Issue Salience and Party Choice

1929 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 389-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. RePass
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Measurable Effect ◽  
Issue Salience ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Voting Choice ◽  
First Time

A number of leading studies of voting behavior in recent years have concluded that specific issues are not a salient element in the electoral decision. These studies have indicated not only that voters are unfamiliar with most issues, but also that the electorate is generally unable to detect differences between Republican and Democratic positions on issues. Using the same Survey Research Center interviews upon which these previous findings were based, this article modifies these previous evaluations. This study concentrates on data from the 1964 election —a campaign that was notable not for the issues it raised, but rather for the public's strong reactions to the candidates. The findings in this article show that, even in 1964, most people were concerned with a number of specific issues and that these issue concerns had a very measurable effect on voting choice. Furthermore, large proportions of people were able accurately to perceive the differences between the parties on those issues that were salient to them. The major reason these findings are so different from previous results is that new measures and a different approach were used—particularly open-ended interview material that for the first time allowed the researcher to discover the issues that were salient to the voter.

The Decline of Class Voting in Britain: Problems of Analysis and Interpretation

1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 523-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark N. Franklin ◽  
Anthony Mughan
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Causal Modeling ◽  
Simultaneous Estimation ◽  
Occupational Class ◽  
Party Choice ◽  
Dramatic Decline ◽  
Electoral Choice ◽  
Class Voting ◽  
Modeling Techniques ◽  
Voting Choice

Social class has long been recognized as being the preeminent influence upon electoral choice in Britain, but recent studies provide support for the argument that it has become a weakened force. These studies differ only in the interpretation that they place on its decline. Through the simultaneous estimation of the effects on voting choice of class measured by occupation, and other variables, this article shows how one of the recent studies implied an overestimate of the declining importance of occupational class. Further it shows that when the indirect effects of class on party choice are taken into account, by means of causal modeling techniques, its preeminent position in determining voting choice in Britain can still be seen. The article seeks to clarify the nature of class-based voting behavior during a period of dramatic decline in this phenomenon, terminating at the last point at which traditional measures can reasonably be used.

Locus of Control, Political Attitudes, and Voting Behavior in a College-Age Population

1972 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 529-530 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward B. Blanchard ◽  
M. Eugene Scarboro
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Locus Of Control ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Older Students ◽  
College Age ◽  
Activity Factor ◽  
Previous Election ◽  
First Time

Rotter's (1966) I-E Scale and Mirels' (1970) Political Activity Factor derived from that scale were shown to have no significant value in predicting the voting behavior or political attitudes of 18- or 19-yr.-old college students voting for the first time or of older students who had been eligible to vote in a previous election Parental voting behavior and political attitudes were not significantly related to those behaviors and attitudes in students.

Index of Consumer Sentiment: Applicability at the Local Level and Sensitivity to Socioeconomic Status

1979 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-786
Author(s):  
Samuel Mudd ◽  
Douglas Beaver
Keyword(s):  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Survey Research ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Research Center ◽  
Sample Surveys ◽  
Consumer Sentiment ◽  
National Surveys ◽  
Local Sample

The five standard items of the Survey Research Center Index of Consumer Sentiment were administered to a local sample of households in May of two successive years by relatively untrained interviewers. The resulting values were found to be sensitive to differences in socioeconomic status and reflected changes in value from 1975 to 1976 that could be related meaningfully to the conventional values based on quarterly, national samples. It was suggested that the local and sub-population utility of the index could be pursued using frequent small sample surveys requiring less highly trained interviewers than those used for national surveys.

Survey Research in the Arab World

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay J. Benstead
Keyword(s):  
Data Quality ◽  
Survey Research ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
World Values Survey ◽  
Methodological Research ◽  
Survey Error ◽  
The Arab Spring

Since the first surveys were conducted there in the late 1980s, survey research has expanded rapidly in the Arab world. Almost every country in the region is now included in the Arab Barometer, Afrobarometer, or World Values Survey. Moreover, the Arab spring marked a watershed, with the inclusion of Tunisia and Libya and addition of many topics, such as voting behavior, that were previously considered too sensitive. As a result, political scientists have dozens of largely untapped data sets to answer theoretical and policy questions. To make progress toward measuring and reducing total survey error, discussion is needed about quality issues, such as high rates of missingness and sampling challenges. Ongoing attention to ethics is also critical. This chapter discusses these developments and frames a substantive and methodological research agenda for improving data quality and survey practice in the Arab world.

Left-Right Orientations and Voting Behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Willy Jou ◽  
Russell J. Dalton
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Conservative Policy ◽  
Common Framework ◽  
Societal Influences ◽  
Voting Choice

One of the ways that citizens and elites orient themselves to politics is in reference to a Left-Right vocabulary. Left and Right, respectively, refer to a specific set of progressive and conservative policy preferences and political goals. Thus, Left-Right becomes a framework for positioning oneself, political figures, and political parties into a common framework. Most citizens identify themselves in Left-Right terms and their distribution of these orientations vary across nations. These orientations arise both from long-term societal influences and from the short-term issues of the day. Most people also place political parties in Left-Right terms. This leads citizens to use Left-Right comparisons as an important factor in their voting choice, although this impact varies considerably across nations. Most parties attract voters that broadly share their Left-Right orientations.

Partisan Orientations over the Long Haul: Results from the Three-Wave Political Socialization Panel Study

1984 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 1000-1018 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Kent Jennings ◽  
Gregory B. Markus
Keyword(s):  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Consistent Reinforcement ◽  
Generational Effects ◽  
School Senior ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Voting Choice ◽  
The Relationship

The present study examines the dynamics of partisanship and voting behavior by utilizing national survey panel data gathered in 1965, 1973, and 1982 from two strategically situated generations—members of the high school senior class of 1965 and their parents. At the aggregate level, generational effects appeared in the persistently weaker partisan attachments of the younger generation. At the individual level, strong effects based on experience and habituation appeared in the remarkable gains occurring in the stability of partisan and other orientations among the young as they aged from their mid-20s to their mid-30s. Dynamic modeling of the relationship between partisanship and voting choice demonstrated that the younger voters had stabilized at an overall weaker level of partisanship, leading to more volatile voting behavior which, in turn, failed to provide the consistent reinforcement needed to intensify preexisting partisan leanings.

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