Reaction Paper
In his introduction to The Responsible Electorate, V.O. Key proclaims that voters are not fools, and their behaviors are rational and responsible. However, during voting campaigns political candidates are concentrating on projecting images, which are the most attractive for the electorate, rather than emphasizing on the programs and plans. Such inadequate representation of the political candidates to the mass electorate can lead to the voting choices that do not really represent the opinions of the voters. Given the rationality and responsibility of the voters’ behaviors, the political candidates are to compete by advocating their programs, rather than creating images attractive to the electorate.
To support his ideas, the author provided the evidence of the surveys, which have become the effective tool of analyzing electorate choices and preferences. The voters’ choices could be explained by the individual characteristics they possess, such as race, religion, education, etc. Based on the survey results, the consultants create images that are most attractive to the electorate: “if politicians perceive the electorate as responsive to father images, they will give it father images.” The importance of Key’s theories of the electorate’s behaviors is significant because of the voters’ effects both real and potential on the political candidates. If the politicians think that creating images is more important that advocating real programs, then they are more likely to create images and neglect the substance of voting and politics. Such politicians’ illusions abdicate the major role of the democratic system – to build government based on the free and real choices of the electorate.
Although Key’s ideas are important for establishing the transparent system of political campaigns and provide candidates with trustworthy information about programs, the author does not indicate any methods of fair competition among political candidates and voters’ responsiveness to those methods. For my opinion, the voters have their own expectations towards candidates, which could be irrational. Therefore, political candidates create campaigns that are matching both rational and irrational expectations of their electorate.
Works cited.
Key, V.O. The Responsible Electorate: Rationality in Presidential Voting, 1936-1960. Cambridge, Mass: The Belkhap Press of Harvard University, …