Analyzes effects of stereotypes, voters' baseline gender preference, and a hypothetical vote choice question involving two candidates; based on a telephone survey of 455 residents of Ohio, conducted from late Mar.-mid Apr. 2000.
THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT STYLE ISSUES HAVE A RATIONAL IMPACT ON VOTER THINKING AND THAT THEY WERE SIGNIFICANT IN THE 1972 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION. EVIDENCE OF STYLE ISSUE SALIENCE IS EXAMINED; VOTER PERCEPTION IS EXAMINED; AND A CAUSAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STYLE ISSUES AND VOTE CHOICE IS ANALYZED.
Seeking to understand how individual voters can be influenced by their social environment, a microlevel model of the operation of contextual influences on political behavior was developed to specify the effects of both personal contact & individual perception of the partisan nature of the local environment. A test of the model based on interviews with working-, middle-, & mixed-class samples in the US & GB (total N = 1,500+) reveals little support for personal contact as a mechanism of contextual influence but shows that perception of partisan dominance markedly enhances the impact of partisan identification on vote choice. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 38 References. Adapted from the source document.
The focus is the basic consensus & dissensus that is evident in the US electorate every 4 yrs & the lack of direct translation of PO into public policy in a democracy. Using 1964 as an example, a study of a nat'l sample of voters (Survey Res Center) indicates that there is a surprising degree of agreement on many issues, even when the electorate is faced with 2 clear alternatives & an 'ostensibly ideological campaign.' The study indicates the relative uncohesive nature of the Johnson 'mandate' (Guttman scale analysis) & delineates the salience of certain issues such as Medicare (factor analysis). It was discovered that civil rights issues fell into the realm of the least divisive issues in 1964 in spite of the nature of campaign output, & that L. B. Johnson & B. Goldwater voters displayed similar levels of issue intensity. Most of the evidence presented points to the continued failure of US voters to put their cognitive map in order re a liberal-conservative continuum. AA.