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7 - Politicians Are People, Too

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2025

Kevin Arceneaux
Affiliation:
Sciences Po, Paris
Johanna Dunaway
Affiliation:
Syracuse University
Martin Johnson
Affiliation:
Louisiana State University
Ryan J. Vander Wielen
Affiliation:
State University of New York, Stony Brook
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Summary

In this concluding chapter, we review our findings in the context of our initial pre-analysis plan and discuss the limitations of our studies. We then analyze the implications of our study and findings for their scholarly contributions and discuss next steps for future research. We conclude with a discussion of the normative implications of our findings. Despite the hubbub about Fox News being a bull-in-the-china shop, its effects on politicians were contingent on the context of the district they represented. Even if its effects were circumscribed, our evidence shows that the consequences were real. The implications of our findings are twofold. On the one hand, it throws some cold water on the popular notion that Fox News was a right-wing bulldozer that pulled American politics uniformly in a conservative direction. On the other hand, it makes clear that standard theoretical models of congressional behavior are founded on an assumption that, while useful, is most certainly flawed. Namely, politicians are not fully informed rational calculators. Politicians are people.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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