Partisanship and Policy Choice: Issue Preferences in the British Electorate, February 1974

1976 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 273-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
James E. Alt ◽  
Bo Särlvik ◽  
Ivor Crewe
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Perceptions And Attitudes ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Issue Knowledge ◽  
New Literature ◽  
Party Policy Positions

Inherent in many models of voting, as well as in defences of representative democracy, is the assumption that the voting public has knowledge of and opinions about public policy issues. In recent years in the United States a stream of scholarly articles has been devoted to assessing not just the extent to which issue knowledge and opinions exist but also the extent to which they influence electoral decisions. This new literature suggests that issue-related perceptions and attitudes are rather more important in the electoral process than earlier studies had suggested. This increased focus on issues appears to reflect both methodological changes in the analysis of them and also real changes in the importance of policy issues in American electoral politics. By contrast, students of British electoral behaviour have made few systematic attempts to assess the fit between popular attitudes and knowledge of party policy positions on issues. Instead, the conventional wisdom is repeated which holds that ‘a majority of people are either ignorant of, or disagree with, the specific policies of the party they support’. The implication of this seems to be that electors' familiarity with issues is so low, and the holding of policy attitudes by them so uncommon, that rigorous analysis of issues in the context of electoral politics is unnecessary.

How government-controlled media shifts policy attitudes through framing

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Jennifer Pan ◽  
Zijie Shao ◽  
Yiqing Xu
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Composite Measures ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Tv News

Abstract Research shows that government-controlled media is an effective tool for authoritarian regimes to shape public opinion. Does government-controlled media remain effective when it is required to support changes in positions that autocrats take on issues? Existing theories do not provide a clear answer to this question, but we often observe authoritarian governments using government media to frame policies in new ways when significant changes in policy positions are required. By conducting an experiment that exposes respondents to government-controlled media—in the form of TV news segments—on issues where the regime substantially changed its policy positions, we find that by framing the same issue differently, government-controlled media moves respondents to adopt policy positions closer to the ones espoused by the regime regardless of individual predisposition. This result holds for domestic and foreign policy issues, for direct and composite measures of attitudes, and persists up to 48 hours after exposure.

Interests Not Passions: Mexican-American Attitudes toward Mexico, Immigration from Mexico, and Other Issues Shaping U.S.-Mexico Relations

1998 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 401-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodolfo O. De La Garza ◽  
Louis DeSipio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Mexican Americans ◽  
Mexican American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
United States Mexico

As Mexico has become more significant to the United States in the past decade, political leaders on both sides of the border have raised questions regarding the role that the Mexican-origin population of the United States will play in U.S.-Mexico relations. Will they become, as many Americans fear and Mexican officials hope, an ethnic lobby mobilized around policy issues affecting Mexico? Or will they abandon home-country political interests while maintaining a strong cultural identity? This article examines Mexican-American attitudes toward Mexico and toward the public policy issues that shape United States-Mexico relations. Our analysis suggests that Mexican Americans have developed policy attitudes that diverge from those of Mexico. Yet, the relationships of Mexican Americans to the United States and to Mexico are sufficiently volatile to suggest caution in concluding that Mexican Americans will take no role in shaping relations between the two countries.

On the Representativeness of Voters

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan E. Leighley ◽  
Jonathan Nagler
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Discourse ◽  
The United States ◽  
Election Study ◽  
Critical Aspect ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Election Studies

This chapter considers a critical aspect of the potential consequences of turnout, that is, whether voters are representative of nonvoters with respect to their preferred policy positions. It briefly reviews the handful of studies that have addressed the question of the representativeness of voters, and then replicate some of Wolfinger and Rosenstone's (1980) evidence for 1972 with 2008 data. It then tests expectations regarding the distinctiveness of voters' preferences using data from the 1972–2008 American National Election Studies, as well as the 2004 National Annenberg Election Study, comparing the policy preferences of voters and nonvoters on redistributive issues, as well as a variety of other policy issues. The chapter finds concludes that the seeming consensus that it would not matter if everyone voted is simply wrong, and has been wrong for a long time. That these differences have been ignored in political discourse as well as scholarly research is all the more striking given the increase in economic inequality experienced in the United States.

Media, Electoral Accountability, and Issue Voting

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Jerit ◽  
Jason Barabas
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Models ◽  
Political Knowledge ◽  
The United States ◽  
Electoral Accountability ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Issue Voting ◽  
The Past ◽  
Research Designs

Issue voting concerns the extent to which citizens reward or punish elected officials for their actions or inaction on legislative issues. There are debates about styles of issue voting as well as whether it takes place in the United States, but nearly all theoretical models elevate the role of political knowledge. That is, voters must know where politicians stand on policy issues as well as their own positions. While there are a variety of ways citizens could learn about policy positions and actions, the mass media are presumed to play an important role. Yet, demonstrating the empirical linkages has been difficult in the past due to ever-present challenges with data and research designs. More research is needed to understand the various mechanisms underpinning representative democracy.

Religious Group Cues and Citizen Policy Attitudes in the United States

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Adkins ◽  
Geoffrey C. Layman ◽  
David E. Campbell ◽  
John C. Green
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Religious Group ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Political Awareness ◽  
Cultural Attitudes ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe public opinion literature shows that cues about the policy positions of social groups influence citizens’ political attitudes. We assess whether cues about religious groups’ positions affect attitudes on three issues: protection of homosexuals in the workplace, improving the socio-economic conditions of African-Americans, and government-provided health insurance. We argue that such cues should shape issue attitudes and condition the impact of religious and political orientations on those attitudes. That should be especially true on issues closely connected to religion and for citizens with low levels of political awareness. We assess this argument with a survey experiment pitting pairs of religious groups on opposite sides of issues. We find that religious group cues matter primarily for cultural attitudes, among less politically-aware individuals, and for the religiously unaffiliated, Democrats, and liberals. The dominant effect is negative, moving these groups away from the positions of religious leaders and especially evangelical leaders.

scholarly journals The Trade and Environment Debate: Relevant for Southern Agriculture?

1994 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary A. Marchant ◽  
Nicole Ballenger
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Environmental Standards ◽  
Trade And Environment ◽  
Agricultural Producers ◽  
International Debate ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Environment Policy ◽  
Know How ◽  
Trade Measures

AbstractThis paper introduces and briefly discusses the economics of two important trade and environment policy issues--international harmonization of environmental standards and the use of trade measures for environmental purposes. Both issues are likely to generate lively international debate among environmentalists, industry representatives, and trade negotiators over the next few years. As the international community seeks new multilateral rules in these areas, agricultural producers will want to know how they will be affected. Thus, this paper also examines the potential impacts of environmental policy on the competitiveness of commodities unique to the Southern region of the United States.

The Implications of Political Trust for Supporting Public Transport

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
JAE YOUNG LIM ◽  
KUK-KYOUNG MOON
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Social Equity ◽  
Political Trust ◽  
The United States ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Social Surveys ◽  
Pooled Data ◽  
Policy Attitudes

Abstract Despite the importance of public transport for urban vitality, social equity, and mobility, the discussions surrounding these topics have become heated ideological battles between liberals and conservatives in the United States, as in other countries. Conservatives, in particular, have exhibited anti-transit attitudes that have worked against the development of public transport. Scholars note that political trust functions as a heuristic and its impact is felt more strongly among individuals who face ideological risks with respect to a given public policy. Based on several studies noting the relationships between political trust, ideology and policy attitudes, the study employs the pooled data of the 2010 and 2014 General Social Surveys. It finds that conservatives are negatively associated with supporting spending on public transport, but when contingent upon high levels of political trust, they become more supportive of it. The study discusses the potential of political trust as a mechanism to influence public policy discourses as well as certain methodological and substantive limitations.

The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics

2006 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 971-972
Author(s):  
Steve Patten
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Politics ◽  
The Political ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Liberal Party ◽  
University Of British Columbia ◽  
Pierre Elliott Trudeau ◽  
Canadian Politics ◽  
General Elections ◽  
Electoral Behaviour ◽  
Party Dominance

The Big Red Machine: How the Liberal Party Dominates Canadian Politics, Stephen Clarkson, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2005, pp. xii, 335.Stephen Clarkson's The Big Red Machine offers an insightful chronicle of the Liberal Party of Canada's electoral behaviour over a period of thirty years. By bringing together revised versions of his previously published accounts of the Liberal Party's successes and failures in the nine general elections held between 1974 and 2004, Clarkson provides a unique opportunity for serious reflection on Liberal Party dominance of twentieth-century Canadian politics. Beyond that, however, his accessible and compelling presentation of the story of Liberal electoral politics offers a nostalgic review of the events and personalities that shaped the political journey from Pierre Elliott Trudeau to Paul Martin. In accomplishing this, Clarkson has produced a book that will be of as much interest to non-academic followers of Canadian politics as it is to serious students of partisan politics.

Still the American Century

1999 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 271-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
BRUCE CUMINGS
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Federal Budget ◽  
The United States ◽  
Surprising Result ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
American Century ◽  
The Us ◽  
Year 2000

At the inception of the twenty-first century—not to mention the next millennium—books on ‘the American Century’ proliferate monthly, if not daily. We now have The American Century Dictionary, The American Century Thesaurus, and even The American Century Cookbook; perhaps the American Century baseball cap or cologne is not far behind. With one or two exceptions, the authors celebrate the unipolar pre-eminence and comprehensive economic advantage that the United States now enjoys. Surveys of public opinion show that most people agree: the American wave appears to be surging just as the year 2000 beckons. Unemployment and inflation are both at twenty-year lows, sending economists (who say you can't get lows for both at the same time) back to the drawing board. The stock market roars past the magic 10,000 mark, and the monster federal budget deficit of a decade ago miraculously metamorphoses into a surplus that may soon reach upwards of $1 trillion. Meanwhile President William Jefferson Clinton, not long after a humiliating impeachment, is rated in 1999 as the best of all postwar presidents in conducting foreign policy (a dizzying ascent from eighth place in 1994), according to a nationwide poll by the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations. This surprising result might also, of course, bespeak inattention: when asked to name the two or three most important foreign policy issues facing the US, fully 21 per cent of the public couldn't think of one (they answered ‘don't know’), and a mere seven per cent thought foreign policy issues were important to the nation. But who cares, when all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds?

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