POLT 10100 Chapter reading: Samuel Pompkin The Reasoning Voter
Document Summary
Pompkin argues that (cid:448)oters do(cid:374)"t (cid:373)ake irratio(cid:374)al de(cid:272)isio(cid:374)s (cid:271)e(cid:272)ause of i(cid:374)(cid:272)o(cid:373)plete a(cid:374)d (cid:271)iased information, but rather they make decisions based on how easily they can get that information. Po(cid:373)pki(cid:374) pro(cid:448)ides a(cid:374) a(cid:374)alysis o(cid:374) the role of (cid:272)a(cid:373)paig(cid:374)s o(cid:374) (cid:448)oters" de(cid:272)isio(cid:374)s a(cid:374)d other features of american politics. How voters reason: use interaction with government in daily life, consuming planning for retirement, college etc, will also use a political candidate past positions to infer what their future position will be. When they do(cid:374)"t k(cid:374)o(cid:449) that position they resolve to guess their position based on demographics and who they associate with: voters use evaluation of personal character for substitute of past demonstrations of political character. Do this because they generally cannot decipher past votes and what that means. May call attention to issues that deserve minimal attention, treated as scandal: will use simplifying assumptions for complex information.
