Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: The Architecture of Political Choice--Political Rhetoric, Economic Perceptions, and Risky Political Prospects

政治学博士论文研究：政治选择的架构——政治修辞、经济认知和危险的政治前景

• 批准号: 0921798
• 负责人: Kurt Weyland
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at Austin
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0921798&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

The relationship between the performance of the nation's economy and public support for the government has been a source of scholarly debate for decades. Little research, however, has sought to incorporate the role of political elites as economic opinion leaders into a theory of economic voting. This is an important omission as research in political communications and behavioral economics demonstrates that messages from political elites have significant impacts on public opinion. Theories linking macroeconomic performance with electoral success often acknowledge the importance of political elites in shaping public perceptions but fail to address systematically the impact of elite rhetoric. This project builds on this research by bringing elites and elite rhetoric back into the study of the economic foundations of government support. Specifically, the study addresses three primary questions: What information do individuals rely on to formulate and revise perceptions of the nation's economic performance? What are the causes of observed variation in the nature of the economic vote across developed and developing democracies? How, and to what extent, does the economic rhetoric of political elites shape economic opinion and consequent support for the government? A laboratory experiment conducted in both the United States and Mexico will be used to test a series of hypotheses related to the project's objectives. The results will provide insights into the real-world effect of the economic rhetoric political elites disseminate and citizens constantly face in contemporary democracies.The study of political rhetoric, economic perceptions, and government support has never been more important than it is today. As democratic values and institutions continue to spread across the globe, citizens are faced with the challenge of holding elected officials accountable for their actions. Yet, if political elites are able to shape rhetorically economic judgments for political gain, conventional standards of accountability are undermined. The broader implications for the level of accountability in both developed and developing democracies are massive. As a result, answering the question of how political elites use economic rhetoric, rather than economic policy tools, to shape public support is more than just a scholarly enterprise; it is an essential task for proponents of democratic values and democratic sustainability.

几十年来，国家经济表现与公众对政府的支持之间的关系一直是学术争论的一个来源。 然而，很少有研究试图将政治精英作为经济意见领袖的作用纳入经济投票理论。 这是一个重要的遗漏，因为政治传播和行为经济学的研究表明，政治精英的信息对公众舆论有重大影响。 将宏观经济表现与选举成功联系起来的理论往往承认政治精英在塑造公众观念方面的重要性，但未能系统地解决精英言论的影响。这个项目建立在这项研究的基础上，把精英和精英的言论带回到政府支持的经济基础的研究中。 具体来说，这项研究解决了三个主要问题：什么样的信息个人依靠制定和修改国家的经济表现的看法？在发达民主国家和发展中民主国家中，经济投票的性质发生变化的原因是什么？ 政治精英的经济言论如何以及在多大程度上塑造了经济舆论和对政府的支持？ 将利用在美国和墨西哥进行的实验室试验来检验与项目目标有关的一系列假设。 研究结果将有助于深入了解政治精英传播的经济言论的现实世界的影响，以及公民在当代民主国家不断面临的问题。对政治言论、经济观念和政府支持的研究从未像今天这样重要。 随着民主价值观和民主体制继续在地球仪各地传播，公民面临着要求当选官员对其行动负责的挑战。 然而，如果政治精英能够为了政治利益而牺牲性地塑造经济判断，那么传统的问责标准就会受到破坏。 这对发达民主国家和发展中民主国家的问责水平都有着广泛的影响。 因此，回答政治精英如何使用经济言论而不是经济政策工具来塑造公众支持的问题不仅仅是一项学术事业;它是民主价值观和民主可持续性支持者的一项重要任务。