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WORK TITLE: Collective Political Rationality
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https://psc.uncg.edu/people/mcavoy/ * https://psc.uncg.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CV-McAvoy-2015.pdf
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LC control no.: n 99009485
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/n99009485
HEADING: McAvoy, Gregory E.
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PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Pomona College, B.A., 1983; University of Minnesota, Ph.D., 1993.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Political scientist, educator, and writer. University of Minnesota, St. Paul, postdoctoral fellow, 1993-94; Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor, St. Paul, policy evaluator, 1993-94; Duke University, Durham, NC, visiting assistant professor, 1994-95; University of North Carolina Grennsboro, assistant professor of political science, 1995-2001, associate professor, 2001-.
WRITINGS
Contributor to professional journals, including Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis. Coeditor of the book review section of the American Political Science Review, 2001-2003, and Perspectives on Politics, 2004.
SIDELIGHTS
Controlling Technocracy
Gregory E. McAvoy is a political science professor whose research focuses on public opinion, particularly collective public opinion. In his first book, Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome, McAvoy argues for the importance of citizen opinion and democratic dissent concerning environmental policy making. Drawing from a case in which a hazardous waste facility in Minnesota was stopped at one site by a citizens group, McAvoy examines citizen rationality and the inherent tensions that exist between democracy and technocracy.
McCoy provides details on the policy-making process and explores the influence of interest groups as well as the motivations of elected and nonelected public officials. He draws from archival material, interviews, and research data to argue that not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) movements can help maintain certain checks on policy makers and public officials. As a result, he says the term NIMBY should not be considered pejorative. “McAvoy challenges the notion that policy ‘experts’ and ‘elites’ should be accorded a privileged place in the policy process and that citizens are overly emotional and self-serving, and therefore unable to participate in politics in a way that will allow society to achieve its best interest,’” wrote Brent S. Steel in a review for American Political Science Review.
Collective Political Rationality
In his next book, Collective Political Rationality: Partisan Thinking and Why It’s Not All Bad, McAvoy presents a study about the formation of opinions and partisanship, particularly within politics and the Democratic and Republican parties. McAvoy argues against the prevailing notion that political leaders and the public should avoid partisanship because being overly loyal to a party’s political and economic views stops things from getting done. McCoy argues that partisanship is essential to modern politics and actually helps citizens learn about and understand various issues that have become part of the nation’s political agenda. In the process he details aspects of collective public judgment and how opinions are influenced by partisanship. He also examines how receptive the public is to new information and the impact of who is in power on people’s beliefs and opinions.
Drawing from a wide range of data, McAvoy reveals how partisanship’s biases and distortions are overcome by the public’s response to economic and political news as the basis for a change in collective opinion. McAvoy goes on to compare the assessment of the economy via the viewpoint of the public and that of economic experts. McAvoy argues that the two end up holding corresponding opinions in many ways. In the final analysis, according to McAvoy, informed publics are essentially partisan in nature. Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries contributor J.M. Stonecash felt that McCoy’s review of the literature was “straightforward” but added: Collective Political Rationality presents “a valuable, accessible review and analysis of public opinion data.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
American Political Science Review, December, 2000, Brent S. Steel, review of Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome, p. 952.
Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries, April, 2016, J.M. Stonecash, review of Collective Political Rationality: Partisan Thinking and Why It’s Not All Bad, p. 1242.
ONLINE
Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina Greensboro Web site, https://psc.uncg.edu/ (March 26, 2017), author faculty profile.
Gregory E. McAvoy Home Page, http://gemcavoy.wp.uncg.edu/ (March 26, 2017).
I am a Professor in the Department of Political Science at UNCG. The focus of my research is on public opinion, particularly collective public opinion. My book, Collective Political Rationality, was published by Routledge in May 2015.
Gregory E. McAvoy is professor of political science. His recent book Collective Political Rationality: Partisan Thinking and Why It's Not All Bad examines which party identification influences people's assessment of economic conditions. He is also the author of Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome. He has published articles in the fields of public policy, American political institutions, and research methods, and his work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly,Journal of Politics, and Political Analysis. He served as co-editor of the book review section of the American Political Science Review (2001-2003) and Perspectives on Politics(2004). He teaches courses in public policy, interest groups, research methods, and program evaluation. Curriculum Vitae Website
Education
Publications
Books:
Policy Evaluator (October 1993-July 1994), Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor
Postdoctoral Fellow (October 1992-June 1993), Department of Strategic Management, University of Minnesota, Nuclear Regulatory
Commission Grant
Collective Political Rationality: Partisan Thinking and Why It’s Not All Bad. 2015. New York: Routledge.
Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the Nimby Syndrome. 1999. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press
Gregory E. McAvoy
Curriculum Vitae (July 2015)
44 Oakwood Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1993
Dissertation: "State Autonomy and Democratic Accountability: The Politics of
Hazardous Waste Policy." Director: John R. Freeman B.A., Government, Pomona College, 1983
Department of Political Science
University of North Carolina at Greensboro P.O. Box 26170
Greensboro, NC 27402-6170 gemcavoy@uncg.edu
Academic Appointments
Associate Professor (2001-present), University of North Carolina at Greensboro Assistant Professor (1995- 2001), University of North Carolina at Greensboro Visiting Assistant Professor (1994-95), Duke University
Other Professional Experience
Refereed Articles:
Enns, Peter K., Paul M. Kellstedt, and Gregory E. McAvoy. 2012.“The Consequences of Partisanship in Economic Perceptions,” Public Opinion Quarterly, 76:2, 287-310.
Enns, Peter K. and Gregory E. McAvoy. 2012. “The Role of Partisanship in Aggregate Opinion,” Political Behavior, 34:4, 627-651.
Gregory E. McAvoy and Peter K. Enns. 2010. “Using Approval of the President’s Handling of the Economy to Understand Who Polarizes and Why,” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 40:3, 545-558.

Gregory E. McAvoy. 2008. “Substance vs. Style: Distinguishing Presidential Job Performance from Favorability.” Presidential Studies Quarterly, 38:2, 284-299.
Gregory E. McAvoy. 2006. “Stability and Change: The Time Varying Impact of Economic and Foreign Policy Evaluations on Presidential Approval,” Political Research Quarterly 59:1, 71-84.
Lawrence R. Jacobs, Benjamin I. Page, Gregory E. McAvoy, Eric Ostermeier, and Melanie Burns. 2003. “What Presidents Talk About: The Case of Nixon,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 33:4, 751-771.
Gregory E. McAvoy. 1999. “Measurement Error for Time Series Analysis: Estimating Dynamic Linear Errors-in-Variables Models,” Political Analysis 7, 165-186.
Gregory E. McAvoy. 1998. “Partisan Probing and Democratic Decision-Making: Rethinking the Nimby Syndrome,” Policy Studies Journal 26, 274-292.
Paul Kellstedt, Gregory E. McAvoy, and James A. Stimson. 1996. "Dynamic Analysis with Latent Constructs," Political Analysis 5, 113-150.
Gregory E. McAvoy. 1994. "State Autonomy and Democratic Accountability: The Politics of Hazardous Waste Policy," Polity 26:4, 699-728.
John L. Sullivan, L. Earl Shaw, Gregory E. McAvoy, David Barnum. 1993. "Cue-taking in the House of Representatives: Variation By Issue Area," Journal of Politics 55:4, 975-997.
Alfred Marcus, Mary L. Nichols, Gregory E. McAvoy. 1993. "Economic and Behavioral Perspectives on Safety," in Research in Organizational Behavior, edited by L.L. Cummings and Barry M. Staw. JAI Press.
David P. Fan and Gregory E. McAvoy. 1989. "Predictions of Public Opinion on the Spread of AIDS: Introduction of New Computer Methodologies," Journal of Sex Research 26:4, 159-187.
Conference Papers
“Sampling Error in the Context of Partisan Polarization” Paper presented at the 2015 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois.
“Distinguishing Partisanship from Inattention in Aggregate Opinion” Paper presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Is the Public Rational?: Benchmarking Collective Rationality in Economic Evaluations” Paper presented at the 2012 Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (EPOP) Conference, Oxford, England.
“Collective Political Rationality and Aggregate Economic Evaluations” Paper presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, DC
“Information Reception in Aggregate Economic Evaluations” Paper presented at the 2010 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Collective Political Rationality” Paper presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“The Causes and Consequences of Partisanship in Economic Perceptions” (with Peter K. Enns and Paul Kellstedt) Paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, MA
“The Role of Partisanship in the Rational Public” (with Peter K. Enns) Paper presented at the 2008 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Reappraising the Rational Public: Analyzing the Components of Aggregate Presidential Approval” Paper presented at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Merging Time Series Using the Kalman Filter and the EM algorithm” Paper presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Who Provides Stability? Partisanship and Political Knowledge in a “Rational Public” Paper presented at the 2006 annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
"Substance vs. Style: Distinguishing Presidential Job Performance from Personal Approval" Paper presented at the 2003 annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
"Presidential Strategies for Managing Public Approval: White House Decisions to Go Public and to Hide in the Rose Garden" (with Lawrence R. Jacobs and Melanie Burns) Paper presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, Marriott Hotel, Philadelphia, PA
“Stability and Change: The Time Varying Impact of Economic and Foreign Policy Evaluations on Presidential Approval” presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“What Presidents Talk About: The Nixon Case,” (with Benjamin I. Page and Lawrence R. Jacobs) presented at the 2002 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois
“Political Strategy and Public Uncertainty of Elite Policy Positions: The Extensiveness, Frequency, and Ambiguity of Nixon’s Policy Statements” (with Lawrence R. Jacobs) presented at the 2001 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA
“Trends and Cycles in Political Analysis: Estimation of Unobserved Components in Time Series,” presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C.
“Bounded Rationality and Learning in Time Series Analysis,” presented at the 2000 Annual Summer Methodology Conference, Los Angeles, California.
“Bounded Rationality and Learning in Time Series Analysis,” presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois.
“Perceptions of Income Inequality and Distributive Justice,” presented at the 2000 Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Political Science Association, Greensboro, NC.
“Yankees, Beach Bums, Steel Magnolias, and Norwegian Bachelor Farmers: Regional Differences in Policy Preferences,” presented at the 1998 Annual Meeting of the North Carolina Political Science Association, Boone, NC.
“The Bond Market as a ‘New Institution’ in Macroeconomic Policy-Making,” presented at the 1997 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Washington, D. C.
“Income Inequality as a Policy Outcome: The Impact of Monetary and Fiscal Policy on the Distribution of Income,” presented at the 1996 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, San Francisco.
“Measurement Error for Time Series Analysis: Estimating Dynamic Linear Errors-in-Variables Models,” presented at the 1996 Annual Political Methodology Summer Conference, Ann Arbor, Michigan.
"Coping with Measurement Errors Over Time: The Estimation of a Dynamic Shock-Error Model," presented at the 1995 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois.
"The Context for Entrepreneurship: Reconsidering Truman's Disturbance Theory," presented at the 1989 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, GA.
Grants, Fellowships, and Awards
ATL Course Development Grant (2007)
Faculty Research Leave (Fall 2003)
Provost’s Undergraduate Research Program Award (competition for an
Undergraduate Research Assistant), 1999-2000
Provost’s Undergraduate Research Program Award (competition for an
Undergraduate Research Assistant), 1997-1998
Summer Excellence Research Award (1997), University of North Carolina,
Greensboro
Summer Excellence Research Award (1996), University of North Carolina,
Greensboro
New Faculty Research Grant (1995), University of North Carolina, Greensboro Dissertation Research Grant (1989), Center for Urban and Regional Affairs,
University of Minnesota
Departmental Service
Steering Committee for the Harriet Elliot Lecture, Chair, 2014-2015 Long-Range Planning Committee 2014-present
Department Assessment Committee, 2010-present
Student Awards Committee, 1997-2001, 2009-present
Department Liaison to Instructional and Research Computing, 1997-2005 Judicial Politics Recruitment Committee, Fall 1999, 2002, 2004 Undergraduate Program Director, 1998-2001
Student Awards Committee, 1997-2001, 2009-present
Urban Politics Recruitment Committee, Fall 1997 IR Search Committee, Chair, Fall 2010
Urban Politics Recruitment Committee, Fall 2012
University Service
Harriet Elliot Committee (2014-)
GPR Recertification Committee (2014-2015)
Ad hoc Committee on Social and Behavioral Learning Outcomes, Chair (2012-2013)
University Curriculum Committee (2009-2012)
Faculty Senate (2009-2012)
University Promotion and Tenure Committee (2009-2010)
Sustainability Committee (2006-2008), Dining Services Subcomittee Chair 2007 College Promotion and Tenure Committee (2005)
Faculty Senate (2002-2006)
University Curriculum Committee (2002-2005)
Research Assignment Evaluation Committee (Fall 2004)
Social and Behavioral Sciences Instructional Area Committee (Fall 1999-2003) Academic Integrity Committee (1996-1999)
Other Professional Activities
North Carolina Political Science Association, Executive Council (2011-12)
Book Review Editor, Perspectives on Politics, (2004)
Book Review Co-Editor, American Political Science Review and Perspectives on Politics (2001-2003)
Reviewer, American Political Science Review, Policy Studies Journal, Journal of Politics, Urban Studies, Presidential Studies Quarterly, National Science Foundation, British Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly
NMcAvoy, Gregory E.: Collective political rationality: partisan thinking and why it's not all bad
J.M. Stonecash
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1242. From Book Review Index Plus.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 American Library Association CHOICE
http://www.ala.org/acrl/choice/about
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Full Text:
McAvoy, Gregory E. Collective political rationality: partisan thinking and why it's not all bad. Routledge, 2015. 134p bibl index ISBN 9781138885127 cloth, $130.00; ISBN 9781138885134 pbk, $29.95
53-3742
JK2271
2014-44984 CIP
McAvoy (Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro) focuses on what collective public judgement looks like, how partisanship affects opinions, public receptivity to information, and reactions to who is in power. The book provides a straightforward review of the literature and a valuable, accessible review and analysis of public opinion data over a lengthy period of time, drawing on the relevant literature. The writing and presentation are crisp, largely non-technical, clear, and accessible, and the results will engage anyone interested in the dynamics of American politics. McAvoy argues that despite increasing polarization, collective opinion does change over time as citizens are introduced to new information. His more sanguine conclusions about polarization can be contrasted with The Disappearing Center, by Alan Abramowitz (CH, Nov' 10, 48-1737), and Solutions to Political Polarization in America, edited by Nathaniel Persily (CH, Jan' 16, 53-2431). Summing Up: ** Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above.--J. M. Stonecash, Syracuse University
Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome
Brent S. Steel
American Political Science Review. 94.4 (Dec. 2000): p952. From Book Review Index Plus.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2000 Cambridge University Press
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=PSR
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By Gregory E. McAvoy. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1999. l84p. $55.00 cloth, $18.95 paper.
The emergence of the United States as a postindustrial society has led to an increasing array of social and political problems that confound government's ability to make and implement policy decisions. One is what may be termed the "democracy and technocracy quandary." The United States faces many policy problems that are highly technical and increasingly scientific in nature, including genetically engineered foods, habitat restoration for dwindling salmon runs, and the regulation of second-hand tobacco smoke in public settings. At the same time, the United States is a democratic system that has experienced over the past several decades a noticeable growth in distrust of government and increasing public demands for citizen involvement in governance, especially in the environmental policy arena.
The concern is that the relationship between participation (democracy) and scientific expertise (technocracy) is mutually exclusive. On the one hand, placing too much emphasis on science and expertise as the ultimate determinants of policy outcomes risks the erosion of democracy. On the other hand, too much democracy (i.e., direct involvement of citizens in policymaking and implementation) may relegate technical and scientific information to a peripheral role and increase the probability that complex problems will either be ignored or addressed in a suboptimal manner.
Gregory McAvoy provides a well-written and timely investigation of the tension between technocracy and democracy in the context of hazardous waste policymaking. Hazardous waste siting involves complex issues in which substantial amounts of technical and scientific information are critical to the decision-making process. Identifying an acceptable location to store and/or process hazardous waste often leads to the not-in-my-backyard (NIMBY) syndrome from potentially affected communities. The book presents an interesting case study of two northern Minnesota counties (Koochiching and Red Lake), where affected communities and citizens challenged the state's siting decision.
The book is well grounded in the relevant literature and offers a useful, albeit very brief, theoretical framework that can be used to analyze other policy processes in which the NIMBY syndrome is prevalent. In addition, a major strength of the book is its reliance on both qualitative and quantitative data to investigate elite and citizen motivations and preferences concerning waste siting policy. Elite and citizen interviews as well as public opinion surveys provide strong support for the arguments presented. McAvoy also is careful to identify any potentially unique cultural and political features of Minnesota that may bias the results. Nevertheless, he makes a convincing argument that his case study is applicable to other environmental policy processes involving complex technical expertise.
McAvoy challenges the notion that policy "experts" and "elites" should be accorded a privileged place in the policy process and that citizens are "overly emotional and self-serving, and therefore unable to participate in politics in a way that will allow society to achieve its best interest" (p. 90). He argues that citizen participation in the policy process is desirable for two reasons. First, it provides "legitimacy to democratic governance"; second, it leads to good policymaking because it "requires all participants to justify their technical assumptions and implicit and explicit value judgments" (p. 141). He further argues that democratic decision making should be seen as an important feature of managing complex and highly technical policy issues, such as hazardous waste siting.
This book is especially timely because of recent developments in the environmental and natural resource management arenas. The growing embrace of ecosystem management (EM) in the United States elevates the role of science as a tool for understanding environmental problems and policy issues. Yet, central to EM efforts are calls for more innovative, decentralized institutional arrangements that require government managers at the regional or local level to integrate not only the interests of other agencies that have adjacent jurisdictional and policy responsibilities but also the concerns of private citizens. EM acknowledges the limits of top-down regulatory approaches to environmental and natural resource management and recognizes that more effective alternatives require complex, collaborative partnerships among diverse government, civic, and business actors at the state/provincial and local levels. In this light, McAvoy's defense of citizen participation in the hazardous waste context has broader application to other developments in environmental and natural resource policy processes.
One aspect of the book that could have been further developed is the level of knowledge citizens actually have about the risks associated with hazardous waste and its proper disposal. Including some indicators of policy-relevant knowledge in the citizen surveys would have strengthened the multivariate analyses and potentially McAvoy's argument that citizens do have the capacity to understand and participate in complex policy issues and that the NIMBY syndrome is not necessarily the product of emotions and selfishness.
Overall this is an interesting and clearly written book that makes an important contribution to our understanding of how citizens can mobilize and influence environmental policy processes. Given the content, length, and price of the paperback version, it would make an excellent supplemental text for senior or graduate courses in environmental politics and policy.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Steel, Brent S. "Controlling Technocracy: Citizen Rationality and the NIMBY Syndrome." American Political Science Review, vol. 94, no. 4, 2000, p. 952. Book Review Index Plus, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=GPS&sw=w&u=itsbtrial&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA69277500&it=r&asid=561f72c62d35de2f609754b176ba292d. Accessed 26 Mar. 2017.