The Political System Matters: Social Psychology and Voting Behavior in Sweden and the United States

by Donald Granberg , Sören Holmberg

• ISBN13: 9780521125840
• ISBN10: 0521125847
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-01-14
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Originally published in 1988, this book asks the question, how does the political system affect the behaviour of individuals? Donald Granberg and Sören Holmberg use long-term cross-sectional and panel national surveys of electorates in two very different democratic systems - Sweden and the United States - to examine an issue that has implications for our understanding of both social and psychological processes and also political systems in general. Their interdisciplinary and comparative survey considers such topics as ideological perception of abstract and concrete issues at the party and individual level; the polarisation, interrelation and transitivity of attitudes; the relationship between intention and behaviour; and the ways in which behaviour may be predicted. The book offers a detailed and convincing analysis of the interaction of political context with social psychological processes. It will be of interest not only to social, political and comparative psychologists, but also to all researchers with an interest in electoral behaviour.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Social psychological processes in political context

Subjective ideology: left-right and liberal-conservative

Partisan political issues

Mass attitude systems

Parties, leaders and candidates

Ideology and proximity voting

The preference-expectation link and voting behaviour

From intention to behaviour in election campaigns

Prior behaviour, recalled behaviour and the prediction of subsequent voting behaviour

Political systems, cognitive-affective processes, and voting behaviour

Notes

References

Indexes

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.