This course will examines the impact of issues and economic conditions on voting behavior in elections. Our primary focus will be on United States presidential elections. We will also consider the roles of campaigns and information, and try to reconcile the literature on economic voting with the literature on issue-voting.

This syllabus is intended as an outline of the course. It is subject to change depending upon how the class proceeds. It is your responsibility to attend class and keep abreast of changes.

Your grade will be based on the following

	Long Paper:	40%
	3 Short Papers/Reading-Summaries	30%
	Class Participation :	30%

Week I : Early (Psychological Attachment) Models of Voting

• Campbell, Angus, Philip E. Converse, Warren E. Miller  Donald E. Stokes. 1960. The American Voter. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, selections.
  • 2) Theoretical Orientation
  • 3) Perceptions of the Parties and Candidates
  • 4) Partisan Choice
  • 6-10) Impact of Party ID, Ideology, Issues
  • 12-14) Groups, Class, Economic Antecedents of Behavior
• Nie, Norman H., Sidney Verba  John R. Petrocik. 1976. The Changing American Voter. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, selections.
  • 6-10) New Issues, Conceptualization, Issue Consistency

Week II : Early Statements of Economic Voting

• Downs, Anthony. 1957. An Economic Theory Of Democracy. New York, New York: Harper & Row. [ENTIRE BOOK]

Week III : Retrospective Voting - A New View of Party ID

• Fiorina, Morris P. 1981. Retrospective Voting in American National Elections. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. [ENTIRE BOOK]

Week IV : Economic Conditions and Electoral Outcomes - Initial Evidence

• Hibbs, Douglas A. 1987. The American Political Economy: Macroeconomics and Electoral Politics. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, selections.
  • 4) Public Concern about Inflation and Unemployment
  • 5) Macroeconomic Performance and Mass Political Support for the President
• Hibbs, Douglas A. 1982a. ``The Dynamics of Political Support for American Presidents Among Occupational and Partisan Groups.'' American Journal of Political Science 26:312-332.
• Hibbs, Douglas A. 1982c. ``On the Demand for Economic Outcomes: Macroeconomic Performance and Mass Political Support in the United States, Great Britain, and Germany.'' Journal of Politics 44:426-462.
• Erikson, Robert S. 1989. ``Economic Conditions and the Presidential Vote.'' American Political Science Review 83:567-573.

Week V : Competing Micro-Level Theories for Economic Voting

• Kiewiet, D. Roderick. 1983. Macroeconomics & Micropolitics : the Electoral Effects of Economic Issues. [ENTIRE BOOK] Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
• Kinder, Donald R.  D. Roderick Kiewiet. 1981. ``Sociotropic Politics: The American Case.'' British Journal of Political Science 11:129-161.
• Kramer, Gerry. 1983. ``The Ecological Fallacy Revisited:Aggregate- Versus Undividual-Level Findings on Economics and Elections, and Sociotropic Voting.'' American Political Science Review 93:92-111.

Week VI : Forecasting Elections

• Rosenstone, Steven J. 1982. ``Economic Adversity and Voter Turnout.'' American Journal of Political Science 26:25-46.
• Campbell, James E. 1992. ``Forecasting the Presidential Vote in the States.'' American Journal of Political Science 36:386-407.
• Campbell, James E. 1993. ``Weather Forecasters Should be So Accurate - Forewarned Before Forecast - Response.'' PS - Political Science & Politics 26:165-166.

Week VII : Retrospective vs. Prospective

• MacKuen, Michael B., Robert S. Erikson  James A. Stimson. 1992. ``Peasants or Bankers? The American Electorate Economy.'' American Political Science Review 86:597-611.
• Chappell, Henry W  William R. Keech. 1985. ``A New View of Political Accountability for Economic Performance.'' American Political Science Review 79:10-27.
• Alvarez, R. Michael. 1997. Information and Elections. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
• Alesina, Alberto, John Londregan  Howard Rosenthal. 1993. ``A Model of the Political Economy of the United States.'' American Political Science Review 87:12-33.

Week VIII: A Comparative Perspective

• Lewis-Beck, Michael S. 1988. Economics and Elections. Ann Arbour, Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
• Norpoth, Helmut, Michael S. Lewis-Beck   Jean-Dominique Lafay. 1991. Economics and Politics: The Calculus of Support. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

Week IX : Wrapping Up

• Markus, Gregory B. 1988. ``The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions on the Presidential Vote: A Pooled Cross-Sectional Analysis.'' American Journal of Political Science 32:137-154.
• Markus, Gregory B. 1992. ``The Impact of Personal and National Economic Conditions on Presidential Voting , 1956-1988.'' American Journal of Political Science 36:829-834.
• Alvarez, R. Michael  Jonathan Nagler. 1995. ``Economics, Issues, and the Perot Candidacy: Voter Choice in the 1992 Election.'' American Journal of Political Science 39:714-744.
• Alvarez, R. Michael  Jonathan Nagler. 1998. ``Economics, Entitlements and Social Issues: Voter Choice in the 1996 Presidential Election,'' American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming.