Democracy, Bureaucracy and Public Choice: Economic Approaches in Political Science by Patrick Dunleavy

Author:Patrick Dunleavy [Dunleavy, Patrick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317867234
Google: dGu4AwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 22508287
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1991-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Summarizing party system and institutional influences

The overall impact of these numerous considerations is complex in any political system, since they pull in differing directions. However, the Westminster-model constitutions and party systems of Britain and other Commonwealth countries clearly embody multiple pressures which make preference-shaping strategies attractive for party leaders, and relatively easy to implement. By contrast, in the United States multiple factors seem to impel political candidates towards accommodating voters’ preferences.

Systematic empirical evidence about the extent to which political élites can in practice influence or reshape public opinion is really only available for the United States. The ‘dynamics of structural realignment’ in American politics seem to involve three stages where new ideological conflicts emerge first in congressional behaviour, are next taken up and dramatized effectively in presidential elections, and then gradually reorganize both the major parties’ stances in sub-national elections and how voters themselves view policy issues (Macdonald and Rabinowitz, 1987). And despite the fragmentation of the US political system, analyses of major public opinion shifts suggest that while unpopular presidents have little influence:

A popular President does indeed stand at a ‘bully pulpit’. On an issue of great importance to him he can hammer away with repeated speeches and statements and can reasonably expect to achieve a 5 or 10 percentage point change in public opinion over several months. (Page, Schapiro and Dempsey, 1987, p. 34)

Opposition party spokespersons also play a significant role in influencing shifts of American public opinion. However, the sum of partisan influences remains fairly restricted in its impact compared with the influence on American voters’ attitudes of an élite consensus both expressed through and partially shaped by the mass media. These results, demonstrating significant party preference-shaping capabilities but constrained by other influence, closely fit the analysis here of American politics as an exceptionally difficult context in which to apply preference-shaping strategies.

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