Abstract
This paper develops a model of discrete choice to analyse the choice of voters among a number of political parties. It then applies the model to an empirical analysis of the relationship between a government's economic performance and its political popularity for the Republic of Ireland over the period 1974–1987.
Within this general statement the paper makes three contributions. First, it sheds light on a hitherto unknown phenomenon — namely the nature of the relation between economic performance and political popularity in Ireland. Second, it does this within the context of analysing the reactions of different types of voters viz. voters of all social classes and then of social classes ABC1 and C2DE. Third, the empirical work is grounded firmly in a choice theoretic model involving optimal choices between discrete alternatives.
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The first author is grateful to the Leverhulme Trust for a Research Fellowship enabling him to carry out his part of this study and to Shirley Seal for research assistance. Both authors are grateful to Michael Laver and Anne Byrne for supplying the opinion poll data for this study, and to Gordon Tullock for comments on an earlier version of the paper. Needless to say the sole responsibility for any views expressed in this paper, or any errors contained in it, is entirely that of the authors.
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Borooah, V.K., Borooah, V. Economic performance and political popularity in the Republic of Ireland. Public Choice 67, 65–79 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01890157
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01890157