Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Elect oral District Structure and Political Behavior

选区形状和位置的变化是否会影响公民参与政治进程？ 地区可以被操纵的方式，影响公民的政治态度和行为？ 虽然这些问题是当前关于国会选区重划的辩论的核心，但很少有系统地研究选区特征与公民之间的联系。 本研究透过收集1980年代至1990年代的选区特性与公民态度与行为的资料，并运用多层次分析法，探讨不同选区所营造的情境如何影响选区居民的政治态度与行为。本研究的主要目标是解决一个基本而重要的问题：如何在地理上构建选区，以鼓励或阻止公民的政治参与？ 具体来说，它开发和测试一个理论，通过一个地区可以对环境中的信息交换的便利性的影响，将地区的地理特征与公民行为联系起来。 通过收集数据的地区特点（如紧凑度分数和地区符合县和城市边界的程度）从一系列地区在美国，并合并这些信息与公民的态度和参与措施，本论文能够确定如何在公民的态度变化与地区差异。 这为关于选区划分标准的辩论提供了急需的信息。 更一般地说，它还提供了洞察如何上下文变量可以有助于理解个人层面的行为。

Do variations in the shape and location of electoral districts affect citizen engagement in the political process? Can districts be manipulated in ways that impact the political attitudes and behaviors of citizens? Although these questions are central to current debates over congressional redistricting, there has been little systematic examination of the link between district characteristics and citizens. This dissertation analyzes this linkage by (1) collecting data on electoral district characteristics and citizen attitudes and behavior in the 1980s and 1990s, and (2) using multi-level analytical techniques to investigate how the context created by various electoral districts impacts the political attitudes and behaviors of district residents. The primary objective of this researc is to address a basic and important question: How can electoral districts be structured geographically to encourage or discourage political engagement and participation on the part of citizens? Specifically, it develops and tests a theory linking geographic characteristics of districts to citizen behavior via the effects that a district can have on the ease of information exchange in the environment. By gathering data on district characteristics (such as compactness scores and the degree to which districts conform to county and city boundaries) from the range of districts in place in the United States, and merging this information with citizen attitude and participation measures, this dissertation is able to determine how variation in citizen attitudes relates to district differences. This provides much-needed information to the debate over the standards applied to the drawing of electoral districts. More generally, it also provides insight into how contextual variables can contribute to an understanding of individual-level behavior.