Follow the Leader?
How Voters Respond to Politicians’ Policies and Performance
344 pages
|
2 halftones, 64 line drawings, 25 tables
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6 x 9
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© 2012
- Contents
- Review Quotes
Table of Contents

Contents
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1. Rum Punch or Issue Voting?
Chapter 2. Rewarding Performance? Priming the Economy
Chapter 3. Rewarding Policy Advantages? Priming Policy
Chapter 4. Changing Views, Changing Votes? Performance versus Policy
Chapter 5. Learning Positions, Changing Votes?
Chapter 6. Avoiding Political Meltdowns: Chernobyl
Chapter 7. Fending off Swamp Rabbits: Defense and Carter
Chapter 8. Following, Not Leading
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Chapter 2. Rewarding Performance? Priming the Economy
Chapter 3. Rewarding Policy Advantages? Priming Policy
Chapter 4. Changing Views, Changing Votes? Performance versus Policy
Chapter 5. Learning Positions, Changing Votes?
Chapter 6. Avoiding Political Meltdowns: Chernobyl
Chapter 7. Fending off Swamp Rabbits: Defense and Carter
Chapter 8. Following, Not Leading
Chapter 9. Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
Review Quotes
Thomas M. Carsey, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“With Follow the Leader? Gabriel S. Lenz addresses the central question of how voters make use of the information around them to form evaluations of elected officials. Examining the impact of processes like priming and position changing, Lenz argues that there are also substantial effects working in the opposite direction—and that who voters support affects their views on the issues. There is much to ponder here for scholars interested in voter behavior and representation.”
Donald P. Green, Columbia University
Lucid and engaging, Follow the Leader? revisits the longstanding debate about whether the electorate chooses candidates based on their policy stances. Adducing evidence from a broad array of countries, eras, and issue domains, Gabriel S. Lenz offers a smart and nuanced critique of the ‘issue voting’ literature, arguing that voters often evaluate candidates based on performance but rarely do so based on policy positions. A must-read for anyone interested in public opinion and democratic accountability.
Richard Johnston, University of British Columbia
In studying the movement in opinion and behavior, Gabriel S. Lenz brings both good and bad news. The good news is that politicians’ attempts to control the issue agenda in campaigns are not as successful as some of us feared. The bad news is that, instead, citizens mainly—and rather blindly—follow cues from politicians they already prefer. Exploiting existing and underused panel data, Lenz burns through observational equivalence, providing a model not just of clear-eyed analysis but also of patient exposition.
Perspectives on Politics
“This is a significant advance in our study of public opinion and voting behavior, offering an important corrective to a number of previous studies and giving us a powerful tool for understanding just how voters reach decisions. Lenz’s book is a valuable and important contribution to the literatures on public opinion, campaigns, voter competency, and democratic theory.”
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Political Science: American Government and Politics | Political Behavior and Public Opinion
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