Interests include political behavior and public opinion, American political culture and federalism, American government, state and urban government, public policy, political parties and interest groups, and research methodology. My research has appeared in all of the leading journals in political science and has addressed an intellectually broad and challenging agenda. My papers and publications range from research on contending theories of civil violence and the causes of the 1960s and 1970s black urban riots, to some of the statistical and methodological pitfalls of analyzing aggregate and individual-level data, to evaluations of U. S. employment and training programs and the development of national labor policies, to the factors and political dynamics that condition urban voting behavior, to studies of urban recovery and metropolitan differences in the quality of life, to the development of research methodologies to measure differences in American political culture and subculture and assess their impact on the performance of state and sub-state governments.
Lately, my research interests have come to focus on the racial-ethnic and religious forces that shape American voting behavior and the factors that condition ethnic conflicts in nation states and the American states. I began my career as a comparative American scholar with special teaching and research interests in urban and state politics and political methodology. But now my interests have also come to include broader national and international issues of ethnic-racial diversity, social identity, ethnic competition, social inequality, and political conflict. I have also moved beyond simple class-based and pluralist theories of human behavior to embrace broader historical-cultural, evolutionary, and bio-political perspectives. My latest article, "The Changing Regional Subcultures of the American States and the Utility of a New Cultural Measure," is scheduled for publication in Political Research Quarterly.
My primary fields of expertise include: American political culture, American federalism, public opinion and voting behavior, political parties and interest groups, American government and politics, public policy, state and local government, political methodology, urban politics, and political violence.