Draft:Seth Masket

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  • Comment: Probably notable,but the references are a mess. So the following
    * Have a look at WP:REFB and see if can fix refs 1,2,3, 10 and 11 into full cites.
    * Remove ref 4.
    * Remove the embedded links in the article.
    * Provide references for the education and the awards section.
    Give me a shout when you're finished and I will promote it to mainspace. scope_creepTalk 11:53, 4 June 2021 (UTC)

Seth Masket is an American political scientist. He is a professor of political science[1] and director of the Center on American Politics[2] at the University of Denver. He studies political parties, state legislatures, and campaigns and elections. He also regularly contributes to FiveThirtyEight and the Denver Post and is a co-founder of the Mischiefs of Faction blog.[3]

Education and Early Work

Masket is a 1987 graduate of Calabasas High School. He received a bachelor's degree in political science at the University of California, Berkeley in 1991. He earned a master's degree in political management from the George Washington University in 1996. He received a Ph.D. in political science from UCLA in 2004, under the supervision of John Zaller. Prior to entering his doctoral program, he worked for several years as a writer in the White House Office of Correspondence during President Bill Clinton's first term. He was additionally a law and justice police aide to Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian in San Jose, California.

Career

Research

Masket's published work has largely focused on political party nominations at the state and federal level. His 2009 book No Middle Ground: How Informal Party Organizations Control Nominations and Polarized Legislatures[4] examined the sources of party polarization in the California Assembly. It looks at the relatively weak parties of the cross-filing era in California (1913-59), the growth of partisanship in the mid-20th century, and also includes detailed interviews with modern informal party leaders. The book argues that the very strong polarization in the California legislature is driven in large part by informal local party networks around the state, which advantage ideological extremists in primaries while discouraging moderates. This book stemmed from Masket's doctoral research at UCLA.

In a second book, The Inevitable Party: Why Attempts to Kill the Party System Fail and how They Weaken Democracy,[5] Masket examines party reform efforts in a variety of states. Chapters focus on such examples as the creation of the direct primary in Wisconsin, campaign finance reform in Colorado, the nonpartisan legislatures in Nebraska and mid-20th century Minnesota, and the 2003 gubernatorial recall in California. The book ultimately argues that efforts to undermine parties often fail, resulting in both stronger parties and less accountable politicians.

Masket's third book, Learning From Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020,[6] captures a national political party in the process of deciding why it lost one presidential election and how it should use that interpretation to plan for the next one. The book uses a range of different research approaches, but much of it involves detailed interviews with Democratic activists in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina, and Washington, DC, between 2017 and early 2020 as they seek to interpret recent political events and pick presidential candidates for 2020.

Administration

Masket was chair of the University of Denver's Department of Political Science between 2012 and 2017. In 2017, he founded the Center on American Politics at the University of Denver, and is currently its director.

Masket was the Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance at the Library of Congress during the summer of 2018.[7]

Public Engagement

In 2012, Masket launched the academic group blog Mischiefs of Faction with co-founders Hans Noel, Gregory Koger, and Jennifer Victor. He also writes for FiveThirtyEight, The Denver Post, the Los Angeles Times, and several other publications. Masket wrote a weekly column for Pacific Standard for several years until that magazine folded in 2019.[8]

Selected Works

  • Learning from Loss: The Democrats 2016-2020, Cambridge University Press, 2020.[6]
  • “A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands, and Nominations in American Politics,” Perspectives on Politics, 2012 (with Kathleen Bawn, Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller).[9]
  • “One Vote out of Step? The Effects of Salient Roll Call Votes in the 2010 Election,” American Politics Research, 2012 (with Brendan Nyhan, Eric McGhee, John Sides, and Steven Greene).[10]
  • “Did Obama’s Ground Game Matter? The Influence of Local Field Offices During the 2008 Presidential Election,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 2009.[11]
  • “Partisan Webs: Information Exchange and Party Networks,” British Journal of Political Science, 2009 (with Gregory Koger and Hans Noel).[12]
  • “Where You Sit is Where You Stand: The Impact of Seating Proximity on Legislative Cue-Taking,” Quarterly Journal of Political Science, 2008.[13]
  • “It Takes an Outsider: Extra-legislative Organization And Partisanship In The California Assembly, 1849-2006,” The American Journal of Political Science, 2007.[13]

Selected Awards

  • University Distinguished Scholar, 2015-16, University of Denver.
  • Best Journal Article, APSA State Politics and Policy Section, 2015 (with Eric McGhee, Nolan McCarty, Steve Rogers, and Boris Shor).
  • Heinz I. Eulau Award for best article in Perspectives in Politics, APSA, 2013 (with Kathleen Bawn, Marty Cohen, David Karol, Hans Noel, and John Zaller).
  • Best Conference Paper, APSA State Politics and Policy Section, 2012 (with Boris Shor).
  • Emerging Scholar Award, APSA Political Organizations and Parties Section, 2008.

References

  1. "Seth Masket | Faculty & Staff | Political Science | Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences | University of Denver | University of Denver". www.du.edu.
  2. "Center on American Politics | University of Denver". www.du.edu.
  3. "Mischiefs of Faction | Political Science Blog". Mischiefs of Faction.
  4. https://www.amazon.com/Middle-Ground-Organizations-Nominations-Legislatures/dp/0472034677/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=masket+no+middle+ground&qid=1612138281&s=books&sr=1-1
  5. Masket, Seth E. (2016). The Inevitable Party: Why Attempts to Kill the Party System Fail and how They Weaken Democracy. ISBN 978-0190220846.
  6. Masket, Seth (22 September 2020). Learning from Loss: The Democrats, 2016–2020. ISBN 978-1108482127.
  7. Avilés, Giselle M. "Research Guides: Kluge Chair in American Law and Governance: Previous Chairs". guides.loc.gov.
  8. Masket, Seth. "Articles by Seth Masket". Pacific Standard.
  9. Bawn, Kathleen; Cohen, Martin; Karol, David; Masket, Seth; Noel, Hans; Zaller, John (September 1, 2012). "A Theory of Political Parties: Groups, Policy Demands and Nominations in American Politics". Perspectives on Politics. 10 (3): 571–597. doi:10.1017/S1537592712001624. S2CID 18405460 – via Cambridge University Press.
  10. http://mysite.du.edu/~smasket/Nyhan_et_al_APR.pdf
  11. http://mysite.du.edu/~smasket/field_offices.pdf
  12. Koger, Gregory; Masket, Seth; Noel, Hans (July 1, 2009). "Partisan Webs: Information Exchange and Party Networks". British Journal of Political Science. 39 (3): 633–653. doi:10.1017/S0007123409000659. S2CID 16397693 – via Cambridge University Press.
  13. http://mysite.du.edu/~smasket/Masket_where_you_sit_QJPS.pdf