On Voter Competence

288 Pages·2012·0.96 MB·English

by  Paul Goren

On Voter Competence
Series in Political Psychology
Series Editor
John T. Jost
Editorial Board
Mahzarin Banaji, Gian Vittorio Caprara, Christopher Federico, Don Green,
John Hibbing, Jon Krosnick, Arie Kruglanski, Kathleen McGraw, David Sears,
Jim Sidanius, Phil Tetlock, Tom Tyler
Image Bite Politics: News and the Visual Framing of Elections
Maria E. Grabe and Erik P. Bucy
Social and Psychological Bases of Ideology and System Justifi cation
John T. Jost, Aaron C. Kay, and Hulda Thorisdottir
The Political Psychology of Democratic Citizenship
Eugene Borgida, Christopher Federico, and John Sullivan
On Behalf of Others: The Psychology of Care in a Global World
Sarah Scuzzarello, Catarina Kinnvall, and Kristen Renwick Monroe
The Obamas and a (Post) Racial America?
Gregory S. Parks and Matthew W. Hughey
Ideology, Psychology, and Law
Jon Hanson
The Impacts of Lasting Occupation: Lessons from Israeli Society
Daniel Bar-Tal and Izhak Schnell
Representing Red and Blue: How the Culture Wars Change the Way Citizens
Speak and Politicians Listen
David C. Barker and Christopher Jan Carman
On Voter Competence
Paul Goren
On Voter Competence
Paul Goren
1
3

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goren, Paul. On voter competence / Paul Goren.
p. cm. – (Series in political psychology)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–19–539614–0 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Voting—United States.
2. Voting—United States—History. I. Title.
JK1967.G58 2012
324.973—dc23
2012011459
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
1 The Indictment of the American Voter 1
2 Policy Cleavages in Historical Context 15
3 Policy Attitudes and Political Sophistication 43
4 The Three Faces of Policy Voting 63
5 The Availability of Policy Principles 89
6 The Centrality of Policy Principles 123
7 The Origins of Policy Principles 159
8 The Electoral Consequences of Policy Principles 195
9 The Exoneration of the American Voter? 233
Appendix: Measurement of Key Variables 245
References 249
Index 263

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Acknowledgments
On Voter Competence is my fi rst book. I must confess that the experience of
writing it was often miserable. What, exactly, am I trying to say, and why
can’t I say it clearly? Well, this chapter doesn’t fi t; I wish I had seen this before.
Ugh . . . my SEM program won’t run on the new OS. Taking the stairs down
to my basement offi ce to write—and rewrite and rewrite and rewrite—left
me feeling as if I was trapped in a course-correcting time loop in which the
proper course was diffi cult to chart. At other times I felt like a character in a
Beckett novel, compelled to move forward, but not sure how: “I can’t go on,
I’ll go on.” Progress came, of course, in fi ts and starts, fi ts mostly, and often
left me feeling irritable and exhausted at day’s end. But there were moments
of joy as well once everything began to come together. The book is done at
last, which brings me to this especially gratifying task. Over the past 4 years
I have leaned heavily on the good graces and patience of innumerable col-
leagues, friends, and, most importantly, my family. I can fi nally acknowledge
these debts and thank those whose support has meant very much to me.
I begin with the fi rst rate editorial team at Oxford University Press and
the Series in Political Psychology. Lori Handelman contacted me about my
idea long before I had put pen to paper, waited patiently for the prospectus
to arrive, and provided much good cheer along the way. Abby Gross proved
remarkably patient and helpful as I brought the project to a close and worked
tirelessly to ensure a key deadline was met. Aaron van Dorn and Joanna Ng
handled all queries I had quickly and professionally. John Jost provided criti-
cal feedback on the proposal and draft manuscript and, thankfully, saved me
from a critical error late in the game. Finally, comments from the anonymous
reviewers, much of which has been incorporated into these pages, improved
the manuscript immeasurably.
Friends and colleagues at the University of Minnesota and elsewhere delivered
timely and invaluable feedback on various theoretical, substantive, and method-
ological issues. I’m not sure how the book would have turned out without their
vii
viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
generous help. I do know it would have been much worse. Howie Lavine
read every chapter, gave excellent commentary across the board, and supplied
plenty of help along the way. Chris Federico read most of the book, made
many astute comments about psychological theory and American politics, and
offered sage statistical advice. I thank him too for scoring tickets for the Boris ~
Kurihara and GBV shows. Chris Chapp somehow managed to read my man-
uscript while completing his own book. His commentary was always expert
and his suggestions spot on (and his spots in the rack greatly appreciated). Ed
Schiappa read the entire manuscript with remarkable dispatch, offered cogent
advice, and pushed me to keep my eye on the big picture, all the while serving
as chair of the Department of Communication Studies at Minnesota. Where he
found the time I will never know. Tim Johnson and David Kimball read the
complete manuscript as well and made a number of very useful suggestions.
They too pushed me to emphasize broad themes and clarify my prose. David
Samuels, Markus Prior, and Aaron Hoffman deserve credit on this score as
well. Joanne Miller offered much needed criticism on early drafts of the con-
ceptual/theoretical chapters, forcing me to simplify matters in my own mind.
Two historians, James Patterson at Brown University and Robert Collins at
the University of Missouri, answered an out-of-the-blue cry for help from
a political scientist desperately trying to condense a great deal of historical
material into a coherent narrative. Both graciously read drafts of Chapter 2
with a careful and critical eye, saved me from several embarrassing factual
errors, and taught me a thing or two about the historian’s craft. Finally, I thank
Paul Sniderman. Though I did not realize it at the time, the idea for the book
originated in a conference paper I presented at the American Political Science
Association’s annual meeting in 2001. After the presentation, Paul introduced
himself, shared some kind words about my efforts, and encouraged me to
think big. Later on in another venue, he furnished critical advice about the
project, all of this despite the fact that some of what I was doing challenged
his work.
Many other people provided helpful comments or assistance along the way,
including Scott Abernathy, Liz Beaumont, John Bullock, Logan Dancey, Mat-
thew DeBell, John Freeman, Kim Fridkin, Sarah Allen Gershon, Jim Gimpel,
Jessica Goren, Rick Herrera, Jon Hurwitz, Bill Jacoby, Stephen Jessee, Andy
Karch, Pat Kenney, Miki Caul Kittilson, Pay Luevano, Makoto Kawabata, Ron
Krebs, Jay McCann, Bill McCready, Takashi Mizutani, Jeff Mondak, Christopher
Muste, Kathryn Pearson, Brian Rathbun, Mark Ramirez, Shalom Schwartz, Phil
Shively, Dara Strolovitch, John Sullivan, Shawn Treier, and Joan Tronto. Finan-
cial support for the three surveys described in Chapter 7 was provided by the
Graduate School and the Center for the Study of Political Psychology at the
Acknowledgments ix
University of Minnesota and the International Studies Association. I thank Bill
Chittick and Jason Reifl er for bringing me onboard the ISA project. Despite all
this generous help errors surely remain, for which I accept full responsibility.
My greatest debts are to my family. My mother, Elaine Goren, taught me a
love of books at an early age and my father, Nurullah Goren, instilled in me the
discipline it would take to one day write one. My in-laws, Brian and Rosemary
Dingle, offered much encouragement over the years, as did my sisters Jessica
Goren and Leslie Doyle. I thank them all here. My children, Nurry, Elsie, and
Indigo, though not always sure why I had to work so much, reminded me
daily about what is most important in life. Finally, my wife Lisa has borne
many heavy burdens the past several years. Through all the late nights and
parental shirking and lost weekends, she remained cheerful, supportive, and
understanding. For this and so much more, I will always be grateful. I dedi-
cate this book to her.