Public Evaluations of the President: Policy, Partisan, and "Personal" Determinants

Abstract

identification, a concept neglected in the mainstream political science literature, emerges alongside policy proximity and partisanship as a strong predictor of assessments of President Reagan's performance in office. The concluding discussion centers on the implications of this finding for our understanding of the specific linkage between the president and the public and for our more general understanding of the dynamics of political behavior.