Theses and Dissertations

Issuing Body

Mississippi State University

Advisor

McThomas, Mary

Committee Member

Mellen Jr., Rob

Committee Member

Shaffer, Stephen

Date of Degree

8-6-2011

Document Type

Graduate Thesis - Open Access

Major

Political Science

Degree Name

Master of Arts

College

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Department of Political Science and Public Administration

Abstract

Past studies concerning the effects of economic conditions on voter perceptions have tended to generalize their findings to the entire national electorate. Such generalizations fail to account for the different ideologies, lifestyles, and economic conditions that exist from state to state. In the current study, I compare the effects of subjective financial evaluations with the effects of objective economic indicators on voter perceptions and turnout in the state of Mississippi. The purpose is to determine the extent to which past findings on the national level hold up on the state level, with Mississippi as the subject of analysis. Using data from the Mississippi Poll and employing a logistic regression method, the findings show that Mississippian‟s perceptions of political figures are more strongly influenced by subjective financial evaluations. Voter turnout, on the other hand, was more strongly influenced by objective economic indicators than personal financial satisfaction.

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11668/15448

Comments

economy||voter turnout||logistic regression||elections

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