The Politics of Competence: Parties, Public Opinion and Voters

ISBN-13: 9781107158016 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 324 str.

Will (University of Southampton) Jennings

Opis

This analysis reveals how issue ownership, performance and competence shape public opinion about parties, government support and elections, over time and cross-nationally.

Recenzje

'Central to theories of how voters evaluate parties are ideas that one party is better able than another to handle a given issue. But how do voters develop these evaluations? And what is the role of actual performance of a party in government? In this theoretically ambitious, empirically rich and truly comparative book, Green and Jennings break new ground. They show that parties regularly gain and lose 'ownership' on particular issues, that partisanship strongly affects perceptions of performance, that governments inexorably lose support and reputations for competence, and that they develop a new theoretical perspective towards how voters evaluate parties. Rich with data, comparative in approach and equally theoretical as empirical, this book sets a new standard in the fields of issue ownership on a par with previous works by Donald Stokes, John Petrocik and William Riker.' Frank R. Baumgartner, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and co-author of The Politics of Information (2015)

Spis treści

1. Introduction; 2. Conceptual problems, and solutions; 3. Three concepts of issue competence; 4. Explaining issue ownership change; 5. Performance of governments, and oppositions; 6. Generic competence and costs of governing; 7. Combined effects of ownership, performance and generic competence; 8. Conclusion; Appendices; Bibliography.