Patrick J. Egan
Assistant Professor of Politics and Public Policy (Wilf Family Department of Politics, NYU)


DatePublication/Paper
2012

Egan, Patrick J. 2012. Group Cohesion without Group Mobilization: The Case of Lesbians, Gays, and Bisexuals. British Journal of Political Science.
Abstract

Group identities that are chosen, rather than inherited, are often associated with cohesive political attitudes and behaviours. Conventional wisdom holds that this distinctiveness is generated by mobilization through processes such as intra-group contact and acculturation. This article identifies another mechanism that can explain cohesiveness: selection. The characteristics that predict whether an individual selects a group identity may themselves determine political attitudes, and thus may account substantially for the political cohesion of those who share the identity. This mechanism is illustrated with analyses of the causes and consequences of the acquisition of lesbian, gay or bisexual identity. Seldom shared by parents and offspring, gay identity provides a rare opportunity to cleanly identify the selection process and its implications for political cohesion.

Egan, Patrick J. and Megan Mullin. 2012. Turning Personal Experience into Political Attitudes: The Effect of Local Weather on Americans' Perceptions about Global Warming. Journal of Politics.

2011

Egan, Patrick J. 2011. Public Opinion, the Media, and Social Issues. in The Oxford Handbook of American Public Opinion and the Media, Lawrence R. Jacobs and Robert Y. Shapiro eds. Oxford University Press: 2011.

2008

Persily, Nathaniel, Jack Citrin and Patrick J. Egan, eds. 2008. Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy. Oxford University Press.
Abstract

American politics is most notably characterized by the heated debates on constitutional interpretation at the core of its ever-raging culture wars, and the coverage of these lingering disputes is often inundated with public-opinion polls. Yet for all their prominence in contemporary society, there has never been an all-inclusive, systematic study of public opinion and how it impacts the courts and electoral politics. This book provides a comprehensive analysis of American public opinion on the key constitutional controversies of the 20th century, including desegregation, school prayer, abortion, the death penalty, affirmative action, gay rights, assisted suicide, and national security, to name just a few. With chapters focusing on each issue in-depth, the book utilizes public-opinion data to illustrate these contemporary debates, methodically examining each one and how public attitudes have shifted over time, especially in the wake of prominent Supreme Court decisions. The chapters join the “popular constitutionalism” debate between those who advocate a dominant role for courts in constitutional adjudication and those who prefer a more pluralized constitutional discourse. Each chapter also details the gap between the public and the Supreme Court on these hotly contested issues and analyzes how and why this divergence of opinion has grown or shrunk over the last fifty years.

Goux, Darhsan, Patrick J. Egan, and Jack Citrin. 2008. The War on Terror and Civil Liberties. in Public Opinion and Constitutional Controversy, Nathaniel Persily, Jack Citrin and Patrick J. Egan, eds.  Oxford University Press.

2005

Egan, Patrick J. and Kenneth Sherrill. 2005. Marriage and the Shifting Priorities of a New Generation of Lesbians and Gays. PS: Political Science & Politics, 38(2): 229-232.
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2003

Cain, Bruce E., Patrick J. Egan and Sergio Fabbrini. 2003. Toward More Open Democracies: The Expansion of Freedom of Information Laws. In Democracy Transformed? Expanding Political Opportunities in Advanced Industrial Democracies, eds. Bruce E. Cain, Russell J. Dalton, and Susan E. Scarrow. Oxford University Press.

2002

Persily, Nathaniel A., Thad Kousser and Patrick J. Egan. 2002. The Complicated Impact of One Person, One Vote on Political Competition and Representation. North Carolina Law Review, 80(4): 1299-1352.











Contact Details

patrick.egan@nyu.edu
(212) 992-8078
Wilf Family Department of Politics, 19 W. 4th Street, Room 327

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