Performance Voting and Knowledge of Cabinet Composition

26 Pages Posted: 28 Feb 2013

See all articles by David Fortunato

David Fortunato

University of California, Merced - School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

Randolph Stevenson

Rice University - Department of Political Science

Date Written: February 26, 2013

Abstract

Nearly every empirical study of outcome oriented retrospective voting assumes, though almost always implicitly, that a) every voter knows the composition of the incumbent government, or b) that voters who may not know who is in government do not cast retrospective votes. In this short essay we provide evidence that these assumptions are quite unlikely to hold and discuss how not taking this possibility into account has influenced our understanding of the retrospective voting mechanism and the conditioning effect of political sophistication on the economic vote. In so doing, we advocate for the inclusion of questions regarding cabinet composition in electoral surveys.

Suggested Citation

Fortunato, David and Stevenson, Randolph, Performance Voting and Knowledge of Cabinet Composition (February 26, 2013). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2225484 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2225484

David Fortunato (Contact Author)

University of California, Merced - School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts ( email )

P.O. Box 2039
Merced, CA 95344
United States

Randolph Stevenson

Rice University - Department of Political Science ( email )

Houston, TX 77005-1892
United States
713-348-2104 (Phone)

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