Titre du document / Document title

Economic class and popular support for Franklin Roosevelt in war and peace = Classe économique et soutien populaire pour Franklin Roosevelt en temps de guerre et en temps de paix

Auteur(s) / Author(s)

BAUM Matthew A. ⁽¹⁾ ; KERNELL Samuel ⁽²⁾ ;

Affiliation(s) du ou des auteurs / Author(s) Affiliation(s)

⁽¹⁾ Department of Political Science, University of California at Los Angeles, ETATS-UNIS
⁽²⁾ Department of Political Science, University of California at San Diego, ETATS-UNIS

Résumé / Abstract

History has judged FDR as one of America's greatest leaders in part because he maintained the public's confidence in seeing the nation through the travails of the Depression and World War II. During this era, the two most widely employed explanatory variables in contemporary presidential popularity scholarship-the economy and war-assumed their most extreme values of the twentieth century. Hence, not only is understanding Roosevelt's public support historically important, but it represents a valuable case for filling in our understanding of the opinion dynamics of presidential support more generally. Yet, surprisingly, Roosevelt's approval ratings have attracted little systematic scrutiny. Compiling time-series data from 1937 to 1943, partially disaggregated by economic class, we investigate FDR's popular support among different classes during both national crises. We find that Roosevelt's peacetime support divided along class lines, while during the war class divisions blurred. Roosevelt's support was indeed conditioned by external events, refracted through the interests of different societal groups. We conclude that public support for modern presidents should be similarly studied as the sum of opinions among heterogeneous constituencies

Revue / Journal Title

Public opinion quarterly   ISSN 0033-362X   CODEN POPQAE 

Source / Source

2001, vol. 65, n^o2, pp. 198-229 (2 p.)

Langue / Language

Anglais

Editeur / Publisher

Oxford University Press, Oxford, ROYAUME-UNI  (1937) (Revue)

Mots-clés anglais / English Keywords

Political Speech ; Unemployment ; Opinion poll ; World War II ; Statistics ; Chronological serie ; Social Class ; Economic Crisis ; Public Opinion ; Popularity ; Century 20 ; History ; United States Of America ;

Mots-clés français / French Keywords

Pertes militaires ; Président ; Discours politique ; Chômage ; Sondage ; Guerre mondiale II ; Statistique ; Série chronologique ; Classe sociale ; Crise économique ; Opinion publique ; Popularité ; Siècle 20 ; Histoire ; Etats-Unis ;

Localisation / Location

INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 22313, 35400009709677.0030