Premium
Where Does the Buck Stop? Applying Attribution Theory to Examine Public Appraisals of the President
Author(s) -
SIRIN CIGDEM V.,
VILLALOBOS JOSÉ D.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
presidential studies quarterly
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.337
H-Index - 5
eISSN - 1741-5705
pISSN - 0360-4918
DOI - 10.1111/j.1741-5705.2011.03857.x
Subject(s) - attribution , presidential system , blame , political science , perception , feature integration theory , politics , test (biology) , positive economics , foreign policy , public policy , social psychology , law and economics , public administration , public relations , psychology , economics , law , cognitive psychology , paleontology , neuroscience , biology
This study applies attribution theory to examine public appraisals of the president. To date, most political science research on attribution theory has focused on domestic policy, and no work has considered both domestic and foreign policy domains in tandem. To fill this gap, we formulate and experimentally test a series of hypotheses regarding the level of responsibility and credit/blame that individuals attribute to the president in both policy domains across varying policy conditions. We also consider how party compatibility affects people's attribution judgments. Our findings provide a new contribution to the literature on political attributions, executive accountability, and public perceptions of presidential performance.