Faculty
Mark A. Smith
Office: Gowen 29
(206) 616-3606
masmith@u.washington.edu
(Ph.D., University of Minnesota), associate professor, joined
the department in 1997. He is a specialist in American politics
with research interests in public opinion, interest groups, political
communication, political economy, and public policy. His first book,
American Business and Political Power: Public Opinion, Elections,
and Democracy (University of Chicago Press, 2000) won the Leon Epstein
award for outstanding contributions to the study of political organizations
and parties.
Smith has published articles in the American Journal of Political
Science and the Journal of Politics on political parties in the
American states, the structural power of business, the effects of
ballot initiatives on voter turnout, and the ways in which ballot
initiatives can stimulate citizen engagement in politics. Smith's
second book is The Right Talk: How Conservatives Transformed the
Great Society into the Economic Society (Princeton University Press,
2007). In explaining the rightward turn in American politics over
the last three decades, the book documents the heightened use of
economic reasoning by politicians and other political actors to
justify and advocate policy proposals.
Smith’s current project examines the “culture war”
in America, showing that malleability of Biblical interpretations
makes religion far less divisive politically than is commonly assumed.
Smith teaches courses on American political culture, interest groups,
public opinion, and research design.
Web page: http://faculty.washington.edu/masmith
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