Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
to benefit their self-interest). Parties and candidates are also utility maximisers,
seeking the private benefits of public office and, therefore, electorally motivated
and willing to adjust their policy offerings to match the preferences of the median
voter. In doing this, parties provide voters with the greatest utility for their vote and
increase their chances of electoral success.
Not all political scientists believe voters are rational actors though. The public’s
general lack of knowledge about all but the most important political issues is one
of the best documented findings in the social science literature, 5 with citizens’
limitations as political actors causing some political scientists to question whether
they are capable of acting as we might expect and hope, even in the modern era.
American writer and political commentator Walter Lippmann 6 mirrored many
earlier views of the public. He argued citizens were unable to behave rationally or
think deeply. Similarly, one of the founders of modern public opinion research,
Phillip E. Converse, 7 found that, in the 1950s and 1960s, only slim majorities of
voters had even a basic understanding of how government worked. Fewer still held
informed opinions on even the most salient policy matters, and the preferences
they did hold lacked consistency across issues. Citizens’ answers to individual
survey questions on one issue were largely unrelated to their answers to other
questions on different (but related) topics. For instance, a respondent who wanted
lower taxes would not always also support less spending. More broadly, very few
voters were consistently on the left or right of the political spectrum.
To make matters worse for normative concepts of democracy, citizens were also
found by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet, 8 Butler and Stokes, 9 andConverseto
provide inconsistent answers when asked the same question at different times. A
respondent, asked whether they supported higher spending or lower taxes one year,
often completely changed their position when asked two years later.
Much of the research from social psychology supports this cynicism about
citizen competence. Psychological and experimental research has repeatedly
demonstrated the irrationality of individuals 10 and the influence of context on
preferences and decision making. 11 Citizens’ policy positions are often unstable
and inconsistent. 12 Behaviour is frequently influenced by emotion 13 and framing. 14
Voters use evidence incorrectly or prejudicially and are often overly confident about
5 Converse 1975; Delli Carpini and Keeter 1996.
6 Lippmann 1927; Lippmann 1922.
7 Converse 1964.
8 Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet 1968 [1948].
9 Butler and Stokes 1973.
10 Redlawsk and Lau 2013.
11 Rabin 1998.
12 Converse 1964.
13 Brader 2012.
14 Kahneman 2003; Kahneman and Tversky 1979; Tversky and Kahneman 1991.
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