Negative Campaigning An Analysis of U.S. Senate Elections

Just in time for an assessment of election 2004, two distinguished political scientists bring us a sophisticated analysis of negative campaigns for the Senate from 1992 to 2002. The results of their study are surprising and challenge conventional wisdom: negative campaigning has dominated relatively few elections over the past dozen years, there is little evidence that it has had a deleterious effect on our political system, and it is not a particularly effective campaign strategy. These analyses bring novel empirical techniques to the study of basic normative questions of democratic theory and practice.

Richard R. Lau is professor of political science and director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Study of Elections, Campaigns, and Democracy at Rutgers University in New Brunswick Gerald M. Pomper is Board of Governors Professor of Political Science (Emeritus) at Rutgers University and the Eagleton Institute of Politics in New Brunswick