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In the past few years, a new direction has been taken in the study of economics and politics. Researchers have begun to focus on the role of prospective economic evaluations. The research presented here applies the prospective model to changes in partisanship. Regardless of the time period examined, these prospective economic evaluations exert an important influence on party identification. Individuals change their partisanship in response to their expectations concerning the ability of the parties to provide financial prosperity. These findings indicate that previous examinations of the electorate have understated the rationality of the populace, and, accordingly, previous theories of political behavior are in need of revision.

Objectives. Our purpose was to develop and test several hypotheses concerning the impact of poll‐question wording on aggregate public support for war. We drew on general insights from framing theory and specific insights from various theories of public support for war.Methods. Our database consisted of two collections of aggregate poll results drawn from the prewar and major combat phases of the Gulf War (1990–1991) and the Second War with Iraq (2002–2003). For each data set, we used multivariate OLS regression to gauge the impact of specific question‐wording variations on the percentage of respondents expressing support for war, controlling for systematic time and pollster effects.Results. Most of the hypothesized wording effects were significant in the expected direction. Mentioning WMDs, terrorism, Saddam, hostages, and international support for war boosted aggregate war support in one or both wars; mentioning the president, oil or gasoline, international opposition to war, and U.S. or Iraqi casualties depressed support.Conclusions. Various theories emphasizing different "rational" aspects of public attitudes toward war are supported. However, the significance of mentioning Saddam by name in the Second War with Iraq, and mentioning the president in both wars, would seem to imply framing effects based more on emotion and/or symbolism.

To test the hypothesis that variations in question wording would affect public support for President Reagan's policy regarding aid to the Contras in Nicaragua, data from 18 polls conducted 1983-1986 were analyzed. Findings demonstrate that question wording can change the results of polls significantly. 1 Table, 3 Appendixes, 11 References. M. Malas

Different methodological approaches sometimes lead to different substantive conclusions. Nowhere is this more evident than in studies relating assessments of presidential skill to legislative success. Scholars of the historical, traditionalist school of presidency research argue that presidents who are perceived to be adept at getting what they want are more likely to achieve their legislative goals than are those perceived as less adept. Neustadt identifies perceived skill, or what he calls 'professional reputation', as one of the three resources that are the essence of presidential power. Yet students of the presidency who employ quantitative methods have found little or no systematic relationship between variations in skill evaluations and variations in success. George Edwards reports thai similarly situated Congressmen are not especially more likely to support highly esteemed presidents than lowly esteemed presidents. Fleisher and Bond similarly find that once contextual variables have been controlled for, there is no pattern suggesting that presidents thought to be highly skilled do better with Congress.

ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to examine the relationship between viewing late night political humor and political participation.MethodsWe used various measures of viewership of late night talk shows and political participation in the 2012 American National Election Studies (ANES) data set.ResultsWe show that viewership of "Late Night with David Letterman," a simple form of political comedy, seems to be unrelated to political participation. However, viewership of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report," considered by most to be genuine political satire, is associated with higher levels of political participation.ConclusionThe results suggest that advocates of political satire may be correct when they suggest that satire mobilizes viewers to political action.

In Western European studies, general investigations of mass political participation are an established tradition. However, these efforts have not drawn from the vigorous current of research on economics and politics. Specifically for Western Europe, there exists no systematic work on economic conditions and political participation (conventional or unconventional). Here we integrate these economic arguments into general explanations of both participation modes. First voting turnout is examined, then protest activity, both as measured in recent survey data from Britain, France, Germany, and Italy. The findings uncover support for a general model of political participation within these nations, as well as pointing to provocative between-nation differences. The economic results are especially stimulating. Pocketbook effects are absent, but collective evaluations of economic performance make an impact, and do so in intriguing ways. First, it is prospective, not retrospective, evaluations that count. Second, they operate asymmetrically, with the prospect of good times heightening turnout, and the prospect of bad times heightening protest. Such findings suggest noteworthy revisions regarding the theory of economics and participation.