James Druckman

Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research,
Northwestern University
PhD, Political Science, University of California,
San Diego, 1999
druckman@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae
Additional biographical information

James Druckman's research focuses on political preference formation and communication. His most recent work examines how citizens make political, economic, and social decisions in various different contexts (e.g., settings with multiple competing messages, online information, deliberation). He also has explored the relationship between citizens' preferences and public policy, and how political elites make decisions under varying institutional conditions.

He has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, and other political science, communication, economic, and psychology journals. The Russell Sage, McKnight, and National Science foundations have supported his work, and he received the 2004 McKnight Presidential Fellows Award. From 1999 to 2005, Druckman served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he was most recently the Benjamin Lippincott Associate Professor of Political Economy.

His work has been recognized with multiple awards and he received the 2006 Erik Erikson Early Career Award for excellence and creativity in the field of political psychology from the International Society of Political Psychology. He is currently a co-editor of Public Opinion Quarterly and of the University of Chicago Press book series, Chicago Studies in American Politics . He obtained his BA from Northwestern in 1993, majoring in mathematical methods in the social sciences and political science.

Current Research

Competitive Framing. Druckman and IPR Faculty Associate Dennis Chong have developed a theory of how citizens form political opinions, and how political and media elites affect these opinions. They are working on an application of that theory to the study of "elite-issue framing." Framing occurs when in the course of describing an issue or event, a speaker's emphasis on a subset of potentially relevant considerations causes individuals to focus on these considerations when constructing their opinions. For example, if a speaker describes a hate-group rally in terms of free speech, then the audience will subsequently base their opinions about the rally on free speech considerations and support the right to rally. In contrast, if the speaker uses a public safety frame, the audience will base their opinions on public safety considerations and oppose the rally. Nearly all previous work studies the situation where citizens receive either one frame or the other—despite the fact that most political situations involve competition between frames. Chong and Druckman are interested in what makes a given frame successful in such competitive environments; they seek to isolate the causal forces behind rhetorical success. They also are exploring how framing effects work over-time. Thus far, they have published four papers based on their work.

Campaigns in a New Media Age: How Candidates Use the World Wide Web to Win Elections. In this project, Druckman and co-authors, Martin Kifer of the University of Minnesota and Michael Parkin of Oberlin College, explore the impact of the Internet on electoral politics. Specifically, they have developed a theoretical framework for studying politicians' campaigns on the Web that accounts for political strategic aspects of Web-based campaigns and novel technical elements. They use the framework to guide a content analysis of more than 700 candidates' Web sites and three election cycles. They complement these data with information on candidate and district characteristics to study a number of dynamics including how candidates' campaign on the Web, how Web campaign strategies differ from other types of media campaigning, why candidates' Web sites differ from one another, how campaign Web sites have changed over time, and what effect Web campaigns might have in the future. Thus far, they have published one paper based on their work; they also have several working papers.

The Strategic Collection and Use of Public Opinion Information. Druckman is collaborating with Larry Jacobs of the University of Minnesota to study the impact of public opinion on American policymakers. They are using the public statements, private polls, memoranda, and other archival materials from three presidents (Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan) to explore how politicians conceive of and use public opinion when making their decisions. Currently, they have published two papers based on their work and have written several working papers.

Selected Publications

Druckman, J. N. Forthcoming. Dynamic approaches to studying parliamentary coalitions.   Political Research Quarterly.

Chong, D., and J. N. Druckman. Forthcoming. Identifying frames in political news. In Sourcebook for Political Communication Research: Methods, Measures, and Analytical Techniques , ed. Erik P. Bucy and R. Lance Holbert. Routledge.

Druckman, J. N., and R. McDermott. Forthcoming. Emotion and the framing of risky choice. Political Behavior.

Nir, L., and J. N. Druckman. Forthcoming. Campaign mixed-message flows and timing of vote decision. International Journal of Public Opinion Research.

Chong, D., and J. N. Druckman. 2007. Framing public opinion in competitive democracies. American Political Science Review 101:637-55.

Druckman, J. N., M. Kifer, and M. Parkin. 2007. The technological development of candidate Websites: How and why candidates use Web innovations. Social Science Computer Review 25:425-42.

Berinsky, A.J., and J.N. Druckman. 2007. Public opinion research and support for the Iraq war. Public Opinion Quarterly 71:126-41.

Chong, D., and J. N. Druckman. 2007. Framing theory. Annual Review of Political Science 10: 103-126.

Druckman, J. N., D. P. Green, J. H. Kuklinski, and A. Lupia. 2006. The growth and development of experimental research political science. American Political Science Review 100:627-35.

Druckman, J. N., and M. Parkin. 2005. The impact of media bias: How editorial slant affects voters. The Journal of Politics 67:1030-49.

Druckman, J. N. 2004. Political preference formation: Competition, deliberation, and the (ir)relevance of framing effects. American Political Science Review 98:671-86.

Druckman, J. N., and K. R. Nelson. 2003. Framing and deliberation: How citizens' conversations limit elite influence. American Journal of Political Science 47:729-45.

Druckman, J. N. 2003. The power of television images: The first Kennedy-Nixon debate revisited. The Journal of Politics 65:559-71.

Druckman, J. N., and M. F. Thies. 2002. The importance of concurrence: The impact of bicameralism on government formation and duration. American Journal of Political Science 46:760-71.