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On what basis do voters decide how they will cast their ballot? Several basic factors can be identified as reasons for choosing a candidate in an presidential election. A voter may choose a candidate on the basis of one or more of the following considerations:
orientations on specific issues of public policy
general evaluations of the government performance
evaluations of the personal characteristics of the candidates
When voters are asked what they like or dislike about a specific candidate--i.e., what might make them vote for or against that candidate--most of their responses fall into one of the above three categories.
These orientations and evaluations in turn are influenced by two more general attitudinal factors:
party identification
general ideological orientations
Party identification and ideology are more general, long-run factors that influence the attitudes that are more immediate to the vote decision in a particular year.
The various factors that influence the vote decision vary in their stability over time. Evaluations of candidate qualities and government performance are distinctly short-term forces, capable of substantial shifts from one election to the next. Party identification and ideology are much more stable in the short term. Not many voters change their party identification or ideology from one election to the next, and the changes that do occur often are fairly small ones. Issue orientations fall somewhere in between. While the specific issues crucial in presidential elections can change dramatically, as can how the voters evaluate the presidential candidates on the issues, many basic policy questions (e.g., defense spending, welfare programs, abortion) stretch across several elections, with partisan differences remaining relatively constant.
The various attitudes and orientations that influence voting behavior in presidential elections are interrelated. Understanding the interrelationships among these factors is important for a full understanding of voting behavior.
