Holy Cross Student Writes Thesis on White Working Class Defection from the Democratic Party

WORCESTER, Mass. – Holy Cross senior Jonathan Favreau has been selected by the College's Center for Interdisciplinary and Special Studies as the 2001 spring semester's Maurizio Vannicelli Washington Semester Away program award winner. He will present his thesis, "The Politics of Abandonment: White Working Class Defection from the Democratic Party," on Thursday, November 7 and 4:00 p.m. in the Rehm Library.

The Vannicelli Prize is awarded each semester in honor of the late Holy Cross political science professor and Washington Program director, Maurizio Vannicelli, for the best research paper produced in the Washington Semester Away program. The recipient of the prize is accorded the opportunity to give a public lecture at the College on his or her thesis. In addition, the winner receives a bound copy of the thesis and is presented with a book award during Commencement exercises.

Favreau's thesis, based in part on his work in the office of Senator John Kerry, was an assessment of the changes in the voting constituency of the democratic party over the last few decades, in particular the tendency for working class white men to vote republican candidates rather than democratic candidates in national elections. Favreau offers an insightful critique of how the interaction of race, class and gender have played a significant role in this defection, while also examining how larger cultural values have often framed the specific issues.