Andy Baker

Chair's Welcome

Anonymous — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 18:59:24 +0000

Chair's Welcome Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/15/2023 - 11:59

By Andy Baker

Welcome to our Winter 2023 newsletter. I’m happy to report that we are well on the way to completing a rather normal academic year—for the first time since 2018/19! Our lecture halls are teeming with students, speculation and fear about the next pandemic surge have faded, and the only threat to in-person learning is the occasional winter snowstorm. It’s great to be fully back!

In the last newsletter, I talked about the recent increase in Political Science majors at CU. Even amidst the turmoil of the COVID pandemic, our numbers remained steady, and this year they continue to be strong at more than 1,000 majors. One of those majors is freshman Ryan Pak, whom we were able to rope in as he was finishing high school by offering him a scholarship. In one of our articles in this newsletter, Ryan talks about this new First Year Scholarship Award program and how it influenced his decision to choose CU.

In another set of articles, we turn to former students, profiling two alumni who followed two very different paths to career success after graduating from CU. One is Missy Kelly, who served as the commencement speaker for our Spring 2022 graduation ceremony. Kelly is a founding CEO of CatTongue Grips. To say her company’s products are used around the world is, amazingly, an understatement. They are also used in outer space! The other CU alum is Alan Zarychta, who is now a widely published professor at the University of Chicago, one of the world's top research universities.

In a final set of articles, we show off (as always) some of the accomplishments of our faculty. CU Political Science faculty have compiled many awards in recent years—far too many for us to cover in a single newsletter. So we will continue to highlight a few awards each time. Megan Shannon is one of the leading experts in the world on the United Nations and, in particular, its peacekeeping operations. Her recent award-winning book on the topic contains some surprisingly optimistic findings on the matter: UN peacekeeping usually works! Finally, we talk about Anand Sokhey, who received an exceedingly prestigious award for his entire body of scholarship. He recently won the emerging scholar award from the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior section of the American Political Science Association. Sokhey describes how he got interested in political science and some of his ongoing work on understanding and combatting antisemitism.

Remember to check out our online course offerings for non-CU students through Continuing Education, https://ce.colorado.edu/, and please consider a donation to help out our undergraduate or graduate students!

All the best,

Andy Baker

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Does Democratization Lower Consumer Prices? Regime Type, Prices, and the Consumer–Producer Tradeoff.

Anonymous — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 20:31:04 +0000

Does Democratization Lower Consumer Prices? Regime Type, Prices, and the Consumer–Producer Tradeoff. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 06/17/2020 - 14:31

Andy Baker, University of Colorado Boulder & Stefan Wojcik, Data Scientist, USA

Published: 2019

Abstract:

The booming literature on the consequences of democratization for material welfare has produced no findings on the relationship between regime type and relative consumer prices. The literature largely shows that democracies favor masses over elites, generating the expectation that democratization should lower consumer prices. Yet it also finds that democratization boosts economic growth, an outcome that is partially contingent on making consumer goods expensive relative to capital goods. We argue that democratization lowers relative consumer prices since politicians under democracy can more effectively chase votes by satisfying consumers’ demands for the immediate payoff of lower prices. Our statistical analysis of 160-plus countries over 60 years shows that democratization raises consumer advantage, which is the consumer price level relative to the price level of capital goods. We also provide evidence of the policy levers that democratizing countries have used to achieve this effect.

Click here to read more.

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Nonpartisans as False Negatives: The Mismeasurement of Party Identification in Public Opinion Surveys

Anonymous — Tue, 09 Jul 2019 19:17:50 +0000

Nonpartisans as False Negatives: The Mismeasurement of Party Identification in Public Opinion Surveys Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 07/09/2019 - 13:17

Andy Baker, University of Colorado Boulder; Lucio Renno, University of Brasília

Published: May 21, 2019

Abstract:

We argue that most survey measures of partisanship are misclassifying many respondents as nonpartisans. Common wordings, especially those in major cross-national surveys, violate well-established best practices in questionnaire design by reading aloud a nonpartisanship option. This is akin, we show, to the taboo of inviting no-opinion responses. Consequently, most wordings produce high rates of false negatives, meaning respondents with partisan leanings who nonetheless choose the nonpartisan response. Our analysis of experimental and observational data from four countries (Brazil, Mexico, 91��Ƭ��, United States) shows that nearly a quarter of respondents are false negatives when read an easy nonpartisan opt out. More importantly, we demonstrate, using item response theory and other measurement checks, that wordings that remedy this problem by not inviting nonpartisan responses have greater measurement validity. Our findings show that scholars are underestimating the prevalence of partisanship and that harbors for false negatives can exist in unexpected forms.

Click here to read more!

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2017 International Political Economy Society Conference

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Nov 2017 17:15:44 +0000

2017 International Political Economy Society Conference Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 11/28/2017 - 10:15

Several CU Boulder Political Science faculty and grad students attended the 2017 IPES Conference last week to present their most recent research. CU representatives included CU faculty Andy Baker, David Bearce, and Adrian Shin. The International Political Economy Society (IPES) “provides an annual forum for scholars of IPE to present their best new work in progress to an informed and critical scholarly audience". The annual conference is centered on a small number (approximately 75 each year) of carefully screened and selected papers. More information about participants and their work can be found on the IPES website.

IPES Website

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LAPOP 2017 Inaugural Seligson Prize Winner

Anonymous — Thu, 25 May 2017 15:39:01 +0000

LAPOP 2017 Inaugural Seligson Prize Winner Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/25/2017 - 09:39

Emma Piller

Graduate Student in Political Science

The Department of Political Science would like to congratulate Ph.D candidate Joby Schaffer on receiving the 2017 Inaugural Seligson Prize from Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). Both Schaffer and his co-author Andy Baker, an Associate Professor at CU, received high praise for their publication entitled Clientelism as Persuasion-Buying: Evidence from Latin America.

Schaffer's research focused on analyzing why political parties use material inducements to acquire votes from their constituents in Latin American countries. “In many Latin American countries, political parties engage in a practice called 'clientelism,' Schaffer said. “They go out and purchase voters by offering them food, small consumer items, or other inducements, and in some places in Latin America, this is a rampant practice.

“Among those who study clientelism, there’s this question of given party machines having limited resources--they can’t just go out and give away food and other goods to just anybody--who do they target with clientelism; who do they go after to try and get their votes.

“A lot of scholars have suggested that clientelistic political parties attempt to directly buy votes, which means that they likely try to target people who are undecided in order to sway them to vote for their party. Other scholars say that clientelistic political parties instead try to buy people’s turnout, which means they likely try to buy people that are already loyal, that already care about the party’s positions, who they only have to get to the polls.”

The problem with the first explanation--vote-buying--is largely empirical. Those who have been targeted for clientelism also tend to report higher levels of partisanship. While this supports turnout buying, that strategy isn’t really cost-effective. There are other ways to more efficiently mobilize people.

“We were trying to find a way to balance those two out and address both of these puzzles. We came up with this idea that what these political parties are actually doing is targeting those in a community who tend to engage in political discussion. This comes with the expectation that these individuals will then attempt to persuade those in their personal networks. We call this ‘persuasion-buying.’ This is cost-effective because it creates a ‘multiplier effect,’ where I’ll give you some resources and I tell you to go out and start persuading those you’re close to to vote in the same way. So I’m not only getting your vote, but I’m getting these people around you because you have this network.

“It also works in terms of what we find empirically because we noticed in our analysis of data from the 2006 elections in Mexico that people’s partisanship gets stronger as the election gets closer. Our argument there is that once they’ve received some goods early on from a political party, they start to solidify their position in the direction of that party,” he said. “That allows us to make sense of why strong partisans get targeted benefits.”

The LAPOP award accepts papers that have been published one to two years prior to that year’s award recipient, so when Schaffer received notice he had won, he was pleasantly surprised. “I haven’t thought about this paper in over a year, and I had no idea that it was even been considered.”

Schaffer currently works in Denver as a researcher in a company that helps foundations, non-profits, and other social impact organizations use research and evaluation to improve their work. “The training that I got from CU in terms of doing quantitative and qualitative research is now being used to help these groups understand ‘are we being effective,’” he said. Schaffer plans on continuing his work there and remain in Colorado after he completes his Ph.D.

“Two things I learned through the process are that it takes a long time to publish a paper--this started in 2011, we published in 2016," he said. "And it’s really useful to rely on professors that have a ton of experience and are not only smart but know how to engage with other scholars to get feedback and know how to navigate the process of getting published. For me, it was invaluable having someone like Dr. Baker on the paper. He came in and did so much work to improve it.”

The university is proud to have academics who are dedicated to understanding the global community in a way that allows for deeper connections and learning opportunities to be made.

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Ethnopolitical demography and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa.

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:24:29 +0000

Ethnopolitical demography and democracy in sub-Saharan Africa. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/19/2017 - 15:24

Baker A, Scarritt JR, Mozaffar S. DEMOCRATIZATION. 23 (5) (August 01, 2016): 838-861.

Abstract:
Ethnic fragmentation is largely presumed to be bad for democracy. However, many African countries belie this claim, as democracy has recently sprouted in several of its multiethnic states. We argue that African countries that have demographic patterns where the largest ethnopolitical group is at least a near-majority and is simultaneously divided into nested subgroups produce Africa's most democratic multiethnic societies. This large-divided-group pattern, which has gone largely unnoticed by previous scholars, facilitates transitions to democracy from authoritarian rule. The large group's size foments the broad-based multiethnic social agitation needed to pose a genuine threat to a ruling autocrat, while its internal divisions reassure minorities that they will not suffer permanent exclusion via ethnic dominance under an eventual democracy. We support our claim with cross-national quantitative evidence on ethnic fragmentation and regime type.

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The Dynamics of Partisan Identification When Party Brands Change: The Case of the Workers Party in Brazil.

Anonymous — Wed, 19 Apr 2017 21:22:21 +0000

The Dynamics of Partisan Identification When Party Brands Change: The Case of the Workers Party in Brazil. Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 04/19/2017 - 15:22

Baker A, Ames B, Sokhey AE, Renno LR. JOURNAL OF POLITICS. 78 (1) (January 01, 2016): 197-213.

Abstract:
What happens to partisanship when a party undergoes rapid and visible elite-led changes that dilute its traditional brand? We address scholarly debates on the stability of mass partisanship by analyzing the consequences of the major brand change (marked by policy moderation and scandal) experienced by the leftist Brazilian Workers Party (PT) between 2002 and 2006. Analyzing a survey panel with interviews spanning this period, we find that many Brazilian citizens alternated between petismo and independence but rarely crossed party lines. They switched, we demonstrate, in response to political events. While the PT’s brand dilution drove away some traditional petistas, we observe two other dynamics: the rise of a new brand associated with the successful incumbent president (Lula) attracted new adherents, and amid this instability, a core of petistas stood by their party. Our findings suggest that scholarship on partisanship has established a false dichotomy between stability and instability.

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Scholars eye freedom in reverse

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Mar 2017 23:15:21 +0000

Scholars eye freedom in reverse Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 03/02/2017 - 16:15

CU Boulder researchers win USAID grant to examine backpedaling democracies

President John F. Kennedy signed the Foreign Assistance Act in 1961, for the first time separating federal budgets for defense and non-defense spending and creating the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.

“The amount of money that is involved in the nonmilitary areas are a fraction of what we spend on our national defense every year,” Kennedy said, “and yet this is very much related to our national security and is as important dollar for dollar as any expenditure for national defense itself.”

More than six decades later, USAID provides more than $20 billion annually — less than 1 percent of the federal budget — about a quarter of it to non-governmental organizations working in Asia, Africa, Latin America and beyond in its efforts to “end extreme global poverty and enable resilient, democratic societies to realize their potential.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, the money doesn’t always achieve desired results. In fact, it tends to promote moderate political participation through formal mechanisms such as voting only in democratic societies where institutions already are working well, says Carew Boulding, associate professor of political science at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of “NGOs, Political Protest, and Civil Society,” published by Cambridge University Press.

“My research has shown that where historically aid allocation is assumed almost always to lead to more democratic engagement, the evidence has shown that a lot of that engagement is really contentious,” Boulding says.

“That’s certainly not what (USAID) expected. The assumption is that they are giving to NGOs to help build civic engagement in a moderate, institutionalized way.”

Now, Boulding and Associate Professor of Political Science Andy Baker have been awarded a USAID grant to find out why. With help from five graduate students, they will conduct a massive literature review to examine what happens to citizen engagement when previously liberal democratic nations become more repressive.

The researchers hope to get a clearer idea of what citizens can do in such scenarios. Are there spaces for them to express themselves via the internet? How do they vote when elections continue but are highly restricted? How do they engage when protest activity is heavily regulated?

The review will focus on cases from the 20^th and 21^st centuries, from the collapse of Weimar Germany to recent backsliding in countries such as Venezuela and Ecuador. The researchers will locate appropriate literature from academic journals and annotate some 200 articles. Boulding and Baker will write a summary focused on three questions:

What enables civic and political participation in countries where civil liberties have been lost?
How do forms of civic and political engagement in such contexts differ from forms of engagement in contexts in which civil liberties are protected?
Are some forms of civic and political engagement generally more tolerated in newly repressive contexts than others? How do civic actors adapt their engagement tactics to achieve their objectives?

“For years academics have been telling policy makers and practitioners that they need to listen to academics, read the research, and distribute aid in a way that recognizes best practices, what works, what doesn’t work, and follows the cutting edge of the most rigorous research,” Baker says.

“This is USAID putting its money where its mouth is.”

China, while infamous for its repression of protest and citizen engagement, doesn’t make the researchers’ list because it is a “stable authoritarian” nation lacking recent history as a democracy. But China does provide insight into just how difficult it is for governments to control information flow and protest, Baker notes.

“The internet is like a giant sieve; there is only so much dictators can control what is said and done there,” he says. “China has had some success, but they have tens of thousands of people whose job it is to sit at a desk all day and troll the internet and be the speech police. That level of repression is very costly.”

A quarter-century later, it’s clear that political scientist Francis Fukuyama’s declaration of “the end of history” following the collapse of communism, and “the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government” was premature.

Even in the United States and Europe, liberal democratic ideals once considered the foundations of Western society have been weakened, particularly in the post-9/11 era.

“It’s easy to believe that democracy is just naturally stable,” Boulding says. “This project is looking at the ways in which democratic freedoms can be undermined even in seemingly stable systems like the U.S.—and the ways in which citizens can push back.”

~Original Story: http://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2017/02/28/scholars-eye-freedom-reverse

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Meet Andy Baker

Anonymous — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 17:30:58 +0000

Meet Andy Baker Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 11/04/2016 - 11:30

Casey Van Divier

Associate Professor, Director of the Program on International Development

When it comes to textbooks, Andy Baker is one professor who’s been on both sides of the coin. Not only has he taught from different textbooks throughout his career, he’s also written his own textbook, Shaping the Developing World, which was published in 2014.

“The book was based on a large interdisciplinary literature about why some countries are rich and some are poor,” said the CU professor. “It was a fun challenge to try and organize that information in a way that would be engaging for undergrads.”

Baker also published a scholarly book, The Market and the Masses in Latin America, in the year 2009. The book pulled from research he did as a PhD student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

“I conducted survey research in Brazil,” said Baker. “I was primarily interested in what common Brazilian citizens thought about the country’s transformation towards a more market-oriented economy.”

In the years since he completed his dissertation and earned his PhD, Baker has taught at the University of Houston, Northeastern University, and the University of Colorado Boulder. It was at CU that he got involved with the Program on International Development, which is based at CU’s Institute of Behavioral Science.

“The program existed in previous forms for a while, but it was renamed a year ago,” he said. “We’re a group of social scientists from different disciplines that are brought together by a common interest in issues of underdevelopment worldwide.”

The program is made up of CU faculty members who examine important issues in less-developed countries such as material welfare, regime change, democratization, and political violence.

“We try and pursue outside funding and grant opportunities that will enable us to study these topics,” Baker said. “We also bring in outside speakers and other experts on these topics, and we have a workshop where members present a draft of a paper and we give feedback on it.”

Baker has been involved with the program since 2008, and took on the director position this past summer.

“I’d like to turn the program into one that’s well-known around the university and community, and one that’s successful in bringing in resources for CU,” he said. He looks forward to going after external funds in the near future, which he calls a ‘win-win situation.’

“The money enables us to collect new data,” he said, “and it’s exciting because the money that comes into CU benefits everyone around campus, from undergrads up to administration.”

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