Project Description

THE CAMPAIGN MAPPING PROJECT is part of a research study funded by the Ford Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation of New York and directed by Roderick Hart of the University of Texas at Austin and Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the University of Pennsylvania. The Project is a multi-year attempt to (1) assemble the campaign materials produced during presidential election campaigns in the United States between 1948 and the present, (2) create measuring instruments capable of assessing how well modern campaigns are carrying out the democratic mandate, and (3) monitor ongoing presidential campaigns and issue warnings about debilitating election practices.

The Project began in September of 1995 and continues to the present. The Project's early years were devoted to creating and pilot-testing the research tools needed to understand where American politics has been and where it is going. Working with Kathleen Jamieson's concept of Democratic Exchange--the extent to which a campaign deploys reasoned argument judiciously and supports it with evidence--and Roderick Hart's measure of Civic Hope--the extent to which a campaign motivates voters to recommit themselves to democratic values--the Project directors produced a considerable amount of data during the 1996 and 2000 presidential campaigns.

Thus far, the Project directors have gathered approximately 8,000 print stories, 1,300 broadcast reports, 2,500 campaign speeches, 1,500 political ads, 28 political debates, and 6,500 letters-to-the-editor. Analyses of these texts have appeared in a variety of publications, the most prominent of which are Hart's Campaign Talk: Why Elections are Good for Us (Princeton University Press, 2000), and Jamieson's Everything You Think You Know About Politics...and Why You're Wrong (Basic Books, 2000).

Administration

• Contacts:

  • Professor Roderick P. Hart
    Email: rodhart@mail.utexas.edu
    Voice: (512)471-1956 [in Austin]
    Fax: (512)471-3504 [in Austin]

  • Laurence C. Brevard, Brevard & Brevard
    San Jose Phone: (408) 929-5029

• Go to the Project Administration Page
  Professor Hart or Laurence Brevard ONLY. Please!