Hello, and welcome to my final project for PSCI 413 in Fall 2020.
On this website, you'll find the constituent parts of my project, which combine to explore the new phenomenon of nationalization and polarization at the state legislative level.
Together, seven pages tell the story:
- The Introduction describes how we got here, with some history as well as contemporary observations.
- The expanded Methodology explains how I constructed a dataset to explore quantitative findings of state legislative and presidential election results, and their correlation.
- Then, I'll explain some Exceptions to the rule of polarization using statistics derived from the dataset.
- In Case Study One, we'll take a look at one Democrat from West Virginia who managed to perform exceptionally well by tailoring his views to that of his district.
- In Case Study Two, we'll observe a prominent Republican in Connecticut who was able to cut through national politics with a strong family history and a captivating personal story.
- We'll discuss some Consequences of this phenomenon, and how it can alter established electoral atmospheres.
- And the Conclusion wraps it up, with thoughts on the future developments in the area.
Enjoy!
Solly