John R. Petrocik
Office: 209 Professional Bldg.
Phone: 573-882-2843
Email: Petrocik@missouri.edu
CV (pdf)
John R. Petrocik (Professor and Chair) joined the Department in July 1, 1999 to serve as chair. He received his Ph.D. in 1976 from the University of Chicago. His specialty is electoral politics, with particular emphasis on public opinion and voting, and political parties.
Research Statement
I have authored or coauthored books and research articles on mass attitudes and behavior, political parties, and elections and campaigns. One of the books, The Changing American Voter (Harvard University Press, 1976, Revised 1979) received the Woodrow Wilson award in 1977 from the American Political Science Association for the best book on American politics in that year. I just completed a coauthored book that examines several popular myths about American voting and public opinion (Unconventional Wisdom, Oxford University Press, forthcoming). A long-standing current project is a book which analyzes the role of candidates in setting the issue criteria with which voters choose among candidates. The working title of the manuscript is “Issue Ownership in American Presidential Elections.” Although a focus of much of my research is the attitudes and behavior of citizens, I am not primarily interested in public opinion or questions of political psychology. My research has consistently attempted to place opinion and behavior in an institutional and social context because I am less interested in the personal psychology, philosophical, or moral views that shape opinion than I am in the social group dynamics and institutional structures (the character of party alignments, election laws, etc) that moderate or implement the expression of individual motivations. In general, my research in recent years has emphasized the social basis of politics and the influence of social divisions on electoral politics. This has taken several forms, but two examples may indicate how this perspective shapes his research.
Courses Taught
Political Parties (Undergraduate)
Political Behavior (Undergraduate, and typically in a Capstone context)
Survey Research Methods (Undergraduate)
Introductory Statistics for Political Science (Graduate)
American Political Behavior (Graduate)
Research in American Politics (Graduate)
Recent Representative Publications
"The Surprise of the Seats not Lost" (working paper)
Unconventional Wisdom: Facts and Myths about American Voters. 2008. Oxford University Press.
"Party Coalitions In The American Public: Morality Politics, Issue Agendas, and The 2004 Election." 2006. In The State of the Parties, John C. Green and Daniel Coffey, Editors Rowman and Littlefield.
"Redistricting and Incumbency: The New Voter Effect." 2005. Redistricting in the New Millennium. Peter Galderisi. Ed. Lexington Books.
"Incumbency and Short-term Influences on Voters." 2004. Political Research Quarterly.
"Hard Facts:" The Media and Elections, with a look at 2000 and 2002." 2004. In Campaigns and Elections American Style. James Thurber and Candice Nelson, Eds.
"Issue Ownership and Presidential Campaigning, 1952-2000." Political Science Quarterly. (Winter 2003-2004).
"The Variable Incumbent Advantage: New Voters, Redistricting, and the Personal Vote." American Journal of Political Science (January, 2003).