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13 March 2006

Learning about Presidents

In a recent post on Political Arithmetik, Charles Franklin provides additional evidence that the electorate learns about presidents as they govern. Specifically he shows that the percentage of respondents saying "don't know" to the presidential approval question declines over time within each administration. In a recent paper discussed here, Sunshine Hillygus and I argue that the regularity of this pattern provides support for the notion that "passive" learning (as we call it) decreases uncertainty about the incumbent. In contrst, "active" learning contributes to polarization around the incumbent, and both forms are associated with incumbent reelection.

Posted by Barry Burden at March 13, 2006 10:56 AM