Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mechanisms of Advancement in a Semi-Profession

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SES-1003809Michael HoutDaniel LaurisonUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe research studies the role professional campaign staffers and consultants play in American elections. Political operatives create the advertisements and flyers voters see, craft the speeches voters hear, script the phone calls and visits they receive, and determine which voters will be targeted with each of these communications. They shape candidates? messages, their self-presentations, and their daily schedules. Although candidates may have final say, the vast majority of campaign strategies are decided upon and implemented by campaign staff and consultants. And yet scholars know remarkably little about the people who play such an important role in shaping the American political landscape. Specifically, this project looks at the paths to entry and advancement within the political field. The first part of the research involves the creation and analysis of a database containing the career paths of all staffers and consultants who held decision-making responsibilities in Presidential or Senate campaigns between 2003 and 2008. The second part of the project is based on in-depth interviews with a subset of these political professionals in Washington, D.C. and around the country. The intellectual contributions of this dissertation is to understand an understudied area of sociological interest, political work world, that has been investigated neither by scholars of work and professions nor by political sociologistsBroader ImpactsThis research has the potential to have broader impacts through shedding light on the mechanisms that govern success in a field that has been historically white and male-dominated. Research findings will advance understanding of the processes American political campaigns within both the field of sociology as well as among the public more broadly.