IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v499y1988i1p47-63.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Public Opinion and Presidential Support

Author

Listed:
  • JON R. BOND
  • RICHARD FLEISHER
  • MICHAEL NORTHRUP

Abstract

Previous research identifies three variables that might bridge the inevitable conflict between the president and Congress: political party, political ideology, and presidential popularity. While the literature provides unambiguous evidence that party and ideology affect presidential support in Congress, the evidence that public approval affects support is mixed. The study reported in this article seeks to clarify the relationship using a research design that corrects some of the limitations of previous work. The analysis reveals that variables within Congress—party and ideology—have the strongest effect on presidential support. Although presidential popularity exerts statistically significant effects, the substantive effects are marginal. Public approval has slightly stronger effects on foreign-policy issues than on economic issues, and the effects are generally stronger on members of the president's party than on members of the opposition. The marginal effects do not increase in strength as we refine the measure of popularity to approach the relevant public for members of Congress.

Suggested Citation

  • Jon R. Bond & Richard Fleisher & Michael Northrup, 1988. "Public Opinion and Presidential Support," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 499(1), pages 47-63, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:499:y:1988:i:1:p:47-63
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716288499001004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716288499001004
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716288499001004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cooper, Joseph & Brady, David W., 1981. "Institutional Context and Leadership Style: The House from Cannon to Rayburn," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 75(2), pages 411-425, June.
    2. Ostrom, Charles W. & Simon, Dennis M., 1985. "Promise and Performance: A Dynamic Model of Presidential Popularity," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 334-358, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jason Barabas, 1998. "Wage Erosion, Economic Assessments, and Social Welfare Opinions," JCPR Working Papers 56, Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research.
    2. Hibbs, Douglas A, Jr, 2000. "Bread and Peace Voting in U.S. Presidential Elections," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 104(1-2), pages 149-180, July.
    3. Uk Heo & John Bohte, 2012. "Who Pays for National Defense? Financing Defense Programs in the United States, 1947–2007," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 56(3), pages 413-438, June.
    4. K. Kanthak, 2004. "Exclusive Committee Assignments and Party Pressure in the U.S. House of Representatives," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 391-412, February.
    5. repec:gig:joupla:v:3:y:2011:i:3:p:95-126 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Fedeli, Silvia & Forte, Francesco & Leonida, Leone, 2014. "The law of survival of the political class: An analysis of the Italian parliament (1946–2013)," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 102-121.
    7. Daesik Kim & Chung Joo Chung & Kihong Eom, 2022. "Measuring Online Public Opinion for Decision Making: Application of Deep Learning on Political Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-16, March.
    8. Geys, Benny, 2010. "War casualties and US presidential popularity: A comparison of the Korean, Vietnam and Iraq war," Discussion Papers, Research Professorship & Project "The Future of Fiscal Federalism" SP II 2010-05, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.
    9. Karl DeRouen Jr & Uk Heo, 2001. "Presidents and Defense Contracting, 1953-1992," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 18(2), pages 251-267, February.
    10. Bowen, T. Renee & Krasa, Stefan & Hwang, Ilwoo, 2020. "Agenda-Setter Power Dynamics: Learning in Multi-Issue Bargaining," CEPR Discussion Papers 15406, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Jinhee Jo, 2017. "Now or later? A dynamic analysis of judicial appointments," Journal of Theoretical Politics, , vol. 29(1), pages 149-164, January.
    12. Berlemann, Michael & Enkelmann, Sören, 2014. "The economic determinants of U.S. presidential approval: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 41-54.
    13. Hill, Joshua & Oliver, Willard M. & Marion, Nancy E., 2010. ""Shaping history" or "Riding the wave"?: President Bush's influence on the public opinion of terrorism, homeland security, & crime," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 896-902, September.
    14. Bowen, Renee & Hwang, Ilwoo & Krasa, Stefan, 2022. "Personal power dynamics in bargaining," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    15. Shuyuan Mary Ho & Merrill Warkentin, 0. "Leader’s dilemma game: An experimental design for cyber insider threat research," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    16. Gerald T. Fox, 2009. "Partisan Divide on War and the Economy," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 53(6), pages 905-933, December.
    17. James Lo, 2018. "Dynamic ideal point estimation for the European Parliament, 1980–2009," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 176(1), pages 229-246, July.
    18. T. Clifton Morgan & Kenneth N. Bickers, 1992. "Domestic Discontent and the External Use of Force," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 36(1), pages 25-52, March.
    19. Mark Souva, 2005. "Foreign Policy Determinants: Comparing Realist and Domestic-Political Models of Foreign Policy," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 22(2), pages 149-163, April.
    20. Kevin H. Wang, 1996. "Presidential Responses to Foreign Policy Crises," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 40(1), pages 68-97, March.
    21. Katsuma Mitsutsuji & Susumu Yamakage, 2020. "The dual attitudinal dynamics of public opinion: an agent-based reformulation of L. F. Richardson’s war-moods model," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 439-461, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:499:y:1988:i:1:p:47-63. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.