ABSTRACT
In political science, Herbert McClosky similarly developed a pioneering analysis linking political conservatism to a variety of unappealing personality traits. A major player in the understanding of voting behavior is the perceived performance in office of the incumbent. One consequence of the pioneers’ research on voting behavior was a gap between the academics studying public opinion, who saw relatively little impact of campaigns, and pundits and campaign consultants, whose livelihoods depended on a focus on campaigns. The basic precept of democratic governance is the continuing responsiveness of government to the people. To some extent change is also produced by factors quite exogenous to academic research. Change in the ethnic composition of the nation has been perhaps the most dramatic external change that has directly affected public opinion. The chapter also presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book.
