INTERESTS
My research interests involve extending and applying theories of comparative political institutions and electoral incentives to distributive policymaking, representation, and bureaucratic behavior. In particular, I’m interested in explaining how political institutions such as electoral rules and executive-legislative arrangements systematically affect how elected officials and bureaucrats address policy issues that have local impacts. I am also interested in how elected and bureaucratic officials leverage science, evidence, and opinions in their policy decisions. Most of my empirical applications focus on climate change and the environment; I focus on these areas not only because they are well-suited for hypothesis testing, but because they are two of the greatest challenges facing the 21st century.
Related to this substantive work, I’m interested in developing computational text approaches for measuring the latent preferences and decision calculus of elected and bureaucratic officials, and utilizing geocoded indicators of social, political, and natural phenomena to test relationships. I exploit the timing and content of legislative and policy activities (such as speeches and policy documents) and use a combination of text mining, regression, spatial, and qualitative approaches in analyses. Alongside this research, I collaborate on projects that seek to improve measurement strategies for party scaling and party competition. Accurate measures are critical for advancing our understanding of how institutions and other political factors influence elite incentives and decisions.
My research has been funded by the UC Office of the President, the APSA Centennial Center, the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas-Tinker Foundation, and the UC Davis Political Science Department.
Related to this substantive work, I’m interested in developing computational text approaches for measuring the latent preferences and decision calculus of elected and bureaucratic officials, and utilizing geocoded indicators of social, political, and natural phenomena to test relationships. I exploit the timing and content of legislative and policy activities (such as speeches and policy documents) and use a combination of text mining, regression, spatial, and qualitative approaches in analyses. Alongside this research, I collaborate on projects that seek to improve measurement strategies for party scaling and party competition. Accurate measures are critical for advancing our understanding of how institutions and other political factors influence elite incentives and decisions.
My research has been funded by the UC Office of the President, the APSA Centennial Center, the Hemispheric Institute on the Americas-Tinker Foundation, and the UC Davis Political Science Department.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Fleischman, F., Struthers, C.L., Arnold, G., Dockry, M., and Scott, T. 2020. “US Forest Service Implementation of the National Environmental Policy Act: Fast, Variable, Rarely Litigated, and Declining”. Journal of Forestry. https://doi.org/10.1093/jofore/fvaa016
This paper draws on systematic data from the US Forest Service’s (USFS) Planning, Appeals and Litigation System to analyze how the agency conducts environmental impact assessments under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We find that only 1.9 percent of the 33,976 USFS decisions between 2005 and 2018 were processed as Environmental Impact Statements, the most rigorous and time-consuming level of analysis, whereas 82.3 percent of projects fit categorical exclusions. The median time to complete a NEPA analysis was 131 days. The number of new projects has declined dramatically in this period, with the USFS now initiating less than half as many projects per year as it did prior to 2010. We find substantial variation between USFS units in the number of projects completed and time to completion, with some units completing projects in half the time of others. These findings point toward avenues for improving the agency’s NEPA processes.
Struthers, C.L. 2019. “The Political in the Technical: Understanding the Influence of National Political Institutions on Climate Adaptation”. Climate and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1689905
A growing body of research shows that local and international institutions as well as party politics affect climate adaptation. Yet few studies have considered the role of political institutions at the national level. Comparative political institutional theory argues that a country's party system, executive-legislative arrangement, and electoral rules affect elected officials’ incentives and behaviour. This study utilizes this theory to explain how Chile's national elected officials responded to the country's extreme drought in 2010–2015. Results indicate that ideologically distinct alliances, a strong president, and legislators’ competing incentives to cater to different interests resulted in adaptive policy solutions that only partially addressed the shortcomings that drought exposed. The findings of this study show how politics can underlie technical decision-making on climate change, help to account for the continued inadequacies of Chilean water reform even in the face of new climate extremes, and demonstrate the utility of the comparative political institutional lens for explaining national strategies for climate adaptation. Applying this lens to other country cases and climatic events will advance knowledge on how differences in electoral incentives and policy processes systematically shape climate adaption policy.
Struthers, C.L., Hare, C., & Bakker, R. 2019. “Bridging the Pond: Measuring Policy Positions in the United States and Europe.” Political Science Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2019.22
Recent work has pioneered the use of expert surveys to estimate cross-national party positions in a common ideological space. In this paper, we report findings from an original dataset designed to evaluate bridging strategies between European and American party placements. Specifically, we compare the use of “anchoring vignettes” (fictional party platforms) with an alternative approach that asks comparativist scholars who live in the US (whom we call transatlantic or TA experts) to place parties and parties in their country of expertise on a series of issues scales. The results provide an optimistic assessment of the ability of TA experts to serve as valid bridges across the Atlantic. The resulting cross-comparable estimates of party positions show instances of both convergence and divergence between American and European party systems, including parallels between systems on the cross-cutting issue of international economic integration.
Struthers, C.L. "The Enduring Influence of Electoral Systems: Investigating Green Parties’ Attention to Local Issues in Parliament"
Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 56(4): 523-546. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2018.1470157
Scholars argue that members of parliament (MPs) in first-past-the-post (FPTP) systems have stronger incentives to cater to constituents within their electoral district than those in proportional representation (PR) systems. Yet few studies have explored whether MPs in PR systems engage local issues, or considered whether these theories hold for small parties, whose vote-earning strategies are particularly critical for survival. I build new theory and explore its support with a case study that compares Green party behavior in an FPTP system (the UK) to a system with nationwide list PR (New Zealand). The study shows that MPs focus on local issues in both systems, but that the distribution of local attention varies considerably, and in ways consistent with differing electoral incentives.
This paper draws on systematic data from the US Forest Service’s (USFS) Planning, Appeals and Litigation System to analyze how the agency conducts environmental impact assessments under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). We find that only 1.9 percent of the 33,976 USFS decisions between 2005 and 2018 were processed as Environmental Impact Statements, the most rigorous and time-consuming level of analysis, whereas 82.3 percent of projects fit categorical exclusions. The median time to complete a NEPA analysis was 131 days. The number of new projects has declined dramatically in this period, with the USFS now initiating less than half as many projects per year as it did prior to 2010. We find substantial variation between USFS units in the number of projects completed and time to completion, with some units completing projects in half the time of others. These findings point toward avenues for improving the agency’s NEPA processes.
Struthers, C.L. 2019. “The Political in the Technical: Understanding the Influence of National Political Institutions on Climate Adaptation”. Climate and Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2019.1689905
A growing body of research shows that local and international institutions as well as party politics affect climate adaptation. Yet few studies have considered the role of political institutions at the national level. Comparative political institutional theory argues that a country's party system, executive-legislative arrangement, and electoral rules affect elected officials’ incentives and behaviour. This study utilizes this theory to explain how Chile's national elected officials responded to the country's extreme drought in 2010–2015. Results indicate that ideologically distinct alliances, a strong president, and legislators’ competing incentives to cater to different interests resulted in adaptive policy solutions that only partially addressed the shortcomings that drought exposed. The findings of this study show how politics can underlie technical decision-making on climate change, help to account for the continued inadequacies of Chilean water reform even in the face of new climate extremes, and demonstrate the utility of the comparative political institutional lens for explaining national strategies for climate adaptation. Applying this lens to other country cases and climatic events will advance knowledge on how differences in electoral incentives and policy processes systematically shape climate adaption policy.
Struthers, C.L., Hare, C., & Bakker, R. 2019. “Bridging the Pond: Measuring Policy Positions in the United States and Europe.” Political Science Research Methods. https://doi.org/10.1017/psrm.2019.22
Recent work has pioneered the use of expert surveys to estimate cross-national party positions in a common ideological space. In this paper, we report findings from an original dataset designed to evaluate bridging strategies between European and American party placements. Specifically, we compare the use of “anchoring vignettes” (fictional party platforms) with an alternative approach that asks comparativist scholars who live in the US (whom we call transatlantic or TA experts) to place parties and parties in their country of expertise on a series of issues scales. The results provide an optimistic assessment of the ability of TA experts to serve as valid bridges across the Atlantic. The resulting cross-comparable estimates of party positions show instances of both convergence and divergence between American and European party systems, including parallels between systems on the cross-cutting issue of international economic integration.
Struthers, C.L. "The Enduring Influence of Electoral Systems: Investigating Green Parties’ Attention to Local Issues in Parliament"
Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 56(4): 523-546. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2018.1470157
Scholars argue that members of parliament (MPs) in first-past-the-post (FPTP) systems have stronger incentives to cater to constituents within their electoral district than those in proportional representation (PR) systems. Yet few studies have explored whether MPs in PR systems engage local issues, or considered whether these theories hold for small parties, whose vote-earning strategies are particularly critical for survival. I build new theory and explore its support with a case study that compares Green party behavior in an FPTP system (the UK) to a system with nationwide list PR (New Zealand). The study shows that MPs focus on local issues in both systems, but that the distribution of local attention varies considerably, and in ways consistent with differing electoral incentives.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
“The Forest Ranger (and the Legislator): How Local Politics Shape Deconcentrated Policy Implementation” -- with Tyler Scott, Forrest Fleischman, and Gwen Arnold
Party Personnel Strategies: How Electoral Systems Shape Parties' Legislative Organization -- with Matthew Bergman, Ellis Krauss, Robert Pekkanen, & Matthew Shugart
“The Local Gone National: Legislative Response to Drought in the US and Australia”.
“Legislative Cooperation in Response to Extreme Drought in the US and Australia" -- with Mark Lubell
“The Dimensions Underlying Climate Policy Preferences: A Comparative Perspective” -- with Chris Hare
Party Personnel Strategies: How Electoral Systems Shape Parties' Legislative Organization -- with Matthew Bergman, Ellis Krauss, Robert Pekkanen, & Matthew Shugart
“The Local Gone National: Legislative Response to Drought in the US and Australia”.
“Legislative Cooperation in Response to Extreme Drought in the US and Australia" -- with Mark Lubell
“The Dimensions Underlying Climate Policy Preferences: A Comparative Perspective” -- with Chris Hare
