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Publius: The Journal of Federalism Advance Access originally published online on August 24, 2009
Publius: The Journal of Federalism 2009 39(4):696-706; doi:10.1093/publius/pjp018
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© The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of CSF Associates: Publius, Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

Functional Federalism in Political Campaign Debates

Jayne R. Henson* and William Lyon Benoit{dagger}
*University of Missouri; jrh8y3{at}mizzou.edu
{dagger}Ohio University; benoitw{at}ohio.edu

Which factors influence the topics addressed by candidates in political debates? This study investigates the question of how the level of elective office influences the content of political debates by employing computer content analysis to investigate the issue emphasis of political campaign debates. Paul Peterson's (1995, The price of federalism. Washington, DC: CQ Press) theory of functional federalism recognizes that political offices at different levels of government have discrete purviews, so that senators are more likely to emphasize national issues than governors. This study confirms the prediction of functional federalism in non-presidential debates and then extends it by demonstrating that presidential campaign messages emphasize federal issues even more than Senate (or gubernatorial) discourse.


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