LA Times - How smart is the American voter?
Studies done on how well informed the American voter is have shown a fairly ignorant lot. This hasn't changed since the first studies done in the 1950s-60s. Voters don't make decisions based on rational assessment of the issues. A new approach developed in the 90s that took all this for granted but tried to assert that voters instead make rational 'informational shortcuts' about how to vote, which, while irrational, might be predictable in certain ways. Also, you might think that 'better off now' might reward the incumbent, yet people are pretty bad at assessing what was due to politics, and also, even whether they were better off during the early stages of an elected term.
No comments:
Post a Comment