Casting votes in the global economy: Public opinion and voting behavior in open economies

This research investigates the impact of economic integration on mass political behavior in advanced industrialized democracies. In this study, I argue that the contemporary period of economic internationalization has changed the decision calculus of the individual voter and in the process transformed two key dimensions of voting behavior. First, integration creates issue areas over which there is significant distributive conflict affecting the candidates voters select in national elections. Second, integration changes how voters make inferences about the competence of incumbents when observing economic performance. I argue that economic outcomes in more open economies provide relatively more information to voters about the type of politicians currently in government thus strengthening the relationship between the economy and the vote. Overall, this research implies a revision and extension of two important literatures in political science. First, it introduces a virtually ignored but substantively critical variable to the study of public opinion and voting behavior---exposure to the international economy. Second, it provides an empirical foundation for modeling international economic policymaking in democracies by specifying how individuals form opinions about international economic policies and how these opinions affect their voting decision.