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9780195396140

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<br> Few topics receive as much attention from scholars and pundits as voter competence. Goren has produced a seminal book that will set the agenda and stimulate discussion for the next generation. It is a must-read for anyone interested in voters who are the bedrock of democracy. -- James N. Druckman, Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University <br><p><br> This is the deepest and most revealing analysis of the role of core values in giving coherence to the political choices of citizens that I have read. -- Paul M. Sniderman, Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, Stanford University <br><p><br> On Voter Competence is a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the quality of the American voter. Critically, constructively, and comprehensively, Goren probes what competence means when applied to citizens, how competence can be examined empirically, and why it remains an enduring issue for students of American politics and democracy more generally. While On Voter Competence may not be the final word on this topic, it surely provides the most systematic and compelling treatment now available. -- Edward Carmines, Warner O. Chapman Professor and Rudy Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington <br><p><br> On Voter Competence is a major contribution to our understanding of public opinion and voter choice. Informed by a keen understanding of the history of political conflict in the US, Paul Goren has shown that the American public is more capable of making reasonable decisions than much of the conventional wisdom argues. Through careful analyses of survey data, he shows that even relatively unsophisticated citizens possess broad political principles that are relatively stable and that strongly influence their policy preferences and candidate choice. Any future assessment of the ability of the public to react sensibly to political discourse and

""Few topics receive as much attention from scholars and pundits as voter competence. Goren has produced a seminal book that will set the agenda and stimulate discussion for the next generation. It is a must-read for anyone interested in voters who are the bedrock of democracy."" -- James N. Druckman, Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University ""This is the deepest and most revealing analysis of the role of core values in giving coherence to the political choices of citizens that I have read."" -- Paul M. Sniderman, Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy, Stanford University ""On Voter Competence is a major contribution to the ongoing debate about the quality of the American voter. Critically, constructively, and comprehensively, Goren probes what competence means when applied to citizens, how competence can be examined empirically, and why it remains an enduring issue for students of American politics and democracy more generally. While On Voter Competence may not be the final word on this topic, it surely provides the most systematic and compelling treatment now available.""-- Edward Carmines, Warner O. Chapman Professor and Rudy Professor, Department of Political Science, Indiana University, Bloomington ""On Voter Competence is a major contribution to our understanding of public opinion and voter choice. Informed by a keen understanding of the history of political conflict in the US, Paul Goren has shown that the American public is more capable of making reasonable decisions than much of the conventional wisdom argues. Through careful analyses of survey data, he shows that even relatively unsophisticated citizens possess broad political principles that are relatively stable and that strongly influence their policy preferences and candidate choice. Any future assessment of the ability of the public to react sensibly to political discourse and campaigns will need to confront the arguments in this book."" -- Stanley Feldman, Professor of Political Science, Stony Brook University ""Goren's book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including political scientists, and undergraduate and graduate students of political science, sociology, and branches of psychology that deal with attitudes, their formation, and their influence on decision making. Laypeople with a wide interest in pressing contemporary issues will also find this defense of the American voter informative and reassuring."" -- PyscCRITIQUES ""On Voter Competence blazes new trails in the ongoing debate about whether and how political sophistication matters and will undoubtedly be a new classic in a rigorous and engaging literature.""--Public Opinion Quarterly ""Paul Goren has written a pathbreaking book about voter intelligence. In answering the paramount question -Are American voters fools?-he sides with the optimists... Goren establishes the influence of policy principles on presidential vote choice. Further, the policy principle effects are not conditioned by political sophistication (unlike the liberal-conservative effects, which are so conditioned). That is, pretty much everybody votes on the basis of his or her policy principles, and equally so regardless of degree of political sophistication. American voters are not fools. Instead, they are competent, using political principles they hold dear in order to decide whom to favor."" -- Michael S. Lewis-Beck, American Politics Book Reviews

Goren's book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including political scientists, and undergraduate and graduate students of political science, sociology, and branches of psychology that deal with attitudes, their formation, and their influence on decision making. Laypeople with a wide interest in pressing contemporary issues will also find this defence of the American voter informative and reassuring. * PsycCRITIQUES, March 2013 *

Goren's book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including political scientists, and undergraduate and graduate students of political science, sociology, and branches of psychology that deal with attitudes, their formation, and their influence on decision making. Laypeople with a wide interest in pressing contemporary issues will also find this defence of the American voter informative and reassuring. PsycCRITIQUES, March 2013

Author Information

Paul Goren is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota. He has published widely in leading journals on the topics of voting behavior, partisanship, political information, public opinion, and values.

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