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Mass Political Support in Sweden: Retesting a Political‐Economic Model
Author(s) -
Sigelman Lee
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
scandinavian political studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.65
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-9477
pISSN - 0080-6757
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9477.1983.tb00286.x
Subject(s) - politics , criticism , popularity , pessimism , unemployment , government (linguistics) , mass media , index (typography) , variance (accounting) , economics , variable (mathematics) , positive economics , political science , political economy , macroeconomics , accounting , law , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , world wide web , computer science , mathematical analysis , mathematics
This paper tests a model of mass political support for Sweden, 1967–1974. The model is composed of two economic variables (the Consumer Price Index and assessments of the short‐run employment situation) and two non‐economic variables (media criticism of government and media pessimism). The model performs very well, accounting for approximately two‐thirds of the variance in the popularity of the governing party, the Social Democrats. The most impressive showing is made by the unemployment variable, but the Consumer Price Index and media criticism also make important contributions. Concluding discussion centers on the implications of these findings for our understanding of Swedish politics and for the validity of political‐economic models of mass political support.