary G. Dietz, University of Minnesota Recent circumstantial and journalistic evidence suggests that the patriotism issue may have ...
Rising Tide Policy Advocate and oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at the University of Ma... more Rising Tide Policy Advocate and oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at the University of Maine. She is also the co-leader of the Maine chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network. Fried's political science research largely focuses on the history and political uses of public opinion in the United States. Her major works include "Muffled Echoes: Oliver North and the Politics of Public Opinion," (Columbia University Press) and "Pathways to Polling: Crisis, Cooperation, and the Making of Public Opinion Professions," (Routledge). Fried provides analysis to a wide range of media outlets. She also writes a biweekly column for the Bangor Daily News, where she also blogs (at pollways.com) on politics, public opinion and public policy.
This paper focuses on U.S. government monitoring of racial tensions during World War II. Using a ... more This paper focuses on U.S. government monitoring of racial tensions during World War II. Using a historical-institutionalist view of the development of public opinion research, the paper focuses on institutional goals and political contexts and contributes to literature on race and the New Deal coalition. With particular attention to studies in agricultural areas in the South, polls comparing black and white workers, analyses of reactions to Detroit’s Sojourner Truth housing project for black workers and responses to the pamphlet “Negroes and the War,” the paper shows that public opinion studies were among the technological toolkit of concerted policy planning and implementation that were crafted in the context of racial segregation and white supremacy. While distaste for racial animus existed within the administrative state, bureaucrats had limited power to influence how policies and programs developed and, ultimately, to maintain support for their endeavors. Reactions to the opini...
1. Building the Polls 2. Media, Markets and Men from Mars 3. From the Fields of Hunger through th... more 1. Building the Polls 2. Media, Markets and Men from Mars 3. From the Fields of Hunger through the Cauldron of War 4. Pols, Politics and Polls 5. "Survivors of the More Recent Wreck" 6. A Defense Against "Extensive and Unjustified Repercussions" 7. Diverging Paths
Maine's 2016 elections brought a good deal of change that attracted national attention, inclu... more Maine's 2016 elections brought a good deal of change that attracted national attention, including its casting an electoral vote for a Republican for the first time since 1988. Maine's ballot initiatives brought new policies that attracted widespread attention as well. But what did not change is how Governor Paul LePage has found himself at loggerheads with the state legislature, and also with voters over their choices in the 2016 election. In fact, while a lot of change may have seemed to be in the air both during and after the election, so far what's remarkable is what hasn't changed-with the notable exception of Maine's vote for president.2016 Presidential RaceIn every election since 1992, Maine had given all four of its electoral votes to the Democratic presidential candidate. The presidential election of 2016 marked a break from this pattern when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took one of Maine's four electoral votes. Hillary Clinton, who ...
AbstractIn recent years, many states passed laws restricting voting. Maine followed suit in 2011 ... more AbstractIn recent years, many states passed laws restricting voting. Maine followed suit in 2011 but, unlike those states, the law-which ended election-day registration-was reversed at the ballot box. This paper explains what happened in Maine by pointing to a series of cultural and political factors, some of which interacted. Key elements were Maine's civic culture and pride in high levels of civic participation, the existence of the referendum option, the creation of an effective coalition and organizational structure to restore the practice, messaging choices, and extensive publicity about unproven fraud allegations. Supporters of the law were less well-funded and organized and received their strongest support in areas of the state where Governor LePage had received his highest proportions of the vote in the 2010 election. Future analyses of activities involving state-level voting laws should take account of political culture, organizational efforts, and political dynamics.Vo...
For decades, Republicans and American conservatives have cultivated and employed public distrust ... more For decades, Republicans and American conservatives have cultivated and employed public distrust in government to garner strategic benefits. But officeholders have typically behaved with restraint in running for reelection, limiting their pursuit of electoral self-interest at the expense of the political system they are sworn to "preserve, protect, and defend." President Trump has shown little interest in such restraint, and his attacks on the electoral process could produce grave social and political consequences in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In 2018, Maine became the first American state to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congr... more In 2018, Maine became the first American state to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congressional elections. In a decentralized system of election administration local officials play an important role implementing new voting rules. We examine the implementation of ranked choice voting based on a survey of municipal clerks and interviews with several election officials in Maine. We test hypotheses derived from policy implementation theory in assessing election officials' evaluations of ranked choice voting. We find that most municipal clerks in our sample are not enthusiastic about implementing ranked choice voting and do not want to continue its use in Maine. In addition, there are strong partisan divisions, with Democratic clerks offering much more positive assessments of ranked choice voting than Republican clerks. We also find differences in voter education efforts across jurisdictions. The findings raise concerns about the implementation of ranked choice voting in Maine.
This paper examines the two different routes to endorsing marriage equality at the ballot box tak... more This paper examines the two different routes to endorsing marriage equality at the ballot box taken by Maine and Washington states. We argue that the states’ pro-marriage equality campaigns mattered. These were more intensive endeavors than many campaigns. They drew from applied social science attitude research, used such knowledge in training staff and volunteers, and made modifications based on its persuasive results. Communication across states promoted commonalities even as each campaign organization created local variations. Likewise the sequence of previous gay-rights efforts in each state established its own particular path to marriage equality. Diffusion and learning and intensive person-to-person techniques were key contributors to these successful campaigns.
This recording features a panel of faculty who have successfully navigated promotion and tenure p... more This recording features a panel of faculty who have successfully navigated promotion and tenure processes at the University of Maine offering strategies, tips and their best advice to colleagues preparing for promotion and/or tenure.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/risingtide_videos/1002/thumbnail.jp
This paper argues that distrust in government is not an inadvertent byproduct of economic change,... more This paper argues that distrust in government is not an inadvertent byproduct of economic change, scandals, and cultural and identity politics, but rather grows out of strategic efforts to promote and harness it for political purposes. Elites encouraging distrust interact with grassroots movements, which they can only loosely direct and control. Identifying four strategic benefits of distrust: organizational, electoral, institutional and policy, the paper discusses how Republicans and conservative movement organizations in the Tea Party age used distrust to develop groups and achieve coherence, try to influence primaries and win elections, argue for the constitutional powers of institutions they control, and seek to influence public policy. Paying special attention to health policy, we examine how, after distrust was successfully used to thwart President Bill Clinton’s proposed reforms, it was employed to try to stop and then to exact a price for President Barack Obama’s passage of ...
Page 1. Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988* John L. Sullivan, University... more Page 1. Patriotism, Politics, and the Presidential Election of 1988* John L. Sullivan, University of Minnesota Amy Fried, Colgate University Mary G. Dietz, University of Minnesota Recent circumstantial and journalistic evidence suggests that the patriotism issue may have ...
Rising Tide Policy Advocate and oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at the University of Ma... more Rising Tide Policy Advocate and oversees the Maine Policy Scholar Program at the University of Maine. She is also the co-leader of the Maine chapter of the Scholars Strategy Network. Fried's political science research largely focuses on the history and political uses of public opinion in the United States. Her major works include "Muffled Echoes: Oliver North and the Politics of Public Opinion," (Columbia University Press) and "Pathways to Polling: Crisis, Cooperation, and the Making of Public Opinion Professions," (Routledge). Fried provides analysis to a wide range of media outlets. She also writes a biweekly column for the Bangor Daily News, where she also blogs (at pollways.com) on politics, public opinion and public policy.
This paper focuses on U.S. government monitoring of racial tensions during World War II. Using a ... more This paper focuses on U.S. government monitoring of racial tensions during World War II. Using a historical-institutionalist view of the development of public opinion research, the paper focuses on institutional goals and political contexts and contributes to literature on race and the New Deal coalition. With particular attention to studies in agricultural areas in the South, polls comparing black and white workers, analyses of reactions to Detroit’s Sojourner Truth housing project for black workers and responses to the pamphlet “Negroes and the War,” the paper shows that public opinion studies were among the technological toolkit of concerted policy planning and implementation that were crafted in the context of racial segregation and white supremacy. While distaste for racial animus existed within the administrative state, bureaucrats had limited power to influence how policies and programs developed and, ultimately, to maintain support for their endeavors. Reactions to the opini...
1. Building the Polls 2. Media, Markets and Men from Mars 3. From the Fields of Hunger through th... more 1. Building the Polls 2. Media, Markets and Men from Mars 3. From the Fields of Hunger through the Cauldron of War 4. Pols, Politics and Polls 5. "Survivors of the More Recent Wreck" 6. A Defense Against "Extensive and Unjustified Repercussions" 7. Diverging Paths
Maine's 2016 elections brought a good deal of change that attracted national attention, inclu... more Maine's 2016 elections brought a good deal of change that attracted national attention, including its casting an electoral vote for a Republican for the first time since 1988. Maine's ballot initiatives brought new policies that attracted widespread attention as well. But what did not change is how Governor Paul LePage has found himself at loggerheads with the state legislature, and also with voters over their choices in the 2016 election. In fact, while a lot of change may have seemed to be in the air both during and after the election, so far what's remarkable is what hasn't changed-with the notable exception of Maine's vote for president.2016 Presidential RaceIn every election since 1992, Maine had given all four of its electoral votes to the Democratic presidential candidate. The presidential election of 2016 marked a break from this pattern when Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump took one of Maine's four electoral votes. Hillary Clinton, who ...
AbstractIn recent years, many states passed laws restricting voting. Maine followed suit in 2011 ... more AbstractIn recent years, many states passed laws restricting voting. Maine followed suit in 2011 but, unlike those states, the law-which ended election-day registration-was reversed at the ballot box. This paper explains what happened in Maine by pointing to a series of cultural and political factors, some of which interacted. Key elements were Maine's civic culture and pride in high levels of civic participation, the existence of the referendum option, the creation of an effective coalition and organizational structure to restore the practice, messaging choices, and extensive publicity about unproven fraud allegations. Supporters of the law were less well-funded and organized and received their strongest support in areas of the state where Governor LePage had received his highest proportions of the vote in the 2010 election. Future analyses of activities involving state-level voting laws should take account of political culture, organizational efforts, and political dynamics.Vo...
For decades, Republicans and American conservatives have cultivated and employed public distrust ... more For decades, Republicans and American conservatives have cultivated and employed public distrust in government to garner strategic benefits. But officeholders have typically behaved with restraint in running for reelection, limiting their pursuit of electoral self-interest at the expense of the political system they are sworn to "preserve, protect, and defend." President Trump has shown little interest in such restraint, and his attacks on the electoral process could produce grave social and political consequences in the aftermath of the 2020 election.
In 2018, Maine became the first American state to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congr... more In 2018, Maine became the first American state to use ranked choice voting in statewide and congressional elections. In a decentralized system of election administration local officials play an important role implementing new voting rules. We examine the implementation of ranked choice voting based on a survey of municipal clerks and interviews with several election officials in Maine. We test hypotheses derived from policy implementation theory in assessing election officials' evaluations of ranked choice voting. We find that most municipal clerks in our sample are not enthusiastic about implementing ranked choice voting and do not want to continue its use in Maine. In addition, there are strong partisan divisions, with Democratic clerks offering much more positive assessments of ranked choice voting than Republican clerks. We also find differences in voter education efforts across jurisdictions. The findings raise concerns about the implementation of ranked choice voting in Maine.
This paper examines the two different routes to endorsing marriage equality at the ballot box tak... more This paper examines the two different routes to endorsing marriage equality at the ballot box taken by Maine and Washington states. We argue that the states’ pro-marriage equality campaigns mattered. These were more intensive endeavors than many campaigns. They drew from applied social science attitude research, used such knowledge in training staff and volunteers, and made modifications based on its persuasive results. Communication across states promoted commonalities even as each campaign organization created local variations. Likewise the sequence of previous gay-rights efforts in each state established its own particular path to marriage equality. Diffusion and learning and intensive person-to-person techniques were key contributors to these successful campaigns.
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