Updating Political Evaluations: Policy Attitudes, Partisanship, and Presidential Assessments

Highton, Benjamin

doi:10.1007/s11109-010-9156-3

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 47 publications

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“…The unique nature of the pandemic also implies that understanding the extent and the sources of the public's (dis)approval of the policy responses is even more crucial than in crisis moments in the past. Though policy evaluations on particular issue domains have long been shown to have the potential to make or break governments, or at least shape their re-election prospects (Cavari 2019;Goerres and Walter 2016;Highton 2012), the current pandemic may point beyond 'business as usual' with more far-reaching consequences. Decisions that decide the fate of thousands of lives coupled with the sharpest fall in economic activity in the post-war period may be expected to trigger what Roberts (2008) referred to as 'hyper-accountability' in the context of post-communism transition.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pandemic politics: policy evaluations of government responses to COVID-19

Altiparmakis

Bojar

Brouard

et al. 2021

West European Politics

106

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The COVID-19 crisis has demanded that governments take restrictive measures that are abnormal for most representative democracies. This article aims to examine the determinants of the public's evaluations towards those measures. This article focuses on political trust and partisanship as potential explanatory factors of evaluations of each government's health and economic measures to address the COVID-19 crisis. To study these relationships between trust, partisanship and evaluation of measures, data from a novel comparative panel survey is utilised, comprising eleven democracies and three waves, conducted in spring 2020. This article provides evidence that differences in evaluations of the public health and economic measures between countries also depend on contextual factors, such as polarisation and the timing of the measures' introduction by each government. Results show that the public's approval of the measures depends strongly on their trust in the national leaders, an effect augmented for voters of the opposition. KEYWORDS COVID-19; political trust; partisanship; coronavirus crisis; polarisationThe policy responses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic that swept the globe from late 2019 onwards presented unique challenges for democratic representation. Faced with the urgency and scale of the problem pressure, elites of democratic societies had to take quick measures to ensure the health system could cope with the surge of coronavirus cases and to respond rapidly to the economic consequences of the crisis. The rapid spread of the virus implied that elites had to take such decisions without much time to consult with the general public. In the absence of a real public debate on the measures, a quintessential link of government responsiveness was broken. If there is no time to consult and debate

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confidence: 99%

Pandemic politics: policy evaluations of government responses to COVID-19

Altiparmakis

Bojar

Brouard

et al. 2021

West European Politics

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…However, this view has very much fallen out of favor following more recent contributions that demonstrate the decisive role of partisan identities in perpetuating distinct differences in opinions among ordinary citizens (Bartels 2002, Logan et al 2003, Tverdova 2011, Anduiza et al 2013, Blais et al 2015. This finding is further based on the observation that people prefer information that are congenial to their partisan predispositions and resist information that are in contrast to their political ideology (Zaller 1992, Taber and Lodge 2006, Highton 2012. Hence, some scholars assign partisanship the role of a simple heuristic to facilitate the processing of complex information (Sniderman et al 1991, Anderson andTverdova 2003).…”

Section: Partisan Motivation and Political Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Partisanship in a Young Democracy: Evidence from Ghana

Stoecker¹

2022

Journal of African Economies

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While past studies have put forward many reasons why partisanship in young African democracies should be considered weak and meaningless, this paper casts doubt on this notion by presenting evidence that suggests the presence of strong and stable patterns of partisanship in ordinary citizens. Based on survey data from Ghana, I exploit the variation introduced by the political turnovers of 2008 and 2016, estimating a partisan divide for a wide range of perceptions and attitudes. The results suggest that partisanship is both meaningful and prompts motivated reasoning among citizens, while also being indicative of increased polarization and thus a potential threat to effective governance. Furthermore, the analysis of attitudes towards democratic principles uncovers a worrying double standard that could negatively affect efforts towards the consolidation of democracy. A simple heterogeneity analysis reveals that while partisan identities seem to exist alongside ethnic identities, the latter still strongly determines the strength of party attachment in Ghana. Future research on political behavior needs to acknowledge the presence of these partisan motives and continue to investigate the impact of partisanship on the further development of democratic institutions in African democracies.

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“…Therefore it is highly unlikely that a biased increase in information would change one's partisanship (i.e. mechanism implied if reverse causality were to be true); on the contrary, political learning will only reinforce existing partisan predispositions (Highton, 2012;Stroud, 2008).…”

Section: Effect Of Parties On Individual Level Political Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Political sophistication in Central and Eastern Europe

Popa

2013

Party Politics

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This article investigates how parties can influence the level of political sophistication their supporters have. Although the importance of parties in providing their supporters with political information was first suggested in early studies of voting behaviour, this level of analysis has been omitted from individual studies of political sophistication. Focusing on the political environment of post-communist societies, where parties played a key role in helping citizens understand politics, I theorize both a direct and an indirect path through which parties can contribute to the level of sophistication of their supporters. Using cross-national data from the Eurequal 2007 project on 13 post-communist countries, I show three characteristics related to parties' motivation to mobilize the electorate against the status quo that have an impact on individual level political sophistication. Results from a multi-level model suggest that supporting a non-incumbent, smaller or right-wing party is related, either directly or in interaction with individual characteristics, to higher levels of political sophistication. These findings shed light on how looking at political parties can help us better understand the differences in the levels of political sophistication among citizens.

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Updating Political Evaluations: Policy Attitudes, Partisanship, and Presidential Assessments

Cited by 9 publications

References 47 publications

Pandemic politics: policy evaluations of government responses to COVID-19

Pandemic politics: policy evaluations of government responses to COVID-19

Partisanship in a Young Democracy: Evidence from Ghana

Political sophistication in Central and Eastern Europe

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