Does economics influence elections? How does such influence work? Under what conditions is it more or less likely to occur? These appear to be simple questions, but answering them is difficult. And they may appear to be trivial questions to...

Does economics influence elections? How does such influence work? Under what conditions is it more or less likely to occur? These appear to be simple questions, but answering them is difficult. And they may appear to be trivial questions to those who contend that elections in the western democracies are at best placebos that disguise the Ã??'realÃ??'� dynamics of power in societies still mostly characterized by the capitalist mode of production, even if the economy is directed by government. This is an argument we do not propose to address. We do believe that free, popular elections matter, and that they make a difference precisely because, at periodic intervals, they set the limits or constraints within which capitalist as well as anticapitalist elites pursue their economic and political goals. To oppose the voice of the people to the peopleÃ??'s manipulation by elites, it seems to us, creates an unnecessary dualism. This dualism is not useful because it cannot come to grips with the question of how and why popular electorates respond as they do to more or less elite-managed economies, and how and why elites in turn Ã??'take account ofÃ??'� or are Ã??'responsive toÃ??'� whatever messages they may receive from the electorate.

Introduction: Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes in Trans-National Perspective (Michael S. Lewis-Beck and Heinz Eulau)1. Public Attitudes Toward Economic Conditions and Their Impact on Governm

Introduction: Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes in Trans-National Perspective (Michael S. Lewis-Beck and Heinz Eulau)1. Public Attitudes Toward Economic Conditions and Their Impact on Government Behavior (Friedrich Schneider, Aarhus University, Denmark)2. Party Strategies, World Demand, and Unemployment in Britain and the United States (James E. Alt, Washington University)3. Perceptions of Economic Performance and Voting Behavior in the 1983 General Election in Britain (Paul Whiteley, University of Bristol, England)4. Political Change and Stability of the Popularity Function: The French General Election of 1981 (Jean-Dominique Lafay, University of Poitiers, France)5. Economic Concerns in Italian Electoral Behavior: Toward a Rational Electorate? (Paolo Bellucci, European University Institute, Florence, Italy)6. Economics, Democracy, and Spanish Elections (Thomas D. Lancaster, Emory University)7. Economic Effects on the Vote in Norway (Arthur H. Miller, University of Michigan, and Ola Listhaug, University of Trondheim, Norway)8. Economic Self-Interest and the Vote: Evidence and Meaning (Stanley Feldman, University of Kentucky)9. Economics, Politics, and the Cycle of Presidential Popularity (Helmut Norpoth, SUNY, Stony Brook)10. The Voter as Juror: Attributing Responsibility for Economic Conditions (Mark Peffley, Drake University)11. A Retrospective on Retrospective Voting (D. Roderick Kiewiet and Douglas Rivers, California Institute of Technology)12. Economic Determinants and Electoral Outcomes: Some Personal Observations (Marie France Toinet, Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, Paris)Author Index

ContributorsHubert M. Blalock, Jr. is Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle. His research interests are in applied statistics, causal modeling, theory construction, conceptualization and measurement, and race relations. His most recent books are Conceptualization and Measurement in the Social Sciences (1982) and Basic Dilemmas in the Social Sciences (1984). He is currently working on a book dealing with power and conflict...

ContributorsHubert M. Blalock, Jr. is Professor of Sociology and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle. His research interests are in applied statistics, causal modeling, theory construction, conceptualization and measurement, and race relations. His most recent books are Conceptualization and Measurement in the Social Sciences (1982) and Basic Dilemmas in the Social Sciences (1984). He is currently working on a book dealing with power and conflict processes. He is an Associate Director of ICPSR.Allan G. Bogue is the Frederick Jackson Turner Professor of History, University of Wisconsin, Madison. His books include The Earnest Men: Republicans of the Civil War Senate (1981) and Clio and the Bitch Goddess: Quantification in American Political History (1983). A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he has also served as president of several professional associations. He is currently completing The CongressmanÃ??'s Civil War: An Institutional Reconnaissance.Philip E. Converse is the Robert Cooley Angel1 Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Political Science, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and Director of the Institute for Social Research at the university. His books include The American Voter (1960), The Human Meaning of Social Change (1972), The Quality of American Life (1976), and Political Representation in France (1986).Ivor Crewe is Professor and Chair of the Department of Government, University of Essex, England. A former Director of the ESRC Data Archive and Co-director of the British Election Studies, he is currently coeditor of the British Journal of Political Science. Recent books include Decade of Dealignment (1983), British Parliamentary Constituencies (1984), Electoral Change in Western Democracies (1985), and Political Communications: The General Election Campaign of 1983 (1986).Heinz Eulau is the William Bennett Munro Professor of Political Science, Emeritus, Stanford University. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he edits the journal Political Behavior, published by Agathon Press. He serves as an Associate Director of ICPSR. His latest book is Politics, Self and Society (1986). He is working on a book in the methodology of micro and macro analysis.Norval D. Glenn is Professor of Sociology and Research Associate in the Population Research Center, University of Texas, Austin. He is editor of the Journal of Family Issues and serves on the editorial boards of Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Social Indicators Research. He is an Associate Director of ICPSR.Max Kaase is Professor of Political Science and Comparative Social Research, University of Mannheim, Germany. A former Executive Director of ZUMA, his research interests include empirical democratic theory, political participation, voting behavior, mass communication, and social science methodology. He is the author of Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies (1979).Warren E. Miller is Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University, Tempe. He is Director of the National Election Studies, Center for Political Studies, University of Michigan. A former President of the American Political Science Association, his most recent books are Leadership and Change: The New Politics and the American Electorate (1976) and Parties in Transition: A Longitudinal Study of Party Elites and Party Supporters (1986).Eric H. Monkkonen is Professor of History, University of California, Los Angeles. He has published books and articles on U.S. criminal justice history, historical methods, and urban history. His most recent book is America Becomes Urban: The Development of US. Cities and Towns, 1790-1980(1988).Karl Taeuber is Professor of Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, and a member of the UniversityÃ??'s Institute for Research on Poverty and its Center for Demography and Ecology. His research includes studying trends in racial segregation in housing and schooling in the U.S. He is currently serving as chair of the Council of ICPSR.Herbert E Weisberg is Professor of Political Science, Ohio State University, Columbus. A former member of the ICPSR Council, his research interests include voting behavior, Congressional politics, and research methods. He has served as coeditor of the American Journal of Political Science and has edited two volumes: Controversies in American Voting Behavior (1976), and Political Science: The Science of Politics (1986).Susan Welch is the Carl Happold Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. A member of the ICPSR Council, her recent books are Women, Elections, and Representation (1987) and Urban Reform and Its Consequences (1988).