Research paper due in 12 hours

Research Prospectus

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Proposal 1 (First choice)

Topic - The superstar factor: Celebrity influence on American political campaigns.

Introduction

In the 2016 American Presidential elections, the job of political influencing was, in part, at the hands of a body of individuals lacking political experience; the celebrities. Each of the two candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, enjoyed the support of a large number of celebrities, with each celebrity cashing in on their fan base to endorse the candidate of their choice. Besides that, one of the candidates, Donald Trump, had acquired celebrity status owing to his career in reality television. Therefore, celebrity politics was a significant factor in the 2016 presidential campaigns.

The proposed study considers the impact that celebrities have on political campaigns, especially their influence on the quality of the political discourse around the elections. It considers questions such as: what value do celebrities bring to political campaigns?, and where do celebrities derive their political influence despite lacking political experience? However, the primary research question addressed by the proposed research is “to what extent do the celebrities enhance or dilute the political discourse?” The preliminary thesis statement based on the review of existing literature on “celebrity politics” is:

“celebrities are formidable campaign machinery used by politicians to sway voters because of their large following, but to a significant extent, they dilute rather than enhance the political discourse owing to the tendency of the celebrities to convert the political conversation from an issue-based one to a populist contest, their lack of political experience and the fact that they subjugate the average voices in the political discourse.”

Upon further research, this thesis statement will be revised to reflect the extent to which the detriment to the political discourse manifests.

Literature Review

The proposed research examines the impact of celebrities on the political discourse when the celebrities either participate directly in politics or when the influence the political outcome through the endorsement of their favored candidates. First, the key constructs of the research will be defined. Secondly, the research on the sources of influence for the celebrity politicians and political influencers, as well as the value that the influential celebrities bring to the political campaigns will be discussed. Finally, the relevant research on the perceived effect of the celebrity politics on the political discourse, both the positive and the negative, will be outlined.

Definition of terms

The primary construct that the proposed research relies on is “celebrity politics.” Most literature on celebrity politics focuses on the various roles that the “celebrity” can take in the political sphere. Street (2004) in his typology of celebrity politicians describes celebrity politics as either the practice where a person whose background is entertainment, show business or sports trades on his background to get elected e.g. Arnold Schwarzenegger, or a practice where a politician uses the “forms and associations of the celebrity to enhance their image and communicate their message” (p. 437). These two practices are construed to comprise celebrity politics. Marsh, ‘t Hart, and Tindall (2010) adopt a similar but broader typology of celebrity politics to encompass the roles of celebrity advocate, celebrity endorser, celebrity politician, politician celebrity, and politician who uses other’s celebrity.

The sources of influence for celebrities

Literature on celebrity politics examines the role of celebrities in politics by first characterizing the context from which the celebrities derive their influence. According to Ribke (2015), celebrity power is superficial and it derives from the public image of the celebrities. This public image, according to Ribke (2015) is a prefabricated one, forged by PR agents and talent agents, who shape the celebrity as a commodity depending on what the audience wants to see in the celebrities. In an alternative description of celebrity power, Lindenberg, Joly, and Stapel (2011) theorize that the influence of the celebrities derives from their ability to influence behavior by “activating bundles of social norms,” and that they can only do this if they have prestige. This “prestige,” according to Lindenberg, Joly, and Stapel (2011), only exists for as long as the public considers the celebrities to be successful. This characterization of prestige affirms the view by Ribke (2015) that the public image of the celebrities is the source of their influence. For political influence, Lindenberg, Joly, and Stapel (2011) are of the view that the celebrities reinforce the views that people already own by taking advantage of the psychological connections with their audiences to endorse what they consider ought to be.

Effect of celebrity politics on the political discourse

Scholars of celebrity politics differ in what they consider to be the effect of celebrity politics on the political discourse. On one side, there are those that posit that celebrities enrich or enhance the political discourse. For instance, according to Austin, Vord, Pinkleton, and Epstein (2008), the endorsement of political candidates by celebrities are positively related to the political engagement of the younger citizenry. This suggests that celebrity politics enhances the political discourse by facilitating the engagement of individuals who would otherwise be left out. In agreement, Wheeler (2013) argues that celebrities invigorate democracy with new ideas. According to Wheeler (2013), the celebrities represent a new form of political agency, and their utility in the reconfiguration of the discourse surrounding economic, political and social change cannot be underestimated.

On the other hand, some scholars believe that celebrity politics is detrimental to the political discourse. For instance, according to Nolan and Brookes (2013), celebrity politics is largely superficial in that “offers only a temporary intensity of feeling that ultimately is empty and devoid of meaning” (p. 374). This argument suggests that the fact that the celebrities take advantage of their fame to influence the electorate eliminates substance from the political discourse. Another similar argument is that the celebrities do not have the requisite qualifications and political experience to engage in political discourse. According to Street (2004), the celebrities have “irrelevant qualities and superficial knowledge that does not justify their claim to ‘represent’” (p. 439). Finally, there is the argument that celebrity politics drowns out the average voice in the political discourse. Marsh, ‘t Hart, and Tindall (2010) argue that “the focus on the policies that celebrities endorse can devalue the social problems and unpopular, controversial or unglamorous causes to which celebrities pay little attention” (p. 332). What this means is that celebrity politics creates an uneven ground in politics by subjugating the average voices in the political discourse.

Proposal 2 (Second Choice)

Topic - Obamacare: Is it time to lay ACA to rest?

Introduction

As the most popular legacy of President Barack Obama, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) (popularly known as Obamacare) has been a target for repealing efforts by his opponents. Most recently, Obama’s successor, President Donald Trump, promised his supporters during the 2016 presidential campaigns that he would “repeal and replace” Obamacare. The proposed research is a policy analysis that evaluates whether Obamacare has been successful in achieving what it set to achieve. Given its performance record, are the calls to repeal and replace Obamacare justified? The preliminary thesis statement is “Overwhelming evidence suggests that Obamacare needs radical restructuring because while the Affordable Care Act has been effactive in reducing the cost of healthcare, it has not accomplished improved access and quality of care as envisaged during its conception.” This remains a tentative thesis statement and it is subject to change to reflect the perspectives that emerge during the research.

Literature Review

The proposed research will examine the success, or failure, of the Affordable Care Act in achieving its primary goals. First, the proposed research will discuss the primary goals of the Obamacare healthcare policy. Then, the proposed research will evaluate the Affordable Care Act based on its performance on each of its primary goals. There were three primary objectives for the Affordable Care Act when it was conceived. First, ACA was meant to increase the number of the insured people in the United States (Manchikanti, Helm, Benyamin, & Hirsch, 2017). The second objective of the ACA was improving the quality of healthcare (Manchikanti et al., 2017). Finally, the third objective of the ACA was to reduce the costs of healthcare in the United States.

Increasing the number of insured Americans

Existing literature on the performance of the ACA suggests that the policy has not significantly increased the number of people covered by medical insurance in the United States. There are differing views on the actual success of the ACA in increasing the number of the Americans covered by medical insurance. It would appear that Obamacare reduced the number of uninsured Americans. According to Dalen, Waterbrook, & Alpert (2015), more than 10 million Americans acquired medical insurance in 2014 thanks to ACA, bringing down the percentage of the uninsured Americans from 18% in July 2013 to 18% in June 2013. In agreement, Manchikanti et al. (2017) argues that between 2010 and 2015, the percentage of uninsured Americans reduced by 43%. However, this reduction is not necessarily as significant as the numbers show because 13 million of the 20 million newly insured Americans were enrolled under Medicare. According to Butler (2016), ACA missed the projected enrollments by 10 million and it should have been labeled as “Medicaid Expansion Act”.

Improving the quality of health care

Existing evidence-based research puts it forward that the ACA has not improved the quality of healthcare as it set to do. According to Manchikanti et al. (2017), while the quality of healthcare was expected to improve on the passage of ACA, this has not been the case due to the failure of the Act to provide preventative services. Another aspect of health care that has not changed is the waiting times. According to Rhodes et al (2014), even after the passing of the ACA, elderly Medicare patients seeking new appointments with a PCP were less successful in obtaining appointments compared to those with private insurance. In addition, some of the patients had to wait for over 2 weeks.

Reducing the cost of health care

Unlike the case with quality of care and the number of insured American, research suggests that the ACA has managed to lower the cost of healthcare in the United States in the years that it has been in operation. According to Manchikanti et al. (2017), it was projected that the healthcare expenditures would increase at an average annual rate of 5.6% up to 2025 if ACA was not passed. However, after the passage of ACA, the reform of the health care delivery system achieved a constant out-of-pocket spending as a percentage of the total health care spending (Manchikanti et al., 2017). In agreement, Herrera et al. (2013) points out that “Growth in out-of-pocket prescription spending was effectively flat (p. 1722). According to Burger (2011), the reduced costs are due to the IMR provision in the ACA, which provides for more transparency and discourages the less transparent mechanisms that MCOs use to charge the patients more. Predicts that the individual mandate as well as the accompanying minimum essential coverage provisions will continue to significantly reduce error costs and decision costs, to the effect of making health care in the United States even more affordable.

Bibliography of sources

Topic 1

Austin, E. W., Vord, R. V. de, Pinkleton, B. E., & Epstein, E. (2008). Celebrity Endorsements and Their Potential to Motivate Young Voters. Mass Communication & Society, 11(4), 420–436.

Lindenberg, S., Joly, J., & Stapel, D. (2011). The Norm-Activating Power of Celebrity: The Dynamics of Success and Influence. Social Psychology Quarterly, 74(1), 98-120.

Marsh, D., ‘t Hart, P., & Tindall, K. (2010). Celebrity Politics: The Politics of the Late Modernity? Political Studies Review, 8(3), 322–340.

Nolan, D., & Brookes, S. (2013). Populism in theory and practice: Analysing celebrity politics. Media Asia, 40(4), 373–383.

Ribke, N. (2015). A genre approach to celebrity politics: Global patterns of passage from media to politics. Springer.

Street, J. (2004) ‘Celebrity politicians: Popular culture and political representation. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 6(4), 435–452.

Wheeler, M. (2013). Celebrity politics: Image and identity in contemporary political communications. Cambridge, UK : Polity.

Topic 2

Burger, D. D. (2011). The management of health care costs: Independent medical review after “ObamaCare.” University of Memphis Law Review, 42(2), 255–301.

Butler, S. M. (2016). The future of the Affordable Care Act: Reassessment and revision. Jama, 316(5), 495-497.

Dalen, J. E., Waterbrook, K., & Alpert, J. S. (2015). Why do so many Americans oppose the Affordable Care Act?. The American journal of medicine, 128(8), 807-810.

Herrera, C. N., Gaynor, M., Newman, D., Town, R. J., & Parente, S. T. (2013). Trends underlying employer-sponsored health insurance growth for Americans younger than age sixty-five. Health Affairs, 32(10), 1715-1722.

Manchikanti, L., Helm, I. S., Benyamin, R. M., & Hirsch, J. A. (2017). A Critical Analysis of Obamacare: Affordable Care or Insurance for Many and Coverage for Few?. Pain physician, 20(3), 111.

Moncrieff, A. R., & Padi, M. (2014). Beyond payment and delivery reform: The individual mandate’s cost-control potential. American Journal of Law & Medicine, 40(2/3), 185–194.

Rhodes, K. V., Kenney, G. M., Friedman, A. B., Saloner, B., Lawson, C. C., Chearo, D., ... & Polsky, D. (2014). Primary care access for new patients on the eve of health care reform. JAMA internal medicine, 174(6), 861-869.