As a contribution to the Teaching & Learning Symposium on Comparative Politics organized by APSA, this short article discusses the challenges in Introduction to Comparative Politics classes when comparative political behavior is examined. In the tradition of studying political participation, the discipline has witnessed the development of…

Despite recent and growing interest in using Twitter to examine human behavior and attitudes, there is still significant room for growth regarding the ability to leverage Twitter data for social science research. In particular, gleaning demographic information about Twitter users--a key component of much social science research--remains a…

Using data collected from graduates who attended four large public universities in 1976, 1986, or 1996, the authors investigate the relationship between studying economics and civic behaviors. They compare students who majored in economics, business, or other majors, and by the number of undergraduate economics courses completed. Coursework is…

Politically alienated elderly include those feeling inefficacious and others who are cynical. Yet cynics hold favorable attitudes toward voting and regularly cast ballots. The inefficacy and cynicism associated with political conservatism reflect pre-New Deal educational norms and political orientation. (Author)

A brief historical analysis of values and traits of Idaho inhabitants is supplemented by an examination of political behavior patterns and recent survey data. It is indicated that pioneer democracy, with its stress on equality and individuality, has been transmitted as part of a political subculture to present day Idaho. (Author/GC)

Notes that party decomposition is likely to continue. The probable future pattern is one where the major parties continue to exert influence on the voting choices of the American public, but where many voters are available for mobilization by competing movements. (Author/AM)

This study investigated the relationship between media use and political activity in a sample of 380 Charlotte, North Carolina, registered voters. Although voters were interested in the campaign (particularly as it came to an end), they rarely engaged in political activities other than discussing politics and voting. Political activities measured…

Confirms the general hypothesis that: persons with relatively undifferentiated political construct systems exhibit substantial collinearity between attitudinal and normative components of the Fishbein-Ajzen behavioral-inventions model. (NKA)

In a presidential election campaign, any dimension of an image is important if it motivates the voters to favor or disfavor a candidate. Therefore, to study what motivates electoral behavior is one way to study the persuasion of image building in presidential campaigns. In this paper some of the research in presidential election campaigns is…

Defining emotional responses as the interaction of three primary emotions occurring along pleasure-displeasure, arousal-nonarousal, and dominance-submissiveness continua, a study hypothesized that (1) a systematic relationship exists between the emotions elicited by the candidate and voting behavior, and that (2) the emotions elicited by…

The understanding of the political behavior of school boards can be advanced by conducting factor analysis of the voting records of trustees. While the application of these methods is generally appropriate, differences in subject matter highlight the problem of inferring political theory from numerical data. In this paper, several different…

An aspect of the Lansing, Michigan desegregation process that is examined in this paper is the school elections which have been held since 1969. The purpose of this examination is to determine what, if any, reliable voting patterns can be found in the Lansing community relative to the desegregation process. The assumption underlying this analysis…

These volumes present the findings of four studies of behavioral patterns of delegates at the United Nations (UN). UN voting records, delegate questionnaires, and national, political, social, and geographic variables were analyzed. The first study, "Exploring Delegate Attitudes at the United Nations," reports delegates' reactions to…

Summarizes and reports on a large body of statistical evidence that suggests US voting patterns relate more to general attitudes and beliefs than to any substantive evaluation of policy positions. Studies reveal that voter preference often is determined by parental influence and party loyalty. Discusses possible reasons and implications. (MJP)

This study describes the civic and political behavior of the American public, with a special focus on youth ages 15 to 25. Using an extensive national telephone survey of 3,246 respondents, the authors describe what citizens are doing, and how often they are doing it. They look at a panorama of 19 core activities--ranging from voting to…