Research Interests
Congress, congressional
redistricting, research methods, political strategy,
parties and elections.
justin.buchler@case.edu
Mather House 09
Phone: (216) 368-2646
Fax: (216) 368-4681
Education: Ph.D., University of California at
Berkeley, 2004; M.A.,
University of California at Berkeley, 1999; B.A., Pomona College,
1998.
Justin Buchler studies elections, with an emphasis on
legislative elections. His primary line of research is
about the effects of competitive elections on political
institutions. Contrary to conventional wisdom, he argues
that competitive elections create perverse incentives
for candidates, and produce unrepresentative election
outcomes. Thus, he argues that competitive elections are
actually bad for democracy. His book, Hiring and Firing
Public Officials: Rethinking the Purpose of Elections,
is under contract and being revised for Oxford
University Press. He has also published several papers
on the topic, including The Social Sub-Optimality of
Competitive Elections (published in Public Choice),
which received the 2007 Gordon Tullock Prize. His other
papers on the topic focus on redistricting.
Justin Buchler also writes about the use of spatial
models to study elections. His papers address the role
of party influence on candidate position-taking, as well
as the impact of valence characteristics, such as
competence and honesty.
In the past, he has also written about campaign finance,
and published several pieces on voting technology.
Curriculum Vitae
Some Sample Publications
Buchler, Justin,
The
Statistical Properties of Competitive Districts: What
the Central Limit Theorem Can Teach Us
about Election Reform, PS: Political Science and
Politics, Vol. 40, No. 2, April 2007, pp.333-337.
Buchler, Justin,
Competition, Representation, and Redistricting: The Case Against Competitive
Congressional Districts, Journal of Theoretical
Politics, 17(4): 431-463.
Buchler, Justin,
The Social Sub-Optimality of Competitive Elections,
Public Choice, Volume 133, December 2007.
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