Joshua J. Dyck

BIOGRAPHY

Joshua J. Dyck is a political scientist and survey researcher who frequently comments on elections and public opinion. He received his M.A. (2004) and Ph.D. (2006) degrees in Government in Politics from the University of Maryland and holds a Bachelor’s degree (2001) in Economics and Political Science from Western Washington University. He holds the rank Professor of Political Science (2021-present) and Director of the Center for Public Opinion (2020-present) at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, where he has been on faculty since 2012. Previously, Dyck was on faculty at the University at Buffalo, SUNY from 2006-2012.  He also spent a year as a Dissertation Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California during the 2005-2006 academic year.

Professor Dyck studies American politics, with a focus on public opinion, voting behavior, elections, parties, political communication, state politics, and racial and ethnic politics. Much of his research is motivated by the interplay between public opinion and different social and institutional settings, examining the way that citizens react to democratic environments and political institutions. The largest subsection of his research has focused on direct democracy, and particularly on the secondary effects of ballot initiatives on citizens in the American states. 

His newest book The Power of Partisanship (2023, Oxford University Press, with Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz) offers a critical look at how partisanship has overtaken American politics in a profound and devastating way. His previous books include Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects (2019, University of Michigan Press, winner of the 2020 Virginia Gray Best Book Award from the State Politics and Policy Section of APSA) and CQ’s The Guide to State Politics and Policy (CQ/Sage Press, 2013). He has published more than 2 dozen peer-reviewed articles in leading scholarly journals including The Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Political Behavior, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Electoral Studies, and American Politics Research.

In his spare time, Professor Dyck is an avid tennis player, brick builder, and is collector of aged spirits.  

PUBLICATIONS

Books

3) Dyck, Joshua J. & Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna. 2023. The Power of Partisanship. New York: Oxford University Press. 

https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197623787.001.0001

2) Dyck, Joshua J. & Lascher, Edward L., Jr. 2019. Initiatives without Engagement: A Realistic Appraisal of Direct Democracy’s Secondary Effects. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Publication Date: 3/1/2019. 

https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9993024 

1) Niemi, Richard and Dyck, Joshua J., Editors. 2013. Guide to State Politics and Policy. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage/CQ Press. Publication Date: 11/12/2013.

https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452276359  

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

28) Dyck, Joshua J. and Johnson, Gregg. 2022. “Constructing a New Measure of Macropartisanship by Race and Ethnicity.” Journal of Race, Ethnicity and Politics. FirstView article. Open Access. Dataset.

https://doi.org/10.1017/rep.2021.35.

27) Santucci, Jack and Dyck, Joshua J. 2022. “The Structure of American Political Discontent.” Public Opinion Quarterly. Advance articles. Open Access.

https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfac009.   

26) Cluverius, John, and Dyck, Joshua J. 2019. “Deconstructing Popular Mythologies about Millennials and Party Identification.” The Forum 17(2): 271–294.

https://doi.org/10.1515/for-2019-0017.

25) Dyck, Joshua J., Hussey, Wesley, and Lascher, Edward L., Jr. 2019. “American State Ballot Initiatives and Income Inequality.” Politics and Governance 7(2):380-409. 

http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v7i2.1873.     

24) Dyck, Joshua J. and Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna. 2019. “Ballot Initiatives and Status Quo Bias.” State Politics and Policy Quarterly 19(2):180-207.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1532440018815067. 

23) Dyck, Joshua J., Cluverius, John, and Gerson, Jeffrey. 2019. “Sports, Science, and Partisanship in the United States: Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy and the Polarisation of an Apolitical Issue.” International Journal of Sport Policy and Politics 11(1):133-152.

https://doi.org/10.1080/19406940.2018.1524784.

22) Dyck, Joshua J., Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna, and Coates, Michael. 2018. “Primary Distrust: Political Distrust and Support for the Insurgent Candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Primary.” PS: Political Science and Politics 51(2):351-357.

https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517002505.

21) Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna and Dyck, Joshua J. 2017. “Crime and Partisanship: How Party ID Muddles Reality, Perception and Policy Attitudes on Crime and Guns.” Social Science Quarterly 98(2): 443-454.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12417.

20) Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna, Filindra, Alexandra, and. Dyck, Joshua J. 2016. “When Partisans and Minorities Interact: Interpersonal Contact, Partisanship and Public Opinion Preferences on Immigration Policy.” Social Science Quarterly 97(2):311-324.

https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12175.

19) Seabrook, Nicholas R., Dyck, Joshua J. and Lascher, Edward L., Jr. 2015. “Do Ballot Initiatives Increase General Political Knowledge?” Political Behavior 37(2):279-307.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-014-9273-5.

18) Dyck, Joshua J. and Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna. 2014. “To Know You is Not Necessarily to Love You: The Partisan Mediators of Intergroup Contact.” Political Behavior 36(3):553-580.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-013-9240-6.

17) Dyck, Joshua J. and Pearson-Merkowitz, Shanna. 2012. “The Conspiracy of Silence: Context and Voting on Gay Marriage Ballot Measures.” Political Research Quarterly 65(4):745-757. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912911411102.  

16) Dyck, Joshua J. 2012. “Racial Threat, Direct Legislation, and Social Trust: Taking Tyranny Seriously in Studies of the Ballot Initiative.” Political Research Quarterly 65(3):617-630. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912911404562.  

15) Dyck, Joshua J., Johnson, Gregg B. and Wasson, Jesse T. 2012. “A Blue Tide in the Golden State: Ballot Propositions, Population Change and Party Identification in California.” American Politics Research 40(3):450-475.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1532673X11427948. 

14) Dyck, Joshua J. and Hagley, Annika. 2012. “Political Geography, Direct Democracy, and the Reasoning Voter: Spatial Proximity, Symbolic Politics, and Voting on California’s Proposition 83.” Politics and Policy 40(2):195-220.

Lead Article

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-1346.2012.00346.x. 

13) Dyck, Joshua J. and Baldassare, Mark. 2012. “The Limits of Citizen Support for Direct Democracy.” California Journal of Politics and Policy 4(1):1-20.

https://doi.org/10.5070/P23S31.

12) Dyck, Joshua J. 2010. “Political Distrust and Conservative Voting in Ballot Measure Elections.” Political Research Quarterly 63(3):612-626.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1065912909331427.

11) Dyck, Joshua J. and Seabrook, Nicholas R. 2010. “Mobilized by Direct Democracy: Short-term versus Long-term Effects and the Geography of Turnout in Ballot Measure Elections.” Social Science Quarterly 91(1):189-208.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6237.2010.00688.x.

10) Dyck, Joshua J., Gaines, Brian and Shaw, Daron R. 2009. “The Effect of Local Political Contexts on How Americans Vote.” American Politics Research 37(6):1088-1115.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1532673X09332932. 

9) Dyck, Joshua J. and Baldassare, Mark. 2009. “Process Preferences and Voting in Direct Democratic Elections.” Public Opinion Quarterly 73(3):551-65.

https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfp027.

8) Dyck, Joshua J. and Lascher, Edward L., Jr.  2009. “Direct Democracy and Political Efficacy Reconsidered.”  Political Behavior 31(3):401-27.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-008-9081-x.

7) Dyck, Joshua J. 2009. “Initiated Distrust:  Direct Democracy and Trust in Government.” American Politics Research 37(4):539-68.

Lead Article

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1532673X08330635.

6) Dyck, Joshua J. and Hussey, Laura. 2008. “The End of Welfare as We Know It?  Durable Attitudes in a Changing Information Environment.” Public Opinion Quarterly 72(4):589-618.

Lead Article

https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfn053.

5) Gimpel, James G., Dyck, Joshua J. and Shaw, Daron R. 2007. “Election Year Stimuli and the Timing of Voter Registration.”  Party Politics 13(3):347-370.

https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1354068807075941. 

4) Gimpel, James G., Dyck, Joshua J. and Shaw, Daron R.  2006. “Location, Knowledge, and Time Pressures in the Spatial Structure of Convenience Voting.”  Electoral Studies 25(1):35-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.electstud.2005.02.002. 

3) Cho, Wendy K. Tam, Gimpel, James G. and Dyck, Joshua J. 2006. “Residential Concentration, Political Socialization and Voter Turnout.” Journal of Politics 68(1):156-67.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2508.2006.00377.x.  

2) Dyck, Joshua J. and Gimpel, James G. 2005. “Distance, Turnout, and the Convenience of Voting.” Social Science Quarterly 86(3):531-48.

Lead Article

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0038-4941.2005.00316.x. 

1) Gimpel, James G., Dyck, Joshua J. and Shaw, Daron R. 2004. “Registrants, Voters, and Turnout Variability Across Neighborhoods.” Political Behavior 26(4):343-75.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s11109-004-0900-4.