Get Out the Vote! Campaign Techniques and Innovations to Mobilize Voters in France and in the U.S.
Presented by the Institute of French Studies of New York University
Co-sponsored by Liegey Muller Pons and NYU’s Department of Politics
17 October, 2014, 1pm – 6pm
Organized by Frédéric Viguier (French Studies, NYU) and Vincent Pons (Harvard Business School).
Address:
La Maison française of New York University
16 Washington Mews
New York, NY 10003
President Obama’s 2008 field campaign capitalized on a decade of data-driven, professionally organized get-out-the vote campaigns. Inspired by the success of Obama’s first presidential campaign and the work of political scientists Alan Gerber and Donald Green, Liegey, Muller and Pons designed and implemented a voter mobilization project for the French Parti socialiste, which led them to run François Hollande's successful 2012 field campaign. Porte à porte. Reconquérir la démocratie sur le terrain (Calmann-Lévy, 2013) recounts their experience managing the largest effort of this kind ever organized in Europe to this day.
Two weeks before the mid-term elections of November 2014, our symposium discusses the rise of modern voter mobilization campaigns. Researchers from various disciplines (experimental political science, ethnography, history), campaign managers and politicians from France and the U.S. compare their points of view and analyze campaign habits and most recent innovations in the two countries. They explore the impact of this kind of voter mobilization efforts on U.S. and French political cultures.
Program:
1:00 p.m.: Introduction and Video Screening
1:30-3:30 p.m.: Panel 1 – Get-Out-the-Vote Fieldwork and Public Engagement Campaigns: A French-American Comparison
Vincent Feltesse serves as Elysée political advisor in charge of the relationship with elected representatives and political parties. Most recently, he was a Congressman at the French National Assembly. His background includes directing the web campaign of President François Hollande in 2012 and serving as the President of the Urban Community of Bordeaux.
Anne Filipic serves as President of Enroll America, a non-profit organization dedicated to maximizing the number of Americans who enroll in and retain health coverage made available through the Affordable Care Act. Most recently, she was the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Her background includes key positions in a variety of electoral and issue campaigns, including the 2008 Obama for America campaign.
Guillaume Liegey is the cofounder of Liegey Muller Pons, a startup company specialized in data-driven field campaigns. He first worked for Veolia Water in China and for McKinsey&Company in France and in the US. He left McKinsey to join François Hollande’s campaign team where he supervised the door-to-door canvassing campaign with Arthur Muller and Vincent Pons. He teaches a class on campaign strategy at Sciences Po Paris.
Marlon Marshall serves as Principal Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. Most recently, he was a founding partner at 270 Strategies, a startup company which helps organizations building grassroots campaigns. His background includes serving as the Deputy National Field Director for President Barack Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign.
Chair and commentator: Jonathan Nagler (Professor of political science, NYU)
4:00-6:00 p.m.: Panel 2 - Parties, Supporters and Campaign Professionals: A New Political Culture in the Making?
Donald P. Green is Professor of political science at Columbia University. His research interests span a wide array of topics: voting behavior, partisanship, campaign finance, hate crime, and research methods. Much of his current work uses field experimentation to study the ways in which political campaigns mobilize and persuade voters. He is the author of over 100 articles and 4 books, including Get Out the Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout (with A. Gerber in 2004).
Vincent Pons is Assistant Professor of economics at Harvard Business School. His research focuses on electoral mobilization and the determinants of voter turnout. He is the co-author of Porte à porte. Reconquérir la démocratie sur le terrain (Calmann-Lévy, 2013). He co-founded Liégey Muller Pons, a consulting agency for data-driven field campaigns that supervised the door-to-door canvassing effort of François Hollande’s 2012 campaign team.
Julien Talpin is Research fellow in political science, at the CERAPS (CNRS) and Université de Lille 2. His research deals with deliberative democracy, political socialization and the transformations of representative government. He is the author of Schools of Democracy. How ordinary Citizens (Sometimes) Become Competent in Participatory Bedgetary Institutions (2011).
Frédéric Sawicki is Professor of political science at Université Paris 1 – Panthéon – Sorbonne. His research focuses on activist commitment and political parties, especially the French Parti socialiste. He is the co-author of La société des socialistes (with R. Lefèvre in 2006).
Chair and commentator: Patrick Weil (CNRS and Yale Law School)