Party competence and the macro polity
Party competence and the macro polity
This paper reveals a national mood in aggregate evaluations of party competence which translates from government party to opposition, which has meaningful consequences for party ratings for competence, and which significantly shapes congressional voting intentions. Analysis of this ‘macro-competence’ measure, which is constructed using a dataset of 2,512 poll measures of issue handling for parties over six decades, and then based on closer quarterly analyses between 1980 and 2009, reveals that voters judge party competence on the basis of mood in evaluations of policy handling as well as on the basis of a president, the state of the economy and on partisan leanings. The paper offers an aggregate level theory of public opinion about government and party competence, about the way in which parties gain and lose reputations for competence – irrespective of presidential approval – and introduces a measure of policy competence which can contribute in new ways to our aggregate level explanations of congressional party support, and of the Macro Polity in general
Green, Jane
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Jennings, Will
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April 2012
Green, Jane
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Jennings, Will
2ab3f11c-eb7f-44c6-9ef2-3180c1a954f7
Green, Jane and Jennings, Will
(2012)
Party competence and the macro polity.
Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, United States.
12 - 15 Apr 2012.
Record type:
Conference or Workshop Item
(Paper)
Abstract
This paper reveals a national mood in aggregate evaluations of party competence which translates from government party to opposition, which has meaningful consequences for party ratings for competence, and which significantly shapes congressional voting intentions. Analysis of this ‘macro-competence’ measure, which is constructed using a dataset of 2,512 poll measures of issue handling for parties over six decades, and then based on closer quarterly analyses between 1980 and 2009, reveals that voters judge party competence on the basis of mood in evaluations of policy handling as well as on the basis of a president, the state of the economy and on partisan leanings. The paper offers an aggregate level theory of public opinion about government and party competence, about the way in which parties gain and lose reputations for competence – irrespective of presidential approval – and introduces a measure of policy competence which can contribute in new ways to our aggregate level explanations of congressional party support, and of the Macro Polity in general
Text
Green and Jennings Valence MPSA 2012.pdf
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Published date: April 2012
Venue - Dates:
Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, United States, 2012-04-12 - 2012-04-15
Organisations:
Politics & International Relations
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 377394
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377394
PURE UUID: 88929f71-13f6-4b14-a3ec-f2fe0f306656
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Date deposited: 04 Jun 2015 10:37
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:42
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Contributors
Author:
Jane Green
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