The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THIS BOOK has two main purposes..." (more)
Key Phrases: pseudocertainty effects, microphone incident, union political involvement, New Hampshire, New York Times, Jimmy Carter (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you''re preparing to run a presidential campaign, and only have time to read one book, make sure to read Sam Popkin''s The Reasoning Voter. If you have time to read two books, read The Reasoning Voter twice." (James Carville, Senior Stategist, Clinton/Gore '92 )

"A fresh and subtle analysis of voter behavior." (Thomas Byrne Edsall New York Review of Books ) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

The Reasoning Voter is an insider's look at campaigns, candidates, media, and voters that convincingly argues that voters make informed logical choices. Samuel L. Popkin analyzes three primary campaigns—Carter in 1976; Bush and Reagan in 1980; and Hart, Mondale, and Jackson in 1984—to arrive at a new model of the way voters sort through commercials and sound bites to choose a candidate. Drawing on insights from economics and cognitive psychology, he convincingly demonstrates that, as trivial as campaigns often appear, they provide voters with a surprising amount of information on a candidate's views and skills. For all their shortcomings, campaigns do matter.

"If you're preparing to run a presidential campaign, and only have time to read one book, make sure to read Sam Popkin's The Reasoning Voter. If you have time to read two books, read The Reasoning Voter twice."—James Carville, Senior Stategist, Clinton/Gore '92

"A fresh and subtle analysis of voter behavior."—Thomas Byrne Edsall, New York Review of Books
"Professor Popkin has brought V.O. Key's contention that voters are rational into the media age. This book is a useful rebuttal to the cynical view that politics is a wholly contrived business, in which unscrupulous operatives manipulate the emotions of distrustful but gullible citizens. The reality, he shows, is both more complex and more hopeful than that."—David S. Broder, The Washington Post

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (June 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226675459
• ISBN-13: 978-0226675459
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #91,734 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to polictical pshychology, October 21, 1999

By	Justin Holmes ([e-mail]) "jhol... (Minneapolis) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion in Presidential Campaigns (Hardcover)

The Reasoning Voter is an excellent refutation of the argument that the american public is simply too poorly informed to make reasonable political decisions. On the contrary, voters are quite able to make intelligent decisions through information shortcuts. In fact, the rational voter will use these shortcuts to make sense of the vast sea of political information available.

Popkin's presentation of his theory of low information rationality is conceptually rich enough for the expert, but clear enough for any reader. Rather than endless statistics, Popkin relies on historical examples which are often quite amusing. This is a must read for anyone interested in elections.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Part Brilliant.... Part Horrible....., July 19, 2007

By	New World??? (San Diego, Ca) - See all my reviews

This book describes in great detail everything that you could possibly want to know about presidential primaries and the general elections. Popkin does a wonderful job in breaking down the politics behind presidential campaigns. The only problem with it is that it is horribly written, which seriously detracts from the overall message. It is way too dense to be considered as the masterpiece which the other amazon reviewers claim it to be.

I am a true believer that for ANY book to be a five star book, the reader should not have to suffer through its prose. I suffered through this book, despite the fact that the content was terribly interesting. Maybe next time he writes a book, he can work together with one of his contemporaries who can actually write.

I have read thousands of books and this was one of the ones that I found to be the most troubling... Part brilliant, part horrible.... that just does not happen every day.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overrated, September 20, 2007

By	gradstudentneb (Nebraska) - See all my reviews

Largely overrated work of political science. Noble effort at bridging diverse strands of research into a single theory, but evidentiary support for argument simply insufficient. Chapters on primaries remain interesting, yet irrelevant at best...harmful to author's theoretical framework at worst.