Christopher Wlezien
Professor
Office: 440 Gladfelter Hall
Phone: 215-204-7258
E-mail: wlezien@temple.edu
Christopher Wlezien is Professor of Political Science at Temple University. He joined the faculty from Oxford University, where he was Reader of Comparative Government and a Fellow of Nuffield College. While at Oxford, he co-founded the ESRC-funded Oxford Spring School in Quantitative Methods for Social Research. Previously, he taught at the University of Houston, where he was founding director of the Institute for the Study of Political Economy. He holds or has held visiting positions at Columbia University, European University Institute (Florence), Institute Empresa (Madrid), Juan March Institute (Madrid), McGill University (Montreal), Sciences Po (Paris), and the University of Manchester (UK). He received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in 1989 and his B.A. from Saint Xavier College (Chicago) in 1984.
His primary, ongoing research develops a “thermostatic” model of public opinion and policy and examines the dynamic interrelationships between preferences for spending and budgetary policy. A cross-national investigation focusing on the US, the UK, and Canada is the subject of a book entitled Degrees of Democracy, published by Cambridge University Press.
His other major area of research, on “The Timeline of Election Campaigns,” addresses the evolution of voter preferences over the course of the election cycle. It has been the subject of a number of articles and a book that is in progress. His most recent paper in the area compares the historical performance of election prediction markets and pre-election polls.
He also is co-editor of the international Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties and the “Poll-Reviews” section of Public Opinion Quarterly, and a member of the editorial boards of six other journals.
Courses:
PS 3101 Presidency
PS 8101 Government in American Society
PS 8109 Campaigns and Elections
PS 8320 Comparative Political Behavior
Selected recent publications:
“A General Empirical Law of Public Budgets: A Comparative Analysis,” with Bryan Jones, Frank Baumgartner, Christian Breunig, Stuart Soroka, Martial Foucault, Abel Francois, Christoffer Green-Pedersen, Chris Koske, Peter John, Peter B. Mortensen, Frederic Varone, and Stefaan Walgrave. American Journal of Political Science, vol. 53, 2009.
“On Filtering Longitudinal Public Opinion Data: Issues in Identification and Representation of True Change,” with Mark Pickup. Electoral Studies, vol. 28, 2009.
“On the Limits to Inequality in Representation,” with Stuart Soroka. PS: Political Science and Politics, vol. 41, 2008.
“Does Political Information Matter? An Experimental Test Relating to Party Positions on Europe,” with James Tilley. Political Studies, vol. 56, 2008. Winner of the Political Studies Association’s Harrison Prize for the best article published in the journal in 2008.
“Are Political Markets Really Superior to Polls as Election Predictors?” with Robert S. Erikson. Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 72, 2008.